This is my attempt to design a recipe from scratch. I have about 12 brews under my belt but they have all been kit recipes. I used no other recipes for guidance and just pieced it together based on educated guesses of what would get me a great beer somewhat close to the style. I'm not too worried about it turning out bad because I consider it more of an experiment to learn about ingredients since I have little knowledge on all the grains and hops out there. The recipe is for an irish red ale. Again, before you look at it and ask "what the ****?", this was really a blind attempt by me to design a beer from scratch. And I had a blast doing it. Needless to say, I will learn a lot from brewing this
First thing I learned: Roasted barley goes a long way. A loooooong way. Besides my red ale looking closer to a brown, it still tasted pretty good before going into the fermenter. Probably too roasted for the style, but hey, I just want something that tastes good. It doesn't have to fit perfectly to a style. I will still cut the barley by half next time.
I know there will be lots more "learings" as I ferment, condition, and taste.
Anyways, here is the recipe:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 45.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
3 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 34.3 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 15.9 IBUs
1.05 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining -
0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil Hop 5.9 IBUs
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast -
1.05 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 12 -
Primary for 30 days at ~67
I made a 1L starter for this too. Another first for me, so I'm hoping I did that right.
One note: I'm pretty happy with partial mashes. I live in an apartment and it works really well to keep my beer equipment footprint low but also make pretty delicious beer. I guess if I did this AG, I would just use more MO in place of the DME.
Another note: I tried to use all UK ingredients. I'm not sure the specialties were all British from the LHBS, but the hops and MO were.
So far I'm pretty stoked with it but I'm sure there are plenty of changes that could be made to improve it tons and I would love to hear some feedback.
First thing I learned: Roasted barley goes a long way. A loooooong way. Besides my red ale looking closer to a brown, it still tasted pretty good before going into the fermenter. Probably too roasted for the style, but hey, I just want something that tastes good. It doesn't have to fit perfectly to a style. I will still cut the barley by half next time.
I know there will be lots more "learings" as I ferment, condition, and taste.
Anyways, here is the recipe:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 45.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
3 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 34.3 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 15.9 IBUs
1.05 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining -
0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil Hop 5.9 IBUs
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast -
1.05 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 12 -
Primary for 30 days at ~67
I made a 1L starter for this too. Another first for me, so I'm hoping I did that right.
One note: I'm pretty happy with partial mashes. I live in an apartment and it works really well to keep my beer equipment footprint low but also make pretty delicious beer. I guess if I did this AG, I would just use more MO in place of the DME.
Another note: I tried to use all UK ingredients. I'm not sure the specialties were all British from the LHBS, but the hops and MO were.
So far I'm pretty stoked with it but I'm sure there are plenty of changes that could be made to improve it tons and I would love to hear some feedback.
