Red IPA Recipe Feedback Needed

[adrian078]

I tasted a red coloured IPA brew the other day and wanted to clone it. I found some of the hops on the brewers website but had to guess the grains and amount of hops. My recipe below.

It tasted real hoppy, had strong hoppy armoma, had some slight caramel/toffee flavours, spicyness and citrus and a balance of sweet (only a little) and bitterness. Colour was quite dark (not stout dark) and had some red in it.

First of all, how do the grains look? Will I get the caramel/toffee flavours and the colour? Will it have enough sweetness in there?

I'm not real sure on which hops are more pungent than others and didn't want one to overpower everything. Are the amounts ok? Are there two many additions and/or two many varieties?



Extract Brew

Recipe Specs
OG 1.061
FG 1.013
Batch Size: 23L / 5.5 Gal
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 61.1
EBC: 23.1

Grain/Extract
DME Extra Light - 3.3kg / 7.3lbs
Rye Caramel Malt- 0.18kg / 0.4lbs
CaraRed - 0.45kg / 1lbs
CaraMunich 3 - 0.3kg / 0.7lbs

Hops
Ahtanum 23g / 0.8oz 60 Mins
Cascade 25g / 0.9oz 60 Mins

Amarillo 24g / 0.85oz 10 Mins
Galaxy 12g /0.42oz 10 Mins

Amarillo 9g / 0.32oz 5 Mins
Galaxy 6g / 0.2oz 5 Mins
Nelson Sauvin 6g / 0.2oz 5 Mins

Amarillo 9g / 0.32oz 0 Mins
Galaxy 6g / 0.2oz 0 Mins
Nelson Sauvin 6g / 0.2oz 0 Mins

Amarillo 9g / 0.32oz dry hop day 5
Galaxy 6g / 0.2oz dry hop day 5
Nelson Sauvin 6g / 0.2oz dry hop day 5

Yeast: US-05

 

[chickypad]

I'd say that's a lot of crystal/cara malts for an IPA, though I understand you are going for sweet and this is more of an "IRA/Imperial amber". I have gone as high as 13% on a beer like that (about 1.5 lbs per 5 gal) and it worked. I also hear caramel rye is more spicy and a little less sweet than other crystals. One thing is they all seem to be in the same medium color range. I would consider simplifying that, maybe keeping the caramel rye but replacing the other two with a small amount of a higher L crystal like C120 to get some of the toffee notes. Just a thought, lots of ways you could go there.

The hops look good to me though I would probably triple the dry hop or more, I would aim for at least 2 ounces on an IPA-style.

 

[Feurhund]

If you want red, you could try a real small percent [2%] of roasted barley or debittered carafa to get color.
Also I am going to try 20% of the new Red X malt which is similar to munich in flavor so a little malty not sweet. This would lean towards East Coast IPA style, but it will be red.


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[adrian078]

Ok thanks Feurhund & chickypad. I'll double or triple the dry hops.


And for the grains I'll stick with the Rye for spiceyness. I cut back on the grains:

Rye Caramel Malt 0.18kg / 0.4lbs
CaraMunich 3 0.10kg / 0.22lbs - maltiness + found out the brewer uses this.
crystal 120 0.10kg / 0.22lbs - for toffee flavours
Carafa 3 0.07kg / 0.15lbs - to get dark colour


Will I get the dark red hue I'm after from this do you think?

How about the sweetness, malt, toffee, bitterness balance? I didn't want it to be too sweet. Just balanced with the hops.

I'm probably way over complicating things. Should I cut something out?

 

[chickypad]

IMO the percentages look better and I think will give you what you're after for flavor. When you plug it in what SRM does it give you? Not sure if you'll need the carafa if you want it red (14-17). If you want it more towards brown shoot for 20 SRM or so.

 

[Feurhund]

Agree on getting the srm from the software. Target 14-17. Looks good otherwise.


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[adrian078]

IMO the percentages look better and I think will give you what you're after for flavor. When you plug it in what SRM does it give you? Not sure if you'll need the carafa if you want it red (14-17). If you want it more towards brown shoot for 20 SRM or so.

Thanks for checking back.

It's 30 SRM currently. The commercial one I tried more like a really dark maroon than bright red. You could only just see through it when you held it up to the light.

The carafa contributes about 20 SRM. So maybe I'll half it to get it closer to around 20 SRM?

 

[Feurhund]

I would shoot for 17 max or else it will start to fall into the brown look. You can always add sinimar later for more color, but you can't take it out.


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[adrian078]

You can always add sinimar later for more color, but you can't take it out.

Good point. Will do that then.

Thx