Irish Red Ale - Success! (so far)

Brewed my second all grain last night, the Northern Brewer Irish Red Ale kit. According to Beersmith my measured efficiency was 73.2%, very pleased with this! Went just as planned, initial mash temp was 155, 2 degrees higher than planned but a little stirring with the lid of got it to 153 and at the end of the mash it was 152. Did a batch sparge and let it rest for 15 minutes after adding the sparge water and stirring. Filled my pot to 6 gallon mark, did the one hour boil, more gently this time, and the final volume was about 5.25 gallons. Used Immersion chiller to drop temp to 90, took about 25 mins, transferred to primary leaving just a little of the break behind. Stuck in my deep freeze ferm chamber and set air temp to 60, that was about 11 PM last night. Checked the wort temp at 9 this am and was at 68. Smacked a pack of 1272 and it expanded in about 1.5 hours, pitched.

Target OG was 1.046... nailed it!

Actually realized I under pitched. I thought a smack pack alone was fine for a beer under 1.060 but after pitching I looked at yeast calc (got the order backwards) and based on the mfg date of oct 8 I pitched 83 billion but needed 170 so I ran to the LBHS and grabbed another pack of 1272 and pitched it, about 3 hours after the first pitch. Not taking any chances with this batch.

Im looking for a decent irish red; i know it was a kit, but maybe you can outline the recipe quickly?
Thx
-beermethatbeer

bd2xu said:

Actually realized I under pitched. I thought a smack pack alone was fine for a beer under 1.060 but after pitching I looked at yeast calc (got the order backwards) and based on the mfg date of oct 8 I pitched 83 billion but needed 170 so I ran to the LBHS and grabbed another pack of 1272 and pitched it, about 3 hours after the first pitch. Not taking any chances with this batch.

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What's wrong with 83 vs 170? Yeast action is amount by time by temperature, be it wort or bread dough. In your case wouldn't it just take a bit longer to ferment with one pack? I always do dry yeast, so may be missing something?

bredstein said:

What's wrong with 83 vs 170? Yeast action is amount by time by temperature, be it wort or bread dough. In your case wouldn't it just take a bit longer to ferment with one pack? I always do dry yeast, so may be missing something?

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Everything I've read says under pitching can cause slow, stuck, and unfinished fermentation. It also can stress the yeast and cause off flavors. Beersmith and yeastcalc.com both say I needed to pitch about twice what I originally did so I thought that was too far off to take a chance. With liquid yeast it's almost always recommended to make a starter to increase the count. With dry yeast there are so many cells usually one pack is fine and starters aren't recommended with dry.

BeerMeThatBeer said:

Im looking for a decent irish red; i know it was a kit, but maybe you can outline the recipe quickly?
Thx
-beermethatbeer

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It's northern brewers Irish red ale kit, all grain. Look it up on their web site, they post the instructions and ingredients. It's under the additional info tab I think on that kits page. I've never had it but they say its there number one selling kit and gets solidly good reviews.

bd2xu said:

It's northern brewers Irish red ale kit, all grain. Look it up on their web site, they post the instructions and ingredients. It's under the additional info tab I think on that kits page. I've never had it but they say its there number one selling kit and gets solidly good reviews.

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Here you go. http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-IrishRed.pdf

Cool, thx. Was probably just being lazy. Hope your yeast works out. Let us know how it finishes up.

bd2xu said:

Everything I've read says under pitching can cause slow, stuck, and unfinished fermentation. It also can stress the yeast and cause off flavors. Beersmith and yeastcalc.com both say I needed to pitch about twice what I originally did so I thought that was too far off to take a chance. With liquid yeast it's almost always recommended to make a starter to increase the count. With dry yeast there are so many cells usually one pack is fine and starters aren't recommended with dry.

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I would have to agree.

Still, I use dry yeast exclusively these days. I switched and left my problems of stuck fermentations behind!!

estricklin said:

I would have to agree.

Still, I use dry yeast exclusively these days. I switched and left my problems of stuck fermentations behind!!

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I've been thinking of trying going back as well. I think once I zero in on a great house IPA I will brew a 10 gallon batch and try fermenting half liquid half dry.

Under pitching yeast will make the yeast work harder to reproduce, which will affect the flavor profile. At 1.060 I don't think you will get a stuck fermentation or anything like that.

At most the flavors from the yeast will come out more. Which in itself doesn't have to be a bad thing.

I have worked with dry and liquid yeast and both have their merrit. Everything I know I learned from this forum and am still learning. I enjoy making starters and they yield great results.
I have been using dry yeasts for flavor beers like IPA; pumpkin; ect and liquid yeasts for ales like your Irish Ale. I have stressed the yeast by under pitching on ales and the off flavors are suttle but there none the less.
Starters are easy but require a day lead time.

Kegged this Irish Red Ale tonight (second time legging, liking it...). The OG was 1.046, FG 1.010. Sample tastes good and nice and clear. Good nutty, malty flavor and clean finish. Going to save this keg for a Christmas party in our hood in one month, thinking it will be great then! Hope to show off my brew prowess.

Hey bd2xu....how bout a final analysis of this batch. I brewed the extract version of this kit and am pretty disappointed so far. I'm wondering how yours came out.

pellis007 said:

Hey bd2xu....how bout a final analysis of this batch. I brewed the extract version of this kit and am pretty disappointed so far. I'm wondering how yours came out.

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Well I've had a couple pints but that was over a week ago. Will be tapping it for real at a Holiday party tomorrow night so we will see. No doubt it will get consumed by this bunch but most are coors light heads. I don't know how qualified I am to judge it since i'm very much a hophead. I thought it was pretty good though, very drinkable, could use a little more depth and body but all around pretty decent. I may try to get some Smithwicks today to compare and will post that.

bd2xu said:

Well I've had a couple pints but that was over a week ago. Will be tapping it for real at a Holiday party tomorrow night so we will see. No doubt it will get consumed by this bunch but most are coors light heads. I don't know how qualified I am to judge it since i'm very much a hophead. I thought it was pretty good though, very drinkable, could use a little more depth and body but all around pretty decent. I may try to get some Smithwicks today to compare and will post that.

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Well it was great, was gone in less than two hours and everyone raved about. I drank a few pints and it was good, definitely a crowd pleasing session beer.

bd2xu said:

Well it was great, was gone in less than two hours and everyone raved about. I drank a few pints and it was good, definitely a crowd pleasing session beer.

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Good deal. Glad it turned out good. I'm hoping a bit more aging will make a bit of difference with mine. 3 weeks bottle conditioning and it still tastes blah. Thanks for the update.

pellis007 said:

Good deal. Glad it turned out good. I'm hoping a bit more aging will make a bit of difference with mine. 3 weeks bottle conditioning and it still tastes blah. Thanks for the update.

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I primed in the keg and we drank it exactly one month in the keg

bd2xu said:

I primed in the keg and we drank it exactly one month in the keg

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Well I tried mine again after 4 weeks conditioning and what a difference! The wife and I both think it's our best batch so far.

pellis007 said:

Well I tried mine again after 4 weeks conditioning and what a difference! The wife and I both think it's our best batch so far.

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Yep I'm finding that's a standard, don't really judge your beer until at least 4 weeks in the keg or bottle.

Ive been brewing this red, with a few minor adjustments, as my house IRA for years and love it. Solid receipe

This one is going back in the rotation next, have the ingredients for a 5 gallon AG batch and will probably brew tonight. Going to do S-04 this time instead of the WY1272. It was such a crowd pleasing beer I need to have a keg of this around for my non hop-head/"heavy" beer friends. I like it too...