Imperial Red Farmhouse IPA

[BarleyThief37]

Going for a BIG brew in the upcoming week to prepare for holidays/winter months, and this is more of a style question.

Looking to use my farmhouse ale yeast to produce a deep-red colored strong heavy hop-balanced brew. 10gal batch, shooting for ~8%abv. Will probably use around 1 lb of caramel 120L and a few oz of carafeIII in the sparge for added color. Possibly some carapils/carafoam for added head retention and body. For hops, thinking of a 90min boil with generous additions of cascade/nugget/centennial (homegrown), including dry-hopping.

Would love to hear some critiques from anyone who's crafted a beer similar to this, given that it is slightly out-of-bounds with regards to traditional 'style-guidelines'. Thx in Advance!

- BarleyThief

 

[Yooper]

I made an Imperial red way back when, and I did something similar. I used maris otter for the base malt, and 1.5 lbs of 120L. I bittered heavily with chinook and used it in late additions as well. I oaked half of the batch, and left the rest unoaked. I used a US ale yeast, so no farmhouse notes.

It took ages to be really good, at least the oaked version, but it turned out wonderfully.

I guess mine was sort of an Arrogant Bastard clone in the recipe, but it really didn't seem to be that similiar to it in the end. I won a gold medal for that one, in a competition. It was 7.5%, so a bit smaller than you're planning but it was a really nice beer.