Recipe Advice: Irish Red

[bernerbrau]

Crafted this one from the BJCP style guidelines, then adjusted it based on a few recipes I found online.

Irish Red Ale, All Grain

Mash, single-step, 60 @152, batch sparge @180

9lb Maris Otter
8oz Flaked Wheat
8oz British Crystal 50-60
2oz British Chocolate

Boil (60 minutes)

1.5oz EKG pellet @ 60
0.5oz EKG pellet @ 15
1tsp Irish Moss @ 15

Fermentation

1 pkg WLP004
2 weeks primary

Conditioning

4 weeks secondary
Force-carbed, 4 weeks keg conditioning

Profile

Efficiency: 66%
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.014
ABV: 4.7
IBU: 27.7
SRM: 14.3

As usual, comments and suggestions are always appreciated!!

 

[Bob]

At first blush, I think you should do two things: Cut your Roasted Barley by half, and double your Crystal malt amount.

2 oz. of Roasted Barley will provide a lovely red color. And since one of the hallmarks of the style is caramel sweetness, increasing that should increase those flavors from just a hint to firm (but not emphatic).

I also question you use of sugar. While it's stylistically supportable, I think it runs the risk of taking things out of whack. Irish Red should finish dry, but that dryness should come from the roasted grains, not over-attenuation. That's especially true depending on the manufacturer of your extract; Muntons, for example, tends to ferment very dry, compared with other extracts; replacing some of the extract with sugar will accentuate that to the detriment of the beer.

I always think of Irish Red as a parallel to American Amber Ale. Irish Red's relationship to UK ESB is parallel to that of AAA and APA, in my opinion. Like AAA, Irish Red should have an easily-discernible crystal/caramel character, and tend toward the malt side of balanced. Unlike AAA, of course, Irish Red should use UK or European hops.

I'm not saying that jibes with BJCP or AHA style standards. I think it does, based on my reading of them, and it helps me keep the styles straight in my head.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[Chriso]

Irish and Scottish ales are the batches that I'm most likely to splurge on liquid yeast for. My British/American ales almost always get dry yeast. IMO, you might take a look at WLP004.

Other than that, Bob knows what he's talkin' about. It looks really good.

 

[Reverend JC]

Personally, for a red, i would get my color from a bit of crystal 120 and a bit of caramunich. In my opinion roasted barley has no place being in an Irish Red.

 

[bernerbrau]

Bump. I updated this recipe for All-Grain and keg-conditioning. Floor reopened for comments.

 

[Marius]

At first blush, I think you should do two things: Cut your Roasted Barley by half, and double your Crystal malt amount.

+1 on this.

 

[bernerbrau]

Cut *again*? I thought I already adjusted the recipe to take that advice into account... OK, been updated.

 

[Yooper]

I don't like the sugar in it, but the rest looks ok. I like some crystal sweetness in it, too.

I mine, I used 2 oz chocolate malt and 4 oz special roast and 4 oz biscuit malt, and I was very happy with the color and flavor. I used British malt, maris otter I believe, and thought it came out great.

 

[bernerbrau]

Feh! I didn't look too carefully at the recipe after I made the adjustments. Yeah, I took out the sugar and DME. 9lbs British pale AND 6lbs DME... lol yeah...

 

[Xakk]

For a 5.5 gal batch, I like use:

9.75 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 92.86 %
0.25 lb Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 2.38 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.38 %
0.25 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 2.38 %

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Did it turn out red? I have yet to make a truly red-colored beer. Just recently I brewed:
9.5# Maris Otter
1# Carared
.25# Biscuit
.125# Roasted Barley (that's 2 oz.)

Not red, more brown than anything.

 

[bernerbrau]

Did it turn out red? I have yet to make a truly red-colored beer. Just recently I brewed:
9.5# Maris Otter
1# Carared
.25# Biscuit
.125# Roasted Barley (that's 2 oz.)

Not red, more brown than anything.

I'm not above a little red food coloring

 

[BeerPressure]

Use the "St. Fuad's Irish Red" in the recipe section here. I won second out of 29 entries with that beer.

 

[SOB]

Use the "St. Fuad's Irish Red" in the recipe section here. I won second out of 29 entries with that beer.

+1...this beer is outstanding! I have made it one of the few beers I brew repeatedly.