Irish Red Grain Bill

[snarf7]

I had an Irish red at a festival this summer that was delicious and had a beautiful red color. I talked to the brewer a bit and he was one of these guys who talks a mile a minute in 5 directions at once So it was hard to decipher a recipe or even proportions from the steady stream of chatter. What I did gather though is that he used a combination of carared, melanoiden and roasted barley to get that ruby red color. I did a little research and this is what I came up with, does this look right or do I need to tweak anything in these proportions

89% Light DME
5% Carared
3% Melanoiden
3% Roasted Barley

thanks!

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Those percentages look good. It's probably about the upper end for roasted barley in a red.

What OG are you aiming for?

 

[snarf7]

Those percentages look good. It's probably about the upper end for roasted barley in a red.

What OG are you aiming for?

I wanted to get this on today and it's hard to get a reply on turkey day so I just read every forum post I could and tweaked base doff that, here's what I wound up going with:

85% DME
8% Carared
2% Carapils
2% Melanoiden
2% Roasted Barley
1% Flaked Wheat

I've had trouble with getting a nice head on some of my brews (might be the water, haven't had time to explore all that stuff yet) so I added in a little wheat and carapils but i kept the quantities small cause I dond't want to mess with the core recipe much)

 

[ESBrewer]

I don't have any experience with steeped grains but if the amount of steeped grain corresponds to the amount of all grain I would cut down the caramels & melanoidin further, maybe even roasted depending on its color and the amount of dry roastiness you are after. My 4,5% red crystal + 1,6% (550L) roasted all grain gives almost the darkest possible color for a red ale. Very small amount of dark roasted barley will give you the red color and too much crystal combined with it can make the beer both cloying and (too) dark/brown.

 

[snarf7]

I don't have any experience with steeped grains but if the amount of steeped grain corresponds to the amount of all grain I would cut down the caramels & melanoidin further, maybe even roasted depending on its color and the amount of dry roastiness you are after. My 4,5% red crystal + 1,6% (550L) roasted all grain gives almost the darkest possible color for a red ale. Very small amount of dark roasted barley will give you the red pretty much and too much crystal combined with it can make the beer both cloying and (too) dark/brown.

from what I understand, the carared is basically just 15-20L crystal with a reddish hue so given that most of the recipes I checked out called for darker crystal malts in the 5-10% range, this seemed about right, I guess only time will tell

 

[ESBrewer]

from what I understand, the carared is basically just 15-20L crystal with a reddish hue so given that most of the recipes I checked out called for dark crystal malts in the 5-10% range, this seemed about right, I guess only time will tell

Ok, if it's so light it could be fine.

 

[RM-MN]

Here are a few recipes for Irish red ale that you can look through to see how other people created the red. Some of them even have pictures of the finished product.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/homebrew-ale-recipes.62/?prefix_id=144

 

[estricklin]

For my own Irish Red, and many others, you'll see a combination of darker crystal malts. 2% C40, 2% 60 or 120, and then 1-3% roasted barley. Some people use a little chocolate malt in place of some or all of the roasted barley.

My own recipe is:
89% Pale Ale Malt
7.4% C40
2.5% C120
1.5% Roasted Barley
Fuggles 20 IBU @
Fuggles 2 IBU @ 2 min
1.057, 22 IBUs, 14 SRM

I've brewed it many many times and it always turns out perfect (to me anyway) with a beautiful red color.

 

[Steveruch]

How dark is the dme that you're using? If it's not extra light it could effect your final color.