Recipe for an Imperial Red

[MarkO22]

I wanted to make an Imperial Red for St. Paddy's Day and wanted some input on this recipe.

11 lbs. of (2 Row)
1.5 lbs. of Caramel (120L)
12 oz. of Cara-Red
12 oz. Munich Malt
2 oz. of smoked peat malt
1 oz. of EK Goldings at 60min.
1 oz. of Magnum at 60min.
1 packet of London ESB Ale yeast

Wanted this to come out to about 7% ABV. Any input would be greatly appreciated.....Slainte,Mark

 

[giraffe]

Im not sure of your OG, but the fullers strain isnt that attenuative, with a high gravity, and that much crystal that could be heavy/sweet. You may want to either change to a different yeast, cut alot of the crystal, mash very low, cut the base malt with sugar, etc. Id prolly go with changing out the yeast. The whitbread dry strain may be a fine choice for instance.

 

[MarkO22]

Thanks for the input giraffe. I am fairly new to AG brewing and this will be my 4th batch AG. if I cut The crystal in half and take out 1 lb of 2 row and add say 1/2 lb of sugar do you think that would be better. I wanted to have a nice malty moderately high abv red. I was going to use the London esb and ferment it a little warmer say 68 for the fruity esthers it is supposed to impart I thought that taste profile would go well with this style

 

[giraffe]

Unless you have good temp control, id ferment it in the mid 60s, a large beer fermentation will create alot of heat. That strain, tends to floc out early (though it makes beautifully clear beers), giving the carboy or bucket a shake to rouse the yeast every 2 to 3 days can help. I definately would lower the crystal, if the color is calculated too light, you can add an ounce of roast barley or black malt to adjust.

 

[dcp27]

I know im in the minority, but I always get great attenuation (75-80%) with the fullers strain mashing at 152-154F, so I dont think you need to change it. Don't use it at 68F tho, keep it lower like giraffe mentioned. I would definitely agree on reducing the crystal too. 1.5#s of C120 is alot. If you want a nice malty red, you may want to dial up the munich or swap out 2row for a more flavorful version like marris otter or golden promise vs hefty on crystal. a touch of roast will help make a beautiful red shade and help with a slight added dryness that a normal irish red has to compensate for loss in color

 

[Holter]

I would second pretty much everything in here. The C-120 is going to leave you with too many sugars that will not ferment, I would be concerned with it being cloyingly sweet both from the C-120 flavors and the residual sugars. That C-120 is 10.6% of your entire grain bill - which is a LOT.

I would change it up to something like this (trying to stick with your selected grains):
2-Row - 11 lb - 84.6%
Munich Malt - 12 oz - 5.8%
C-120 - 8 oz - 3.8%
Cara-Red - 8 oz - 3.8%
Peat Smoked Malt - 2 oz - 1.0%

Then like giraffe said you can add a roasted malt to increase the red hue to the beer. I like to use Carafa Special III to do this. I think if you add 2-4oz of Carafa Special III to your grist you will get a beautiful red color. Regarding the Peat Smoked Malt - I have never used it before so I have no idea if that is way too much, perfect, or way to little. I would be careful with a malt like that though, you could ruin an entire batch.

London ESB is a good yeast and like dcp27 mentions you can get really good attenuation out of it and it clears up awesome. It tends to accentuate the malt character too, so it should be a good choice for this beer.