Formulating Irish Red as a tribute beer

So my Wheat IPA recipe is going to have to wait until next time. I'm trying to put together a recipe for a "mostly" Irish Red. It's a tribute beer to my late stepmother, who recently passed. I told y dad I would brew a beer in her honor and call it by her nickname "The Little Fighter". So which brings me here. I had the idea to do an Irish Red since her heritage is Irish, English and a bit of German, and of course she had red hair so it's fitting. So I will try to only use european ingredients, but since she was an american girl, I wanna throw in Cascades as that really strikes me as a classic American hop. Here's what I have so far. The only iffy one is the NZ hop addition, I wanted to add it because I've heard it has a wine like aroma and she loved wines. If I can't get that with this recipe, I can omit the hop addition completely, though I feel it could make an interesting combo. Anyways, before I ramble on too much further here's what I have, a very rough draft recipe, all critiques and advice is very welcome as this brew will be an important one. Thanks!

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Little Fighter Irish Red

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Irish Red Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 10 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 13 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.042
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV (standard): 5.09%
IBU (tinseth): 27.06
SRM (morey): 15.05

FERMENTABLES:
20 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (89.9%)
0.25 lb - United Kingdom - Roasted Barley (1.1%)
2 lb - German - CaraMunich I (9%)

HOPS:
2 oz - Willamette, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 16.74
0.5 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 3.55
0.5 oz - Willamette, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 20 min, IBU: 2.79
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.55
0.5 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 1.43
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 0 min
2 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days
4 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days

YEAST:
White Labs - Irish Ale Yeast WLP004
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 71.5%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temp: 65 - 68 F
Fermentation Temp: 65 F


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2014-07-21 22:28 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2014-07-21 22:27 UTC

*I have not given thought to mashing and whatnot I wil get to that soon

 

bump

 

Malt wise, I might break up the caramunich, with a touch of caraAroma or other dark crystal. Like 7% caramunich, 2% caraaroma. Id want a hint of dark burnt sugar maltiness, and it would increase the red color.

Hop wise, thats a lot of hops for an irish red. I dont know if there is a such thing as a dry hopped irish red. And even if you americanized it, im not sure if nelson sauvin and cascade go together. Ive used both, but not together, but white whine and grapefuit peel, seems like it wont mesh. Maybe someone can say differently.

 

That really is a ton of hops for an Irish Red. I brew an Irish Red recipe quite often and I use Nelson Sauvin quite a bit because....well it's like my favorite hop. I have not used it in an Irish Red, and I have never dry hopped an Irish Red, I don't even late hop mine.

If your going to do the Sauvin, maybe make it the only late and dry hop so that it can shine through?

 

Thanks, I'll take those into consideration for the grain bill, I wasn't really sure what else I should add to it. I don't want to over-hop it, cuz I still want it to be characteristically mostly Irish Red, just with a bit of an American twist, not enough to make it an American Red/Amber. Maybe I will just use the EKG and dry hop with NZ? Make it simpler. I can try a small batch of NZ + Cascade for a pale later. Thanks for the insight!

Using brewersfriend, I just tried to keep the IBUs in the style limit according to that but still might cut it back a bit. I will probably move the NZ only to flameout and dry hop. Thanks! I'll post an update when I modify the recipe.

 

Thanks, I'll take those into consideration for the grain bill, I wasn't really sure what else I should add to it. I don't want to over-hop it, cuz I still want it to be characteristically mostly Irish Red, just with a bit of an American twist, not enough to make it an American Red/Amber. Maybe I will just use the EKG and dry hop with NZ? Make it simpler. I can try a small batch of NZ + Cascade for a pale later. Thanks for the insight!

Using brewersfriend, I just tried to keep the IBUs in the style limit according to that but still might cut it back a bit. I will probably move the NZ only to flameout and dry hop. Thanks! I'll post an update when I modify the recipe.

 

My 2 cents worth:

Cool idea, cool name.

4 oz of Roasted Barley may wind up being too much. I just brewed a 10 gallon batch of Irish Red over the weekend with 6 oz Chocolate (~350*L) and it came out rather dark. So much so that I made a note to drop to 4oz the next time I make it. Unless your stepmom had dark red hair...

I also agree with the hops comments. I use 3.5 oz (2 oz FWH and 1.5 Flame out) of East Kent Goldings, and it's right for me. Maybe do Willamette as bittering and Cascade for flavor and aroma. Since Cascade is flowery/citrusey, I would want to take it easy so as to not be overpowering.

 

Thanks sir, it actually was her nickname. With all the replies I'm thinking I'll stick to all English hops for the bittering and flavor hops and use a small amount of NZ and maybe an American hop during flameout and dry hops, enough to give a hint but not overpower anything. As far as the roasted barley, and the rest of my grain bill for that matter, I'm assuming my efficiency will be lower since I'm still new to brewing. But I'd definitely rather end up to light than too dark.

 

Hmm I just had an idea, what would you guys think about using a couple pounds of rye and replacing the NZ hop additions with something to complement the rye like Cluster or something? I love beers brewed with rye, but have never tried an amber brewed with rye. I think it could be interesting, as long as I keep it subtle.

 

Okay I updated it with the rye idea, lemme know if what you guys think, I've taken out the american hop/NZ additions. I hope the grain bill isn't TOO complicated. I want the rye to be present, but not overwhelm the overall malt taste. I'm very unfamiliar with UK hops (but excited to get to know their characteristics) so I am hoping the Challenger will compliment the rye and vice versa. If I don't end up going the route of the rye, I will replace it with more caramunich/caraaroma and take out the challenger hop addition and maybe replace it with some chinook or cascade to give it an american twist. Sorry if I seem fickle, there's just so many things I wanna try while brewing.

EDIT: I would also like to point out, regarding the IBUs, I'm going by the BU:GU ratio more than the style guidelines.

Nevermind, brewersfriend kind of screwed me over and I lost the recipe lol Ill wait til I get home to re do it on beersmith. Dont have it here at work. Sorry folks

 

Okay here is what I have I changed up the grain according to something I saw here on HBT. The biggest question mark I have is with dry hopping, I want the rye and dry hopping to mesh well into a pleasant earthy spiciness. Am i getting too off base here with the rye and dry hops? I've never used these hops before so I'm very curious to how they'll turn out. I was thinking about using just a tiny bit of Chinook for the dry hopping but that would make this feel more like an American Red/Amber beer.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Little Fighter Red Ale
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Irish Red Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 14.88 gal
Post Boil Volume: 12.18 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.04 gal
Bottling Volume: 9.30 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 14.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.8 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 78.3 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.2 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 8.7 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.2 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.2 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 7 17.3 IBUs
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 Hop 8 3.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 23 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 28.75 qt of water at 163.7 F 150.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 10.45 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
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