Needing advice on extract recipe

Haigh folks,

I'm wanting to design a red ale. I guess it'd be Irish seeming I live here. I wanted the red ale to be more wintery than typical ales brewed here so my recipe is a little heavier than the norm I think, am I wrong?.

I realise that most of them seem to be about 3.5% - 4.5% ABV or something making them a drinkable session pint. Apparently irish reds vary from 4 - 6 ABV according to my brewtarget software. I don't know how drinkable my recipe will be; what do you guys think? A little different from typical Irish ale, or pretty typical?

Using Brewtarget 1.2.1:

61% DME Light - 4 lb - Could/Should I use anything better for this beer?
3% Roasted Barley - 3 oz - I'm worried this amount will taste bad
2% Peat Smoked Barley - 2 oz - Is this balanced or mild, too much?
2% Chocolate Malt - 2 oz - UK -
2% Crystal malt 200 - 2 oz - is 200 the same as 20L or is it 200L?

Wyeast - Irish Ale (liquid)

UK Fuggles - 3 oz for 10 min
Super Styrians - 1.5 oz for 05 mins - Really haven't a clue about using hops

OG - 1.053
FG - 1.014
ABV - 5.0%
IBU - 20.6
SRM - 13.1 L

Over all, my brew software says that this will be a 'slightly malty' beer above balanced, hmm.

I read that 'Any style of beer can be smoked; the goal is to reach a pleasant balance between the smoke character and the base beer style.' That goes for aroma and the flavour. I'm not sure If I would have done that with this amount.

I don't want the beer to be harsh as I've heard high roasted grains tend to be at certain quantities. Carafa 3 is said to be a good substitie for roasted barley without the harshness, but id rather work with roasted barley - keep it traditional, you know?

My final question is for reassurance. I'd be steeping everything but the DME yea? So, I'll still get the fermentables out of them will I, rwill I have to rre adjust my steeping grain quatities? My brewing software asks me for a mash... :S eh, what? I'm ignoring that for now but I'm worried it'd effect greatly how my grain measurments should be proportioned.

Sorry that may have been long winded. Your help is desperatley appreciated, thanks.

With the gravity, IBU, peat, chocolate, and roasted barley in there, I'd call this more of a Scottish 80 Shilling, but maybe that's splitting hairs....

Anyway....

2oz of peat is an ok amount to use. it has a very strong flavor and I'd try to stay under 4oz.

I don't think 3 oz of roasted barley will taste bad.

The "crystal 200"... I don't know if you have a different scale for ranking the color in Ireland than we do here in the states. I thought I heard someone mention that the "Lovibond" rating was a US-only thing, but I can't be certain about that.

200Lovibond (if that's what it is) will be EXTREMELY dark. With the roasted barley and chocolate malts in that beer, I think it might come out dark enough that it won't really look "red".

61% DME Light - 4 lb - Could/Should I use anything better for this beer?
3% Roasted Barley - 3 oz - I'm worried this amount will taste bad
2% Peat Smoked Barley - 2 oz - Is this balanced or mild, too much?
2% Chocolate Malt - 2 oz - UK -
2% Crystal malt 200 - 2 oz - is 200 the same as 20L or is it 200L?

Click to expand...

Did you leave something out of the ingredients list? Those percentages do not add up to 100%, so I can't really comment much on the steeping. Are there other grains involved here that you forgot to list?

Thanks, the crystal malt I bought is this:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/index.php/high-colour-crystal200-malt-1kg.html

It says 200 EBC there, so I stand corrected, it isn't Lovibond - it is our european colour measurement. I'm so new to all this that I get confused over american and european differences.

Here is a useful conversion chart I just found. http://www.beercolor.com/ If I have used this right 200 EBC is 121.1 Lovibond :S good lord.. still super dark. I might use something like 20 L perhaps instead.

Yea I did leave something out as I forgot that the % had to add upto 100.

30% White sugar/dextrose - 2 lb (we usually use castor sugar, which I think you guys call superfine?) I assume my brew software knows I wish to use that for priming/conditioning in the secondary stage.

I have looked at my brewing software again and I can

You know I have never had a scottish beer before. We usually drink whiskey here, beer isnt big at all, pubs are really lacking in the tap department with Harp, Smithwicks, Guinness, typical auld heineken, killkenny and murphies, tennents and bass are big sellers. Lagers are the most drunk pub beverage here, smithwicks is like the only ale you find in my experience. Other styles just dont exist to us sadly.

Thanks alot btw!