Critique my Quick Irish Red

Hi guys, I am hoping to brew this Saturday (Actually 2 brews, but one I need advice on), I'm trying to throw together a quick irish red, 6 weeks from brew day to drinkable carbed bottles. Will you guys please critique my recipe, is 6 weeks too soon? Any changes I should make, I'm open to suggestions.

9# Maris Otter
2# Vienna
.5# Roasted Barely
.25# Crystal 120L

60min Mash at 152dF

.5oz Williamette 60mins
.5oz Kent, East Goldings 60mins
.5oz Williamette 15mins
.5oz Kent, East Goldings 15mins

a healthy amount of White Labs London Ale WLP013

I would swap out the crystal 120 for something lighter, like crystal 40. Crystal 120 has more of the prune-like flavors than the lighter crystal malts, and seems like it might be too heavy handed for an Irish Red.

I might also reduce the grain bill a bit. If you get 70% efficiency you'll be at the edge of the range for ABV%. I like my Irish Reds in the 5.2-5.5% range. Your recipe is more like 6%+.

I also question the inclusion of the Vienna malt. Not sure that this is needed, or adds to the recipe.

If you assume 70% efficiency, then I would do the following grain bill -
9.5lb Marris Otter
0.5lb Roasted Barley
0.5lb Crystal 40

If you typically have lower efficiency I would make up for it with additional Marris Otter.

I like keeping grain bills as simple as possible. The extra Crystal 40 will keep the SRM in line with the style, and I think the flavor of c40 is more in line with an Irish Red than c120.

I'm also assuming the Willamette is included because it is supposed to be related to EKG. I'd go with all EKG if that is an option, otherwise I think your hop schedule looks good.

I haven't had a good Irish Red in a while. This is making me think of brewing one too. :fro:

This will be my second all grain brew, my first had pretty bad efficiency (mostly due to dead space in the system I believe) which I think I've fixed. But just incase I overestimated and set my efficiency at 68%

I figured after I have the preboil volume I need, if the runnings are still good or I need to bring down the OG a bit, I'll just shoot for a 7 gallon batch instead of a 6 gallon one and I'll adjust the hops accordingly. One of my buckets is 7.9 gallons, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I used both hops because I read they pair really well together.

Thanks for the suggestions, good point about the crystal, I'll definitely make that change.

I used the Vienna because of it's malt forward flavor and orangish color, anyone else use Vienna in an Irish red, or am I way off base here?

I'm planning on brewing an ESB myself in the next few weeks. I might try that hop combo and see how it works. I'll use the grain bill I provided and your hop schedule.

Just thought I'd check back in and you know how my beer turned out. It was one of my best to date, very malt forward, good body, thick off white head. Caramel (maybe even a little toffee) in the aroma, the taste was toffee with a little grassy hop flavor.

The recipe I ended up using varied a bit just because of what was available to me at my LHBS

9# Marris Otter
2# Vienna
.5# Roasted Barley
.5# Crystal 40L

.5oz Williamette 60mins
.5oz US Goldings (Leaf) 60mins
.5oz Williamette 15mins
.5oz US Goldings (Leaf) 15mins

Mashed at 152 for 60mins

Fermented with WLP011 European Ale - 2 weeks @ 65, 4 days moving up to 71, 3 days @ 33.

7.5 Gallon Batch
OG 1.054, FG 1.013

I used the US golding because the store didn't have EKG, same with WLP011 instead of WLP013. I think the US goldings contributed to the grassy notes I got. I also notice quite a bit of yeast flavor when the beer is too cold. The color turned out a little darker than I was intending, it's a deep amber or copper, almost black in a normal pint glass (looks great in a pilsner glass though). When I brew it again, and I'll definitely be making it again, I'm going to lower the roasted barley to .25# and find real EKG.

Thanks for the help guys, I hope this is able to help someone else!