Do you think I overdid it? Irish Ale recipe inside -->

[sonvolt]

I pasted my recipe below. I did this today as a kind of "get-rid-of-leftover-grain" ale. I threw the recipe into promash, and it fits the parameters of an Irish Red Ale, but I hope it is not too cloyingly sweet with this much Crystal grains. Did I overdo it? What do ya'll think?

Irish Red Ale

7 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
1 lb. Munich Malt
1 lb. Crystal 10
.50 lbs. Crystal 80
.25 lbs. Vienna Malt
.25 lbs. Crystal 20
.25 lbs. Crystal 40
.25 Crystal 60
2 oz. Roasted Barley

.25 oz. Columbus 14.1 %(60)
.50 Willammette 3.9% (30)
.50 E.K. Goldings 4.1% (30)
.50 E.K. Goldings (15)

Mashed @ 153 degrees
Safale S-04 (English Ale, Whitbread Strain)
IBUs – 29.2
OG – 1.056

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I think it will be okay...I've done recipes that called for more and while they were sweet they were okay. Having said that, I'm no longer a fan of using much crystal and generally use it sparingly.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Doesn't look terrible. You could always up the bittering hops to try and mellow out the malts some; might not still be an Irish, but is style really that important?

 

[the_bird]

Probably end up a bit sweeter than you're ideally want, but it should be OK. I agree, if you haven't brewed it yet, up the bittering hops a bit; if you have, take a taste before you bottle/keg it. If it's too cloying, do a hop tea (boil some bittering hops in a small amount of water for an hour) and add to taste.

 

[sonvolt]

I did not adjust for hops during the boil. However, if it is too sweet, I think that I will drop some fuggles leaf hops into the keg while serving.

FWIW, the wort tasted great. Not too sweet, but very bold.

Using the safale s-04 may actually make it sweeter. In retro, I should have used a higher attenuating yeast strain.

Maybe I should add some brett . . . .

I'll keep ya'll updated.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I brewed the Highland Gaelic clone (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8904&highlight=highland+gaelic) which as you can see is quite a 'crystally' beer. It was too much crystal for my tastes, but still very quaffable and I didn't mind drinking it at all. But I'd cut the crystal in half if I did it again.