Big Red? - Beer, not gum.

Perhaps this should be added on to the thread about naming beers, but I was thinking yesterday about fun beer names, and "Big Red" jumped to mind, so I started thinking about how I would brew a rather heavy (chewy? ), red colored ale. I have a fermenter with a wyeast american ale pale ale brewing, and would consider puting a new batch on top of the yeast cake to try that technique out. But I'm not sure at all what sort of grain bill would result in a nice red hued beer. Any suggestions? Just for reference, I do 5 gal. batches, my mash efficiency is somewhere between 65-70%, and would like to end up with a beer in the range of 6-7% ABV. And related to the name for the beer, how well does cinnamon fit into beer brewing? Would throwing some cinnamon sticks into the brew lend much flavor? And what sort of hops would best compliment such a recipe? I have on hand ample suplies of whole tettnanger and cascade, and would love to be able to use some of them in this brew, but am not sure how they would interact with cinnamon.

A small amount of Black Patent will add a fantastic ruby color to the beer. Depending how dark you want to go, you're talking anywhere from half an ounce to half a pound probably. You could use some medium colored crystal for most of the color and then just a bit of patent to tip it towards red.

I don't mess with cinnamon so I can't help there.

You could finish with the Cascade, but you'll need some good bittering hops to round out what sounds like a fairly malty beer. Sounds like a dark mild or British strong ale.

Cinnamon has a harsh bite that requires a long time to mellow. I would recommend not using it unless you are going for a Christmas-type beer.

[size=+3]Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I'll use some black patent, and stay away from the cinamon on this one, but might work with it in some sort of barley wine style winter beer in the future. Here is the recipe I put together through the HBD beer recipator. What do you think? Oh, and does anyone who has used that spreadsheet know when they ask for batch size, do they mean how much you will bottle/keg at the end, or how much wort you end up with in your primary fermenter? I usually shoot for 5.25 - 5.5 in primary, so that after accounting for loss of volume from trub etc. I still have 5 gal. in my secondary.
[/size]

[size=+3]Big Red[/size]



Brewer: - Email: - Beer: Big Red Style: American Amber Ale Type: All grain Size: 5.5 gallons Color: 21 HCU (~12 SRM)
Bitterness: 60 IBU OG: 1.063 FG: 1.016 Alcohol: 6.1% v/v (4.8% w/w) Grain: 12 lb. American 2-row
1 lb. American crystal 10L
.5 lb. American crystal 60L
1 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
1 oz. American black patent
1 oz. American chocolate Mash: 65% efficiency Boil: minutes SG 1.055 6.25 gallons Hops: 2 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 60 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 20 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade (aroma)



[size=-1] This web page generated by The Beer Recipator.[/size]