Irish Ale Recipe Advice

[JKenshi]

Soon I will be pursuing a nice Irish red ale brew. Smithwick's being my favorite, that is the direction I would like to move in. I've done a lot of poking on the internet looking for good clone recipes and found a handful that are either extract or easily converted to extract. However, this being my first attempt, it's hard to choose.

Do any of you have a favorite Irish Ale extract recipe you'd care to share?

Thanks so much!

 

[Lefou]

You may find what you want in the "Recipes" section of the forum.

 

[JKenshi]

You may find what you want in the "Recipes" section of the forum.

I was looking for opinions, not just a list of recipes... thanks though.

 

[RM-MN]

Many of the recipes in the database have a lot of replies to them, opinions of the veracity of the match to the original, changes made to improve it, etc. I'd trust these recipes over random ones found on the Internet.

 

[Lefou]

...and can't give a valid opinion on a style I haven't brewed yet.
Too busy doing other brews and haven't gotten around to researching what makes a good Irish red ale.

 

[Fly_Guy]

I have not made this yet but at least it's from a trustworthy source - John Palmer. He includes a nice list of recipes, this one was listed in his latest edition of 'How to Brew'.

Full Croi - Irish Red Ale
OG-1.042 FG-1.011 IBU-26
1.5lb pale ale DME
3 lb pale DME
1lb flaked barley - Instamash
0.33lb Briess Carabrown steeped
0.33lb roast barley - steeped
0.9 oz UK Phoenix 9% AA - 60 minutes
Irish Ale Yeast - 200 billion
Ferment at 65 F

If you brew this, please let us know how it turns out!

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

I just brewed one last Friday 1/19:

6 Lbs Light DME
1 can Lyle's Black Treacle
.5 Biscuit
.5 Crystal 40
.25 Carapils
4oz Roasted Barley

1oz EKG - 60 min
1oz Willamette - 60 min
1oz EKG - 30 min
1oz Willamette - 30 min

Partial Boil, steeped for about 45min...
Was thrown onto a yeast cake of Wyeast 1335 BritishAle from a previous Porter
--------------------------------------------

That was the plan anyway... However... The .5lb Biscuit was lost in translation at the brewshop, so i said eff it and tossed in 8 oz brown sugar and 8 oz honey (both by weight)... Not to fix anything, but to completely change the recipe.

The original wasn't strictly Irish Red style guidelines and neither is the edited but was suppose to give me a starting point.

I'm actually going to be taking a Hydrometer reading later tonight and taste test.

 

[Fly_Guy]

4 oz of hops?! That might be like an Irish red ipa hahaha.
Just kidding, but really I am shocked by the difference between the hop amount in your recipe and the palmer recipe I posted. I am not super familiar with the ibu range on Irish reds though.

I think your recipe sounds delicious. How dark did it end up being? I'm curious how much color the brown sugar and black treacle added to it.

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

I forgot to repost after the taste test... It's very malty and has great body, not overly bitter and pretty well balanced.

The 4oz of hops (pellet btw) is due to not being able to full boil and the hops having such low AA%, being EKG and Willamette they blend well with the malts.

Brown Sugar gives less color than and equal amount of Crystal 20 and Lyle's is around 100*L but left it with an almost chocolatey, caramel, balance with the roasted barley giving just a bit of roast.

Using Brewer's Friend I came to around 32-ish IBU's and about 16 SRM(Morey) and about 7.12%.... Right now she's sitting at 1.020 and should finish about 4 points lower hopefully. Blowoff recommended...

I've joked about calling it a Wee Heavy Imperial Red Ale.


I've already bought a new burner so I can get back to full boils and soon get back to AG... I've been a couple years out of the brew game.


-----
Edit: Also, I have an Irish Red recipe from a while back that I was told would do good in competition. If I can find it at home, I'll post it for you. I can't get Smithwick's here anymore so I can't compare but it's also my favorite Irish Red.

 

[Fly_Guy]

Damn, that sounds like a delicious brew!!

 

[JKenshi]

I just brewed one last Friday 1/19:

6 Lbs Light DME
1 can Lyle's Black Treacle
.5 Biscuit
.5 Crystal 40
.25 Carapils
4oz Roasted Barley

1oz EKG - 60 min
1oz Willamette - 60 min
1oz EKG - 30 min
1oz Willamette - 30 min

Partial Boil, steeped for about 45min...
Was thrown onto a yeast cake of Wyeast 1335 BritishAle from a previous Porter
--------------------------------------------

That was the plan anyway... However... The .5lb Biscuit was lost in translation at the brewshop, so i said eff it and tossed in 8 oz brown sugar and 8 oz honey (both by weight)... Not to fix anything, but to completely change the recipe.

The original wasn't strictly Irish Red style guidelines and neither is the edited but was suppose to give me a starting point.

I'm actually going to be taking a Hydrometer reading later tonight and taste test.

Can I assume that's a 5 gallon yield?

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

Can I assume that's a 5 gallon yield?

Yes. I usually plan for 5.25 into the fermenter and lose about .25 to trub. However this time I forgot to change the recipe to 5.25.

It's a partial boil also of about 2.5 gal boil and topped up with pre boiled and chilled water... Dumping them together into the bucket and then into the carboy just works as aeration too well...

The original should have been 1.065, 16.48 SRM (morey), 35.88 IBU (tinseth), and it should have ended at 1.017 giving it 6.33%

Edit: The gravity that went into primary was 1.070, 16 SRM (morey), 32.68 IBU (tinseth), it should end at 1.016 giving it 7.12%