Critique my Recipe please!

Hey all, I'm looking to brew an Irish Red in the next few days, and was looking for some advice on my recipe. It's based off the Irish Red recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, with a few changes based on my equipment and what's available at my LHBS.

I'm looking for a balanced red ale, leaning slightly towards the hoppy side. Probably a single stage fermentation for 2-3 weeks, then keg. Don't have great temperature control, it'll probably ferment on the warm side.

Steeped:
3.5 oz crystal 120
3.5 oz roasted barley
4 oz crystal 30

4 kg light LME boiled - only about a 2gal boil, I don't have a big enough pot
Topped up to around 5.5-6 gal

3 oz Kent Goldings for 60 minutes
1 oz Fuggles for 10 minutes

WYeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast

BeerSmith's giving me an estimated OG of 1.053, 23 IBUs, and 14 SRM, for around 5.2% abv

Any thoughts?

The couple of reds I have done have been at higher mash temps.

What is your desired mash temp?

Doesn't sound like enough water FWIW

To get more fermentable/wort - do two boils of 2 gallons and use a 5~6 gallon HDPE bucket.

BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines - Category 09

Vital Statistics: OG: 1.044 – 1.060
IBUs: 17 – 28 FG: 1.010 – 1.014
SRM: 9 – 18 ABV: 4.0 – 6.0%

hops seem to be way high for style. I'd cut bittering hops in half & eliminate aroma hops, per style.

Dynachrome said:

The couple of reds I have done have been at higher mash temps.

What is your desired mash temp?

Doesn't sound like enough water FWIW

To get more fermentable/wort - do two boils of 2 gallons and use a 5~6 gallon HDPE bucket.

Click to expand...

Um, he or she is doing an extract recipe. Don't confuse them with mash temps or water quantity just yet. His fermentability was already set by the maltster who made the extract.

The biggest improvement in my beer has been caused but fermenting at lower temperature. You can achieve some of this with partially submerging your fermenter in a water bath cooled with blocks of ice you make in your freezer. The most critical time is the first 2 to 3 days as the yeast chows through the sweet wort.

I started in a 2g pot on the stove. I recommend adding 2 lbs LME at the start of the boil and the rest at 15 mins remaining in the boil.
I also encourage you to ignore style guidelines unless you're trying to hit a particular style or want to compete in competitions. Make the beer you want.
Plug the recipe into hopville.com and see what the numbers look like. Use the late extract addition feature to get an accurate read on IBUs.
I've found that extract recipes turn out darker than expected, so err on the lighter SRM side or you might end up with a wonderful brown ale.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Home Brew Talk

Thanks everyone. I'll try the late extract addition

@starrfish, not sure where you're getting that my ibus are too high. beersmith says i'll get around 23, and the range for the style is 17-28. Having said that, I'm not all that concerned with following a style. I like a good irish red, but i wish most of them had a bit more hops to them, so thats what I'm shooting for. EDIT: Ah I think I gotcha. I adjusted beersmith so that I'm adding most of it late, and the IBU's shoot up to 49. I'll adjust that.

CHeers

2nd Edit:
Just called the LHBS to put together the recipe. I'm gonna go with 2kg of the LME in at the beginning of the boil, then the other 2kg in with 15 minutes to go. Hops ended up being 1.5 oz EKG and 1.25 oz Fuggles. I know that's still pretty hoppy for a red, but that's what I'm aiming for

I love dry hoppy reds- let us know how this one turns out!

Brewed it this afternoon. Pitched around 3 pm, and I was pleased to see a lovely looking krausen about 7 hours later!

Awesome. I love reds too.

...pics?