Great Red Ale 10 day brew! Partial mash

[3sheetsEMJ]

I brewed a red ale 10 days ago and kegged it last night: fermented for 8 days, cold crashed for 2, kegged it last night, and im drinking it now. My own recipe, partial mash partial boil. Have to say I expected it to be a little raw at this point but its not bad!! Deep red color, smells sensational, taste is excellent! Can't wait for a few days for it to settle and mellow, its slightly bitter, but other than that incredible!!! Recipe is simple but long, let me know if youd like to see it!

 

[rednekhippiemotrcyclfreak]

Yes, please post the recipe and some more descriptive tasting notes. And how did you carb in one day?

 

[3sheetsEMJ]

Sure, here's the recipe:

Briess sparkling amber liquid extract 3.3 lbs
Briess sparkling amber DME 8oz
Weyermann munich type 11- 1lb
Briess 2 row brewers malt 12oz
Briess 2 row carmel 10- 4oz
Briess 2 row carmel 20- 12oz
Briess 2 row carmel 60- 8oz
Briess 2 row carmel 80- 8oz
Caramel munich- 4oz
Weyerman Carafoam- 4oz
Weyerman Carared- 4oz
Weyerman Cara amber- 4oz

Hop schedule:
Chinook hops 1 oz @60min
Centenial 1oz@ 15 min
Cascade 1 oz @5min

Wyeast american ale 2 - 1 smackpack

Also:
Irish moss 1 tspn@10 min
1 Whirlfloc tablet @ 5 min

Notes:
Brewing: Got water to 170 degrees, took off heat and steeped grain for 25 min, put back on heat got to a boil, started 60 min utes, added chinook, boiled for 20 more, min took off heat add 2/3 of liquid extract, put back on heat, @ 20 min remaining took off heat added rest of liquid extract and 1/2 lb of dry extract, stuck to hop schedule and irish moss/ whirlflock schedule. After brewing was complete i cooled wort in an ice bath, took about 15-20 min to cool to room temp, poured to carboys, added rest of water (splashed it to aerate) added yeast. Use only spring water!! You need the minerals in the water for happy healthy yeast!

Fermentation: Let ferment in carboys ( i use two three gallon carboys makes it easier to move about) for 8 days @ 71 degrees,moved to an ice bath and cold crashed for 2 days, this cleared it up nicely. I kegged it last night, set the pressure to 25psi for 24 hours. I was going to let it sit for longer but it was too tempting so i tried it tonight. I'll be #*^%+, it tasted great, altho with a bitter aftertaste, which i think will mellow over time...

Please, try this recipe, tweak it, improve it, perfect it!!!! I would love to here advice and ideas on how to make it great! This has the potential to be amazing. Whole recipe cost about $30, and im at day 10 with a frothy mug of red ale!!!

 

[Jwood]

i really, really don't think that 4 oz. of Carafoam is needed in this recipe. Too much crystal malt overall for my taste, but if you like it, that's all that matters :rockin:

Good job brewin' something you love, especially since it was your own recipe!

 

[3sheetsEMJ]

You might be right, i have limited experience with carafoam, but i used it in a pale ale recipe a few batches ago, and it had anincredibly thick and creamy head, which i want on all my brews. I didnt use it on the last one and it wasnt quite as foamy.

Theonly issue right now is a bitter aftetaste, do you know the cause from the ingredients? Why would you not use so many crystal malts? Improvement ideas?

 

[gr8shandini]

. . .Why would you not use so many crystal malts? Improvement ideas?

My personal philosophy is to keep a recipe as simple as possible. The way I think about it is like cooking. If you wanted to make chicken soup, you wouldn't just dump in a little of everything you have in the pantry, you build a base with some onion, carrot, and celery, then "punch it up" with a little sage, rosemary, and thyme.

In this example, the "base" is your extract (or base malts if all grain) and maybe one variety of crystal to get the "backbone" of the beer. Then you could layer in some flavors with some small amounts of the darker grains. Finally the "punch up" comes with perhaps some highly roasted malts, the hops, and even the yeast selection.

Obviously everybody's tastes vary, but if you wanted my advice on how to improve your recipe, I'd start with replacing the amber extract with pale (since you have no idea what briess is using in the amber, I'd prefer to start as neutral as possible). Personally, I'd skip the mini-mash since it's just complicating things unless you want to use un-malted grains that need to be converted. Just bump up the extract to 6 or 7 lbs to get you in the ballpark for an average strength ale. Then I'd add about a pound of crystal 20 through 60L to finish the "base". That's actually probably fine right there (you can use small amounts of carafa III to adjust the color without changing the flavor too much), but you could add in 1/4 to 1/2 a lb of a darker crystal if you wanted.

 

[MikeinCT]

I make a similar beer. I have made many batches and it is great. But a bit simplier. 10 lbs of base 2 row, 1 lb of #60 crystal and 1lb of carared. Ferment with US-05. Similar hops schedule that I play around with. Now I am using 1.25 oz centennial for 60 minutes, 1 oz. cascade for 20 minutes and 1 oz. cascade for 5 minutes. It is really good. Looks very much like the picture you show. I usually wait for 6 to 8 weeks before I would consider drinking it but you could drink it around 4 weeks and probably be just as tasty. Ain't this fun!

 

[3sheetsEMJ]

My personal philosophy is to keep a recipe as simple as possible. The way I think about it is like cooking. If you wanted to make chicken soup, you wouldn't just dump in a little of everything you have in the pantry, you build a base with some onion, carrot, and celery, then "punch it up" with a little sage, rosemary, and thyme.
.

I agree it could be much simpler. The funny thing is, I actually do cook with a Lot of spices, i prefer robust flavors with many dimensions, got it from my dad who is an amazing cook.

However I liken brewing to baking rather than cooking. Baking is more precise and a small change can alter the flavor, texture, etc of the dessert. I am relatively new with only about 10 brews under my belt, most of those from another persons recipe. Now im trying to venture out and experiment, still learning every day!

Thank you for the advice. I wil try to cut down on the variety of thw crystal malts and wait longer next time before kegging/drinking. I probably should have at least 3 or 4 batches going at once, beer goes quick in my house especially during football season! Haha!

 

[gr8shandini]

There's no doubt that a beer with a little depth to it is better than a one trick pony. However, I think you'll find that keeping the grain bill pretty simple lets the hops and yeast stand out a little more, and that's where you get a lot of a beer's flavor. For me, yeast seems particularly under appreciated by a lot of brewers. You can take the same wort, split it in two fermenters, pitch different yeast, and come up with two entirely different beers.

As far as time goes, 10 days is a little sporty, but there's no need to wait forever if you're brewing well. I tend to leave my ales in the fermenter for about 10-14 days, cold crash for 1 or 2, and then keg and allow to carb up for a week. About 21 days in all.

 

[3sheetsEMJ]

I make a similar beer. I have made many batches and it is great. But a bit simplier. 10 lbs of base 2 row, 1 lb of #60 crystal and 1lb of carared. Ferment with US-05. Similar hops schedule that I play around with. Now I am using 1.25 oz centennial for 60 minutes, 1 oz. cascade for 20 minutes and 1 oz. cascade for 5 minutes. It is really good. Looks very much like the picture you show. I usually wait for 6 to 8 weeks before I would consider drinking it but you could drink it around 4 weeks and probably be just as tasty. Ain't this fun!

Cool, I rearranged the recipe a bit, added more LME and reduced the crystal malt variety. Also changed the biterring hops from 1 oz of chinook to .75 oz of warrior, which i hear has a cleaner finish (used less thAn an oz since it has a much higher alpha) Brewed on Saturday and still getting rapid yeast activity. Going to ferment for about 18 days cold crash for a few, then keg, let it carb up for a few days and try it out.

I have a good feeling about this one, however if it still has that bitter aftertaste im going back to formula and making more significant changes to the grain. Im pretty certain the hop schedulw will be ok, but i may be using too much grain/ too little extract. Can't wait to find out!!