Bromance Irish Red

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Gremlyn

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EDITTED: Just calling it a red ale now :) I also now know none of my grains actually needed mashing... heh, oh well!

It's a pretty basic recipe (and my first attempt at making my own), so here is hoping it is good! Any critiques would be greatly appreciated. I know now by sparge maybe should have been a big larger, but my OG is pretty good since I am still using so much extract that I have some wiggle room there.

6 lbs Pale LME
1 lbs Crystal Malt - 90L (wanted to use 80L, but the LHBS only had 90L)
0.5 lbs Roasted Barley

Schedule:
Mash for 30 mins @ 155F - 2 gal
Sparge for 10 mins @ 170F - 1.5 gal
Add 1/2 LME, start boil:
60 mins (start) - 1.0 oz Northern Brewer Pellets (AA 8.5)
15 mins left - rest of the LME
10 mins left - 0.25 oz Irish Moss
5 mins left - 1.0 oz Northern Brewer Pellets (AA 8.5)

Notes: No idea how to calc efficiency, but since I seemed to hit my SG pretty well, I'm going to go with ~75%. It's still fermenting, so I'll update this when it's done :)
 
I do wonder about what you're mashing exactly. Both of the grains you have listed have no diastatic power...meaning they aren't going to create sugars from the starches when steeping in the hot water. Point being... you don't have to worry about efficiency, all you're doing is steeping for flavor and color.

Also, if I had to just guess, I'd go with "amber ale" if you wanted to call it something. Nothing in your recipe would steer me toward thinking anything Irish besides the small amount of roasted barley.

Good luck!
 
See this is why I need feedback! So those are both just steeping grains? I guess I "mashed" them for practice then :) Can't hurt, right? As for the classification, I was just going by the hopville guide when I made the recipe. So I'll just call it a red ale then, since it seems amber and red ales can be one in the same. I'm hoping for more of the red colour and malty sweetness. Hopville gave me 15 SRM for the colour.
 
Took my first drink from this batch tonight after chilling for a few days in the fridge. It's quite tasty, has a nice roasted taste to it on the finish, though I actually think that could be a little stronger. I only got down to about 1.018 before it stopped, I suspect the yeast I was buying was not well cared for in the store. It was on the shelf and the store gets HOT inside. I no longer buy yeast from that store (nor anything else).
 
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