Irish red ale LHB all grain

[mggray87]

I inputed the ingredients into beer smith and 21.7 SRM seems kind of dark for an Irish red ale. I’d love to get that cherry red look. Any help in altering these. I have these ingredients on hand already. I have a few stragglers. I’d have to look what I have on the shelf.

 

[mggray87]

Just removing the barely I’m down to 17ish srm. Sounds more what I think I’m looking for. But not sure getting rid of all of it will do to overall beer

 

[Happy Tails Brewing]

Traditionally Irish Red’s get their color from Roasted Barley. I would be inclined to keep the Barley and drop the Crystal down, to bring your color down, but that depends on if you like the flavor from the crystal malts or roaster barley more. Here is a thread on HBT on Irish Red Ale for you to compare. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/irish-red-1st-place-hbt-comp.141086/ . Either way try what you think, make some notes, and adjust for next time. Nobody can give you advice on what your palate will like the most. It's trial and error process.

 

[Willy]

Going to say the same thing. Drop the1 lb caro120. My Irish Reds are usually 13 SRM +/- (typical is 10-14 range)

Also think the ABV is high for a Irish Red. Usually 4-5% ABV
Barley flakes is often an ingredient in an Irish Red as well. Good luck.

 

[Dgallo]

21 will be a little darker than negra modelo. In my opinion you lose the actual red look at about 15.5-16 SRM. Here is an altbeir of mine that I target 16 SRM. Has mahogany tone and red highlights but darker than a “red” in my opinion

 

[Bobby_M]

A pound of 120L is going to be gross. Way too sweet and malty rich to be an Irish Red. Actually if you look at the style parameter sliders, you're overloaded on every metric. It's going to be more like an American Strong (Arrogant Bastard type of thing). Irish reds should be around 25 IBUs with most if not all of that coming from a 60 minute addition.

Drop the 120L to 8oz.
Remove Abbey.
Drop caramunich to 8oz.
Increase roasted barley to 4oz
Remove special B and corn sugar.

1oz Willamette at 60, remove other hops.

 

[mggray87]

Going to say the same thing. Drop the1 lb caro120. My Irish Reds are usually 13 SRM +/- (typical is 10-14 range)

Also think the ABV is high for a Irish Red. Usually 4-5% ABV
Barley flakes is often an ingredient in an Irish Red as well. Good luck.

I added because for me I was going for a 6% beer because that’s my personal fav sweet spot.

 

[mggray87]

Even this is 16srm but better. Got rid of most of it. The hops are still high at only 1oz at 60 min. Haha.

 

[Miraculix]

A pound of 120L is going to be gross. Way too sweet and malty rich to be an Irish Red. Actually if you look at the style parameter sliders, you're overloaded on every metric. It's going to be more like an American Strong (Arrogant Bastard type of thing). Irish reds should be around 25 IBUs with most if not all of that coming from a 60 minute addition.

Drop the 120L to 8oz.
Remove Abbey.
Drop caramunich to 8oz.
Increase roasted barley to 4oz
Remove special B and corn sugar.

1oz Willamette at 60, remove other hops.

100% on point!

A really nice Irish red consists of only a few things and is a rather clean ale. Pale ale malt, roasted barley 1-2.5%, hops and yeast. That's it. Not much hop flavour and no strong malt character either. You can add a touch of crystal, but I would add 3% max. Actually I would skip crystal completely.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

My recipe for an Irish Red, 19 litres at 4.5% ABV

Malts (3.735 kg)​

3.2 kg (85.7%) — Crisp Finest Maris Otter® Ale Malt — Grain — 3.3 SRM
400 g (10.7%) — BESTMALZ BEST Red X® — Grain — 15 SRM
100 g (2.7%) — Weyermann Carared — Grain — 24 SRM
35 g (0.9%) — Crisp Roast Barley — Grain — 700 SRM

Hops (39 g)​

19 g (17 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — Boil — 60 min
20 g (8 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — Boil — 15 min

 

[mggray87]

A pound of 120L is going to be gross. Way too sweet and malty rich to be an Irish Red. Actually if you look at the style parameter sliders, you're overloaded on every metric. It's going to be more like an American Strong (Arrogant Bastard type of thing). Irish reds should be around 25 IBUs with most if not all of that coming from a 60 minute addition.

Drop the 120L to 8oz.
Remove Abbey.
Drop caramunich to 8oz.
Increase roasted barley to 4oz
Remove special B and corn sugar.

1oz Willamette at 60, remove other hops.

100% on point!

A really nice Irish red consists of only a few things and is a rather clean ale. Pale ale malt, roasted barley 1-2.5%, hops and yeast. That's it. Not much hop flavour and no strong malt character either. You can add a touch of crystal, but I would add 3% max. Actually I would skip crystal completely.

Ok this looks better. Ill save the other ingredients the kit came with for other stuff. I can probably drop the cara Munich a little more maybe?

 

[Miraculix]

The name of the caramel munich is very misleading. It is not a munich malt, it is a normal crystal malt. So if you want some crystal in it, the 2% and a bit are fine from my point of view.

I'd switch the yeast to Nottingham though. If you do not have it, S04 will also work.

 

[Bobby_M]

View attachment 880710

Ok this looks better. Ill save the other ingredients the kit came with for other stuff. I can probably drop the cara Munich a little more maybe?


View attachment 880712

I think you'll enjoy it at the configuration you have there.

 

[mggray87]

I think you'll enjoy it at the configuration you have there.

Ok then new recipe attempt it is. I’ll try it tomorrow

 

[Happy Tails Brewing]

Looking at my notes, I now know where you got the kit, I have made this. It turned out to be a good beer, but it is not an Irish Red. If you look at the reviews for the kit, I believe they say the same thing. If you really want an Irish Red, go with your changes, if you want to try something different brew the kit as is, it does make a good beer.

 

[mggray87]

Looking at my notes, I now know where you got the kit, I have made this. It turned out to be a good beer, but it is not an Irish Red. If you look at the reviews for the kit, I believe they say the same thing. If you really want an Irish Red, go with your changes, if you want to try something different brew the kit as is, it does make a good beer.

I’m making the changed one tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. I’m adding sugar to get it to 6%. Just due to the request of my friends. High 5% 6% tops. Hahah.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Carapils at 8% of the grain bill turns out sweet from then and upwards as a percentage of the bill without adding much color.
You can then reduce the body by adding in sugar as a portion of the pale malt percentage, a lot of Irish reds have a sugar portion of the grain bill. I prefer Mexican Ponticillo cones, shaved and added.
It has the caramel flavor your looking for.

 

[mggray87]

Well I brewed it today. Went well. My 70% eff was like 79% per beersmith so I way overshot it. But I will say it’s brown as heck. I see zero red lolol. We’ll see when it clears when I crash it.

 

[Bobby_M]

Well I brewed it today. Went well. My 70% eff was like 79% per beersmith so I way overshot it. But I will say it’s brown as heck. I see zero red lolol. We’ll see when it clears when I crash it.

You won't see red in a carboy. You're looking through 12" of beer.

 

[mggray87]

You won't see red in a carboy. You're looking through 12" of beer.

I’m looking in the sight glass of my ssbrewtech unitank. But also when I took a small 4oz out in a small sample glass to get my starting OG.

 

[mggray87]

It’s in the fermenter done. But staying in for another week low temps. And cabining in the unitank.