Specialty IPA: Red IPA India Red Ale

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Thanks Helly, if you peruse this thread you will find a lot of versions of this beer, and it seems nearly everyone has been happy with whatever change they have made.

As for the pic...

:D Life through rose colored glass.
Wow! This IRA is awesome. Used citra, summit, cascade with us05 and turned out amazing. One of my favorite beers yet. Thanks for the recipe and the long ass thread!
 
Brewing a 10 gallon batch of this today with my little twist on the recipe. Adjusted it according to the ingredients I have on hand. I used all continental malts for the base and hopped the hell out of it! I needed to use up some of my older hops.

Edit: I collected 9.5 gallons of 1.065 wort. I lost some wort from the extra hops. I also ended up steeping the 7 oz. of flameout hops @ 185F for 90 minutes. Wort sample tasted HOPPY!:D


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 9.50 gal
Boil Size: 12.66 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
End of Boil Vol: 10.20 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 9.50 gal

Date: 17 Mar 2015
Brewer: Casey
Equipment: eHERMS
Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.9 %


15.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
7.00 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
2.00 g Baking Soda (Boil 90.0 mins) Water Agent 9 -

8 lbs 4.0 oz Munich (BestMälz) (7.6 SRM) Grain 3 36.9 %
6 lbs MFB Pilsen (1.8 SRM) Grain 4 26.8 %
6 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 5 26.8 %
1 lbs Crystal Malt I (45.0 SRM) Grain 6 4.5 %
1 lbs Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (75.0 SRM) Grain 7 4.5 %
2.0 oz Carafa Special III (Weyermann) (470.0 SRM) Grain 8 0.6 %

2.00 oz Nugget 2012 Leaf 15.2% [13.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10 45.1 IBUs
1.50 oz Columbus 2012 Leaf 17.1% [13.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 11 25.2 IBUs
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 12 -
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 mins) Fining 13 -
1.45 oz Cascade 2012 Pellet [6.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 14 3.6 IBUs
1.15 oz Cascade - 2013 HOMEGROWN [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 15 2.1 IBUs

3.00 oz Amarillo 2012 Pellet 8.2% [7.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Cascade - 2014 HOMEGROWN [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Simcoe 2013 [13.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Galaxy 2013 Leaf [13.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 20 -

2.00 oz Amarillo 2014 Pellet 8.2% [8.20 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 25 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade 2013 [7.10 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 26 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe 2013 [13.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 27 0.0 IBUs

1.00 oz Amarillo 2014 Leaf [7.10 %] - Dry Hop 21.0 Days Hop 22 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade - 2014 HOMEGROWN [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 21.0 Days Hop 23 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe 2014 Leaf [14.10 %] - Dry Hop 21.0 Days Hop 24 0.0 IBUs

Est Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.6 %
Bitterness: 72.1 IBUs
Est Color: 14.0 SRM

Total Grain Weight: 22 lbs 6.0 oz
Mash pH: 5.41
Mash: 152.0 F 60 min
 
Really intrigued by this recipe, thinking of brewing it up this weekend for a fight party April 25th(cutting it close i know)I read through this whole thread but never seen anyone mention this.... Why have 8oz of two types of crystal instead of 1 lbs of 1 for simplicity?

In beersmith, 8 oz of crystal 40 and 8 oz of crystal 120 give the same SRM as 1lbs of crystal 80. I'm a newer brewer so.... What am I missing?

Also, when I put this into beersmith:

6.5 lbs 2 row (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Munich 10
8oz crystal 40
8oz crystal 120
1 oz black patent (500 SRM)

,........ I get 15.0 SRM not the 16-17 mentioned in this thread. Up the C40 to 12oz like in the original recipe and I'm still only at 15.6 SRM.

I'm also at 72% efficiency so going this way:

8 lbs 2row (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Munich 10
8 oz crystal 40
8 oz crystal 120
1.4 oz black patent (500 SRM)

Gets me to 16.0 SRm and 6.7% abv with a 152 mash. Maybe that's what I'll do.

Lasrly, I only have nottingham, us-05, or wlp500 Trappist. Which should I use?
 
I read through this whole thread but never seen anyone mention this.... Why have 8oz of two types of crystal instead of 1 lbs of 1 for simplicity?

In beersmith, 8 oz of crystal 40 and 8 oz of crystal 120 give the same SRM as 1lbs of crystal 80. I'm a newer brewer so.... What am I missing?

Lastly, I only have nottingham, us-05, or wlp500 Trappist. Which should I use?

I believe using two types of crystal malt will produce a more complex caramel character over one type. Pale Crystal malt will lend a balance of medium caramel color, flavor, and body. Dark Crystal will lend a complex sharp caramel flavor and aroma to beers.

I would choose the US-05 yeast for this brew.
 
Thanks for the input. I suspected something along those lines but wasn't sure. Also, somewhere in this thread I remember Tim saying his black patent was 550 SRM, which accounts for some of the color discrepancies.

Only other consideration is that Ill have exactly four weeks before this needs to be ready, doable or am I pushing to much? Maybe I'd be better off with something quicker this time around?
 
Only other consideration is that Ill have exactly four weeks before this needs to be ready, doable or am I pushing to much? Maybe I'd be better off with something quicker this time around?

Just be sure to aerate well, pitch enough healthy yeast, and control your fermentation temps. If you do those 3 things you will have a better chance of having a great beer in 4 weeks. I always prefer to use an English yeast strain like Wyeast 1968 London ESB for quick turn around brews. They tend to produce a nice ester profile and drop out clear in a short amount of time. Will you be bottle conditioning or kegging? That will be the biggest obstacle in getting this brew ready in time. I've brewed a Dark English Mild from grain to glass in 9 days and it turned out great!
 
Awesome. Ill give it a go. I'll be kegging. If I brew this sunday, go 10 days primary, 7 days secondary that then leaves me with 10 days to set on gas in the keg. The party is on day 10.
 
Brewing a 10 gallon batch of this tomorrow. I cut back the C-40 to 1lb (isntead of 1.5 for a 10 gal batch) and did 1/2 lb C75, 1/2lb C120 because the LHBS didn't have C90. I am going to use Simcoe, Galaxy, and El Dorado, and am splitting into 2 ferementers - one with WLP001 and one with Conan. Hope it turns out as good as it sounds!
 
Last attempt went at this went a little off. Collected too much pressure boil and longer boil forced darker color. Pitching on top of a stouts yeast cake didn't help either lol. "India very dark brown ale" I do this beer single hopped with a ton of Nelson saivon. Call it Nelson the red. No complaints thus far
 
Looks like tomorrow I'll finally be getting to this. It caught my eye way back when I was pretty new and had just finished Mosher's "Radical Brewing". Small batch (3 gal) of original recipe from first post. Looks to me something like this:

2-row - 4 lbs
Munich - 3 lbs
Crystal 40 - 0.5 lbs
Crystal 90 - 0.25 lbs
Black malt - 0.5 oz

Simcoe - 0.6 oz (60)
Amarillo - 0.6 oz - (30)
Cascade - 0.6 oz (5)

Simcoe - 0.4 oz - DH
Amarillo - 0.4 oz - DH
Cascade - 0.4 oz - DH

1 packet US-05

*Edit - I guess the DH mix is a little different. I may have some Amarillo laying around in my freezer which I can bump up to maybe an oz or so.
 
Brew day was good except for unexpectedly light boil-off resulting in...more beer :). After calculating I'm still looking at an in-style red IPA. Color was beautiful, IBUs in the low 60s. Yum, can't wait.
 
Definitely a winner. if you like red ales this malt bill seems like it would work with however you wanted to shape it. Love the west coast approach with the hop schedule. Pic isn't great (it was getting dark and ready to rain) but the beer sure is.:rockin:

IndiaRedAle2.JPG
 
So I'm finally going to brew this tomorrow.
Trying to stick to the original recipe but I need to make a few changes.
Will use Carabohemian and Caramunich II as the crystal malts and Maris Otter as the base malt. Hopefully I still get the nice red colour.
I will also use Columbus for the 60 min addition as I have a load of it and would rather save the Simcoe I have for the dry hopping.

Looking forward to this one! :rockin:
 
So I'm finally going to brew this tomorrow.
Trying to stick to the original recipe but I need to make a few changes.
Will use Carabohemian and Caramunich II as the crystal malts and Maris Otter as the base malt. Hopefully I still get the nice red colour.
I will also use Columbus for the 60 min addition as I have a load of it and would rather save the Simcoe I have for the dry hopping.

Looking forward to this one! :rockin:

Had a delay with brewing because it was 95F here on Friday so I waited until it was 75 yesterday. I also, for various reasons, made a last minute decision to use Summit for the 60 min addition. Ended up with an OG of 1.073 and estimated IBUs of 70 to 75. So on the lower end of an imperial IRA :drunk:
I'll report back in a few weeks when I'm ready to bottle.
 
I've brewed this a few times with different hop schedules. Always comes out good AFTER a full week of conditioning. It's not a beer that can be rushed in my opinion but 2 weeks primary, 2 day cold crash, and a full week or better yet two conditioning in the keg and it's a winner.

Been using crystal 40 and 120 and mashing a bit lower around 151-152 to dry it up a touch

My favorite version was with all willamete and bringing it in at around 6% abv
 
I've brewed this a few times with different hop schedules. Always comes out good AFTER a full week of conditioning. It's not a beer that can be rushed in my opinion but 2 weeks primary, 2 day cold crash, and a full week or better yet two conditioning in the keg and it's a winner.

Been using crystal 40 and 120 and mashing a bit lower around 151-152 to dry it up a touch

My favorite version was with all willamete and bringing it in at around 6% abv

I'll be bottling so my plan is 3 weeks in the primary including 5 days dry hopping at the end and then 2 week conditioning in the bottle.

Will probably be even better after a month in the bottle but hopefully is tasting good after the two weeks because I have a party planned for that weekend. :ban:
 
Had a delay with brewing because it was 95F here on Friday so I waited until it was 75 yesterday. I also, for various reasons, made a last minute decision to use Summit for the 60 min addition. Ended up with an OG of 1.073 and estimated IBUs of 70 to 75. So on the lower end of an imperial IRA :drunk:
I'll report back in a few weeks when I'm ready to bottle.

So after 9 days I'm down to about 1.020.
Going by the original recipe it should finish about 1.014 or 1.015.
Hopefully I can get a steady reading by Sunday and bottle it then.
If not then I have to wait until the week after.
There is still quite a bit of yeast on top but I jumped the gun a bit and already added the dry hops tonight.

The good news is that even with my changes I made to the original recipe it still has a nice red colour. :mug:
 
So after 9 days I'm down to about 1.020.
Going by the original recipe it should finish about 1.014 or 1.015.
Hopefully I can get a steady reading by Sunday and bottle it then.
If not then I have to wait until the week after.
There is still quite a bit of yeast on top but I jumped the gun a bit and already added the dry hops tonight.

The good news is that even with my changes I made to the original recipe it still has a nice red colour. :mug:

You should be fine adding the dry hops at 1.020, the CO2 from the continuing fermentation will push out a bit of the hop aroma, but not much. Hope it comes out well for you, as mentioned it does get better with a little maturation time.
 
You should be fine adding the dry hops at 1.020, the CO2 from the continuing fermentation will push out a bit of the hop aroma, but not much. Hope it comes out well for you, as mentioned it does get better with a little maturation time.

Thanks for the advice - my basement is smelling great at the moment :D
I upped the temperature a few degrees to finish it off and today it is at 1.015.
If I get the same reading tomorrow afternoon I'm going to bottle it.
Will be serving it at a party in 3 weeks so should be enough time for it to properly condition :tank:
 
im intrigued by the idea of the india red lager. seems to have fallen by wayside a bit, although i could have just lost it in all the comments for the red ale.

any updates on red lager? no changes?
 
Thanks for the advice - my basement is smelling great at the moment :D
I upped the temperature a few degrees to finish it off and today it is at 1.015.
If I get the same reading tomorrow afternoon I'm going to bottle it.
Will be serving it at a party in 3 weeks so should be enough time for it to properly condition :tank:

So I bottled it on Sunday and after 5 days I couldn't wait anymore and had to try one.
Still a bit green but I can tell it's going to be a good one.
It tastes quite a bit different than I was expecting. However I should have read the first few posts a bit more carefully and also realised what grains I was working with.

It reminds me of hopped up Smithwicks which makes me a bit nostalgic so sorry for going oft-topic :cross:
When growing up in Ireland Smithwicks was one of the first beers I tried as a teenager and it was a strange beer; each sip tasted very nice for a millisecond followed by an empty aftertaste. This beer has that very nice taste but with a lingering aftertaste. I guess it's the combination of a small bit of roasted barley and Maris Otter that gives me this taste and the extra crystal that fills it out.
Anyway I'll try and keep my hands off the beer for another week and then report back again.

:mug:
 
"It tastes quite a bit different than I was expecting. However I should have read the first few posts a bit more carefully and also realised what grains I was working with."

I think you will find this is a substantially malty beer. The medley of highly kilned malts need a few weeks (or more) to harmonize. If you find it too malty for you and you want to try again, I posted a "light" version that basically decreases the crystal and munich a bit and comes in at 1.060.
:mug:[/QUOTE]
 
"It tastes quite a bit different than I was expecting. However I should have read the first few posts a bit more carefully and also realised what grains I was working with."

I think you will find this is a substantially malty beer. The medley of highly kilned malts need a few weeks (or more) to harmonize. If you find it too malty for you and you want to try again, I posted a "light" version that basically decreases the crystal and munich a bit and comes in at 1.060.
:mug:

I really like it as it is and coming into Fall some maltiness is perfect.

I'm curious about the other version though; when I get time I'll look it up.
 
Brewing this in few days.

Couldnt get the proper crystal. I only have C-60, cara vienna (20L) and cara munich ii. So my question is should i use only C-60 in larger amount or maybe with cara vienna or some other combination (i have some melanoiden).

What about water. I have RO. What are your additions for RO.

Thanks.
 
Yes, you can use the C-60. I would just use that as the replacement for the C-40 and C-90. Caramunich II is pretty close to 60L too, so you could use that too.

I use the light colored and hoppy profile on Brewer's Friend for all my hoppy beers. I know this is not a light colored beer, but it seems to work well.
 
This has become my favorite grain bill to play around with. Really good mashed high and hopped low as a classic Irish red all the way through west coast hop bomb red ipa. Thanks for the fantastic recipe!
 
Awesome, I've been reading these posts all morning. I'm going to make this for this St. Patty's Day. I have the hops and like the second hop schedule you posted.
I'm ordering some malts though, and there have the Black Patent and the Blackprinz which is dehusked. If it's for color only the dehusked is better or no??
 
Awesome, I've been reading these posts all morning. I'm going to make this for this St. Patty's Day. I have the hops and like the second hop schedule you posted.
I'm ordering some malts though, and there have the Black Patent and the Blackprinz which is dehusked. If it's for color only the dehusked is better or no??

You can go either way.The dark malt is mostly there for color The black patent flavor is just noticeable at the low rate of use, lending a bit of a roasty note. With the Blackpriz, you will get a bit less of that-maybe smoother? I have used Carafa II (de-husked), and Chocolate malt in place of the black patent and its not much different, just a subtle change.

Happy Brewing!
Tim
 
I can't wait to brew this. How much of a difference will it make if I stick to my normal 6.5 preboil/60 minute boil instead of 7 gal and 90 minutes?
 
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