Irish Red Ale Irish Red (1st place HBT comp)

Brewing this recipe this weekend, first 10 gallon batch. If you don't mind me asking, what is your pre boil, and mash efficiency?

phoenixs4r said:

Brewing this recipe this weekend, first 10 gallon batch. If you don't mind me asking, what is your pre boil, and mash efficiency?

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The three times I brewed this I achieved 69-73%. Hope your experiment goes well. I like to brew 10 gal in one boil and split the batch into two 5-gal carboys and use a different yeast in each. This was one of the reasons I did purchase a 15 Gal brew kettle initially. The issue I have been having with these larger batches is the capacity of my 10 Gal Rubbermaid mash tun. It falls a little short in multi infusion mashes or larger gravity beers but OK for single infusion mashes or decoction mashes. Thinking of getting a larger Igloo brand cooler mash tun on wheels like a 60 Qt.

BBB

The whole brew day went extremely well. We missed our mash in temperature (target 152, achieved 150) due t me explaining the entire process to some buddies and took a little long getting the water into the mash tun. Ended up with more worth than needed, I need to figure out all my dead spaces more accurately. Still ended up with 5.5 gallons in each fermented at 80% efficiency. Not bad, can't wait to try it.

Used this recipe for our first all grain brew. We' re doing an Irish Red brew off within our brew club and it looked like this would be a good recipe to try. All in all it seemed like it went ok but we ll of course have to wait to see how the beer tastes. Followed the recipe almost spot on but didnt have access to Roasted Barley (500 L) and used some at 300 L instead. The recipe was as follows :

4.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.5 %
6 lbs 14.1 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 69.4 %
2 lbs 4.6 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 3 23.1 %
4.8 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.0 %
3.2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.0 %
0.98 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 15.5 IBUs
0.48 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 5.5 IBUs

Mashed at 152 F for an hour and did a continuous sparge for about 55 minutes collecting about 6.5 gallons of wort. Pre-boil gravity was 1.042, post boil was 1.054 (effic. 76%).

Awesome red hue in the hydrometer tube:



Im using US-05 for this and fermenting at 65F. Im second guessing even using that temp vs. going lower as Id prefer to keep the esters at a minumum and be more lager like. Not sure if i should leave it at 65 for the full ferment or bump up the temp at the end to have the yeast clean up after themselves...thoughts?

Here is a pic of it fermenting at 18 hours after the yeast pitch :




Happy Brewing !

I brewed this beer per the posted recipe using American Ale II (OG 1.055 FG 1.012) and in the primary for 23 days. I just tried this beer after only 2 days on the gas and all I can say is "WOW". This is incredible. I am so glad that I brewed 10 gallons of it. Great beer OP.

Saccharomyces said:

Just one extra pound I would roll with it, it won't make much of a difference.

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pstrohs said:

I brewed this beer per the posted recipe using American Ale II (OG 1.055 FG 1.012) and in the primary for 23 days. I just tried this beer after only 2 days on the gas and all I can say is "WOW". This is incredible. I am so glad that I brewed 10 gallons of it. Great beer OP.

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I brewed this 9 days ago with only minor changes to Saccharomyces original recipe. I could not back off on the roasted barley slightly to allow more red color to come through as my HBS mixed the grains after milling. I simply added 0.5 lbs of Carapils Red to help the final color. Also added 2 tsp CaSO4, 2 tsp CaCO3, but ran out of Epsom Salts (Mg) 1 tsp so I could not add it. I split the 10 gal batch and used the Amer Ale II in one and the Amer Lager yeast in the other pail. Hit the OG dead on-still in the primary so no FG yet.

One dilemma and question. My spare was real slow and I'm not sure why. I increased my mash water to 1.25 qts per lb grain due to the fact that I brew outdoors and it was cold! Also my first tub of spare water may have been a little too hot. Again trying to keep everything from cooling down too quick. Maybe add rice hulls next time?

dadnboys said:

One dilemma and question. My spare was real slow and I'm not sure why. I increased my mash water to 1.25 qts per lb grain due to the fact that I brew outdoors and it was cold! Also my first tub of spare water may have been a little too hot. Again trying to keep everything from cooling down too quick. Maybe add rice hulls next time?

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For what it's worth, I also had a nearly-immediate stuck sparge on this. I wasn't prepared to deal with it (being only my second all-grain batch ever, I'm new at this stuff) so I resorted to stirring and scraping to get the liquid to flow. It took forever, but I ended up getting the liquid out. Came well under my volume goal though and was low on time so I didn't get a third batch of water to fix the volume.

Looks good to me though, regardless, just not quite what I expected on paper. I'll be bottling this week or next.

Put this in the keg last night. Really amazing how far less then a pound of roasted malt goes in a ten gallon batch. I really like it however. It'll age until my ipa keg is empty!

Kegged my batch over the weekend. Hit 1.011 for my FG. Its sitting at 11 PSI and i figure ill let it sit for a month before i pull my first pint...



Cheers !

Saccharomyces said:

My house Irish Red ale. It is best after 4 months of aging, so I brew 10 gallon batches and re-brew when the first keg kicks. The key to this style is malt forward but with a roasty, dry finish. Hop flavor is barely noticeable and there is no hop aroma. If you can lager, even better, use a clean lager yeast (eg. WLP840, WLP833). I only do ales though so I pitch Wyeast 1272, and ferment on the low end of the range to suppress ester production. Wyeast 1272 American Ale II is a nice, clean ale yeast that accentuates malt character. WLP051 is an exact sub for this yeast (it is the Anchor Liberty strain). If you use dry yeast, Nottingham or US-05 will work fine for this style, but if using the dry I recommend increasing the mash temp to 152*F.

This style should be crystal clear in the glass and shine ruby red when held up to a light. If you bottle condition, I recommend a two week secondary followed by pitching some English yeast like a half package of S-04 in the bottling bucket so the beer finishes nice and clear in the bottle.

Malt Bill for 10 gallons:

12# Maris Otter (70%)
4# Vienna (24%)
12oz British Roasted Barley 500L (4%)
6oz Crystal 120L (2%)

Mash 150*F for 75 min.

Hop Bill for 10 gallons:

2oz 4.5% AA Fuggles (75 min)
1oz 5.0% AA Goldings (15 min)

Extract Version (for 5 gal):

4# Light DME
2# Munich LME
5oz Roasted Barley, steeped 20 min @155*F
2.5oz C120L, steeped 20 min @155*F

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I want to brew the 5 gallon extract version but the hop bill is for 10 gallons of all grain. Should I just cut it in half? That would be 1 oz AA fuggles an .5 oz goldings?

I only got to age this a month before my pipeline went dry and throw the keg in the kegerator.... its great

Would there be a noticable difference between US 2 row and marris otter?

Hi Saccharomyces,

I have a question concerning the secondary fermentation, do you transfer the brew from the primary fermentation bucket to a new bucket? Or let it sit 24 days in the same?

I used WLP004 - Irish Ale, do you think it will turn out good?

Here is a pull from the keg after conditioning for ~1 month and a half. Its dropped crystal clear and has an incredible red hue. Even better its DELISH!!. Incredible malty nose, creamy mouth feel with great lacing. The hints of caramel and slight roastiness are evident while all being extremely quaffable. Kudos to the OP Sacchromyces for the recipe. While I wouldnt consider this a style i typically go to (im more hop-oriented)...i would definetly put this on the re-brew list which is saying a lot!!

Ya I gotta say this is one of the best beers I've brewed. Brewed a 5 gallon batch today using us 2 row. Hopefully its just as good

You ll have to let us know how it compares...im sure it will be great but i wonder what the differences will be...

Has anyone tried this using all Goldings? I don't have any fuggles, and need to use up this EKG i have laying around.

At 60 minutes I'd imagine the only thing you'd need to match would be AA, but incouod be wrong.

Mine turned out a bit darker than I expected.

I can't wait to tap in to mine, I brewed it on 3/18. Right now it's still sitting in the primary (i don't rack to a secondary) but it will be the next one I keg as soon as I drain one!

This recipe turned out very well. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good Irish red recipe.

Started my Spring brewing yesterday, and this one's in the bullpen now. I had to go through a couple of Irish reds before I found one I liked, and this is it.

Kegged the us 2row version of it on Sunday. Get 3 kegs to kill then on to that one.

Pdeezy said:

Has anyone tried this using all Goldings? I don't have any fuggles, and need to use up this EKG i have laying around.

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I've made it with Willamette @ 60 and EKG @ 15, mainly because I don't care for Fuggles. It's a good switch up.

phoenixs4r said:

Brewed a 5 gallon batch today using us 2 row. Hopefully its just as good

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mrcastellino said:

You ll have to let us know how it compares...im sure it will be great but i wonder what the differences will be...

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phoenixs4r said:

Kegged the us 2row version of it on Sunday. Get 3 kegs to kill then on to that one.

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I've a batch on tap right now using 2-row. Let me know what you think about yours.

Glad everyone's enjoying this. I'm thinking about doing up a batch at 1.045 with lager yeast for summer quaffing. I want to do a lager, and this sounds a lot more appealing than something resembling "used" beer.

Yeah, I've only done one batch, but that's all it took to convince me it's a keeper. It's in the bullpen now....just brewed a 2B Cane & Ebel clone. As soon as I can free up a fermenter, in this one goes.....

This puppy is mashing in tomorrow morning about 0800. When I did the first batch, my brewing software only predicted 3.9% ABV, so I brewed (5 gal.) with another pound of 2-row and another pound of Vienna. Since I don't really taste any difference between liquid and dry yeast (belgian and hefe yeast excepted), I fermented with a packet of S-05. As someone mentioned earlier with theirs, mine was also a bit more on the brown side. No matter, this is a great beer.

Not on call finally! Got an keg of berry blonde and a keg if imperial porter to drink before I can load the road with us 2 row in the kegerator. I need a bigger kegerator, and more taps!

Saccharomyces said:

In my experience 1272 is a slow starter but once it gets going it is ferocious. Don't be surprised if it blows off.

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H'm. I just experienced this with WY1332 (the NW Ale yeast) on a Two Brothers Cane & Ebel clone. Pitched Monday, had nice, steady airlock action Tuesday - Friday, foamed out and plugged up the airlock on Saturday, found it with the bucket lid domed up. I didn't know bucket lids could do that.

rico567 said:

H'm. I just experienced this with WY1332 (the NW Ale yeast) on a Two Brothers Cane & Ebel clone. Pitched Monday, had nice, steady airlock action Tuesday - Friday, foamed out and plugged up the airlock on Saturday, found it with the bucket lid domed up. I didn't know bucket lids could do that.

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At least you caught it in time. Most folks learn of their problem when NORAD calls them to inform them they are tracking their lid as a new piece of space junk.

Saccharomyces said:

At least you caught it in time. Most folks learn of their problem when NORAD calls them to inform them they are tracking their lid as a new piece of space junk.

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There was a lot of pressure in that thing. When I yanked out the airlock, I got a big WHOOSH! as the CO2 escaped. I use US Plastics buckets, that have the segmented rim and a real neoprene 'O' ring inside the rim. Those lids actually seal, and they're not that easy to remove. Makes me wonder what would have given way if the pressure kept on building....

My first bucket was one of the generic "Ale Pail" type, and it doesn't really have a gas-tight seal at all, and pops off pretty easily. On June 3, '08 (a day I won't forget) I had an imperial stout in the basement that was just entering into the main phase of fermentation. That night, we got 7 inches of rain in about 3 hours, totally flooded the basement, and incidentally raised the temperatures down there considerably. I had been working getting all the stuff out of the basement, and was resting when I heard a BAM from the basement. Sure enough, lid had blown off the fermenter, beautiful brown foam everywhere. I cleaned and re-sanitized, put it back on, and had exactly the same experience about an hour later. So I just put the lid back on and put a Star San soaked sponge over the hole. That worked until it settled down. I bulk aged about 4 months and bottled as usual....and the beer was great. Always called it the "flood stout."

AZ_IPA said:

I've a batch on tap right now using 2-row. Let me know what you think about yours.

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How's yours? We just tapped the keg using cheap US 2 row and the color is completely different then the original batch we did using the original recipe for marris otter (Plus making 5 gallons instead of 10). I wish I could blame it on the batch size difference but I don't think that's it.

The color is all wrong and the taste just isn't as refreshing. It's making me contemplate buying the expensive base grain instead of the $36/sack of 2 row I have been using! lol.

phoenixs4r said:

How's yours? We just tapped the keg using cheap US 2 row and the color is completely different then the original batch we did using the original recipe for marris otter (Plus making 5 gallons instead of 10). I wish I could blame it on the batch size difference but I don't think that's it.

The color is all wrong and the taste just isn't as refreshing. It's making me contemplate buying the expensive base grain instead of the $36/sack of 2 row I have been using! lol.

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I found it to be a completely different beer. Almost an under hopped American Amber. It lacked the pronounced malt forwardness and crisp dry finish so characteristic of Sacchromyces original recipe.

On Saturday I'm going to brew up a 10 gallon batch to split with a buddy. We're going to use Mexican Lager yeast.

RE the base grains, I have noticed a big difference between using Maris Otter and 2-row in my other darker beers (particularly my imperial stout). Unless I'm brewing a batch for someone else, I rarely use 2-row anymore; my go-to base grain for lighter beers is Great Western pale ale malt. This recipe might work OK with the pale ale malt but I like the slight nutty flavor that comes through from the Maris Otter.

I love this beer and have made 4 5gal batches. The 4th batch I used WL833 German Bock Lager yeast. A nice smooth beer, however, the yeast seems to have accentuated the roasted barley far greater than the other malts. Next time I make a lager batch of this, I will reduce the roasted barley a little bit.

I've made this beer per the recipe and also without the roasted barley.
i liked the original recipe the best, but the recipe without the roasted barley was a bigger hit with my friends. Next time i make it I'll probably compromise between the two and cut the roast in half. I've used S-05, nottingham and british ale II yeast and prefer the wyeast british ale II, though all were good.

I'm doing a 10 gallon batch with BIAB and just started the boil. I don't have any goldings, so I'm just using Fuggles for both additions. Hit preboil gravity spot on, and it smells wonderful!

I brewed 10 gallons of this Monday. I split into 2 batches . I used s-05 for one and Nottingham for the other. Tuesday morning i woke up to the sound of vicious gurgling. I had to change the one quart blow off bottle with a five gallon bucket. Judging by the airspace in the carboy i figure i lost at least a half gallon. BTW it was the Notty batch. The S-05 was brisk but never out of control. I guess its time for me to get better/bigger fermenters. Btw thanks for the recipe. My basement smells great.

Drinking this tonight with friends. Only 2 weeks old and amazing. 6 days in primary 7 days in secondary 1day in tthe keg. Its clean and delicious. Thanks for the recipe S. I have never purchased a beer that tastes so good. Friends and family have all had Omg moments while staring at the glass. Amazingly Awesome.

Glad y'all are enjoying it.

... Yes I just said y'all. I've lived in Texas that long now.

The Mexican Lager yeast version totally kicks @$$.... it's definitely one of my favorite homebrews I've made so far out of 88 batches, and isn't going to last long!