Too sweet??

Sooo I went to visit my local homebrewshop the other day with a Red Ale recipe that I had found somewhere and was looking it over with the shop owner and he suggested some changes.. long story short, we ended up with 3 lbs of carared in there, 9lbs of base malt, 1lb of flaked oats and a couple really small additions. according the hopville's beer calculus it should be super sweet and malty but also about 7.2% what do you guys think? oh, also it was notty yeast, and 1oz east kent full and .5 east kent at flameout. I've just seen alot of posts about the perils of the 15% rule on the specialty malts and am curious

3 lbs for a 5 gallon batch?! My oh my, that's going to be one chewy, sweet, perhaps even cloying beer. Personally, I'd change the hop schedule a bit too- for a traditional Irish Red you don't really need a flameout addition. I'd go with .75 at 60, .5 at 25, and .25 at 5 (assuming you have 1.5 oz of EKG). Mash LOW, like 146F or so just to get it as dry as possible. I'm also assuming all your grains are already mixed, no? If not, pull 2 lbs of CaraRed out.

Good luck! Worst case you still have beer, so have fun with it. Cheers!

I agree, there is no way you want 3lbs of carared in the beer! A lb or less would be fine, like maybe 5% of the total grain bill.

Thanks! yea I was afraid yall would say that... Shoulda thought that one through a little better. what do yall think about pitching a little Champagne yeast in the secondary to dry it up a bit? is that way outta line? (just a thought)

wyoast said:

Thanks! yea I was afraid yall would say that... Shoulda thought that one through a little better. what do yall think about pitching a little Champagne yeast in the secondary to dry it up a bit? is that way outta line? (just a thought)

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Cloying is definately the word for this beer!! got it bottled, carbed up and popped the top on the first one tonight... WOW! I definately know the characteristics of CaraRed now! A little rough but I'm not a ***** and I dont believe in pouring it out so...cheers

wyoast said:

Cloying is definately the word for this beer!! got it bottled, carbed up and popped the top on the first one tonight... WOW! I definately know the characteristics of CaraRed now! A little rough but I'm not a ***** and I dont believe in pouring it out so...cheers

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You could try all kinds of things with this beer, like... cooking, using it as pancake syrup, blending it with other beers... the options are endless!