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Red x smash . Brew day was interesting

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universalfrost

Keep your stick on the ice.
Joined
May 22, 2016
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Location
Belpre, Ohio
Had 12 pounds of red x that I accidentally ordered awhile ago..

Today I decided to use it with some Cascade whole leaf for a smash brew...

Started on the propane setup, got strike water to temp and then it started raining from out of nowhere...

Ok so I dusted off the mash and boil electric kettle and took my brewing indoors..

I also decided to tryout the new kegking mark ii pump and do a continuous circulation.... ( Got a spare super cheap to back up my chugger pumps on my propane single tier setup)

The crush I also mistakenly ordered for the red x malt was too fine and I kept getting stuck in the mash bed and had to continuously stir to break the stuck bed...

I added an extra gallon of water to help but the crush was too fine for the mash and boil grain screen.... I finally got a chance to sparge and it took almost another hour....

So an hour of stirring every five minutes and a slow trickle on the pump to not drain the bed too fast and I got my smash done..at boil hops were 1 oz at 60, 1 oz at 20 and 1 oz at 5...

Initial measurements show I nailed my sg according to beersmith..

The color is pink...my girlfriend even commented that it matched her bright pink t-shirt... Flavor is very sweet....I read some reviews on here and elsewhere and it seems that red x tends to be sweet....

I'm contemplating making this into a kettle sour with some lacto ( goodbelly) and then tossing in the wyeast 1056 I already did a 1 liter starter of.
 
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It might have been an accidental purchase but it is a good accident.

I have used Red X several times. Not for a SMaSH though. It is a great malt and will make really good red ales used with some other malts. It is a little sweeter than other base grains but not exceedingly so.

I have never tried a sour so I don't know anything about that. If you don't go with the sour you should still have a nice beer.
 
Funny you should say that. There's a SMaSH competition next month where I'm from, so have the order placed for a cali common. Well, one with a twist to it. Red X malt and Galena hops, Safale S-189 yeast fermented fairly high. Absolutely no idea how this will turn out, especially with 88 IBU's, but exciting nonetheless.
 
Well I let it sit overnight in the fermenter to settle the last trub out ( I prefilter before going to fermenter).. well it's not so pink anymore...kind of a light brown...

I'm going to toss in the ale yeast tonight and see how this one goes after a few weeks...

I'll post pics this evening.
 
Well I let it sit overnight in the fermenter to settle the last trub out ( I prefilter before going to fermenter).. well it's not so pink anymore...kind of a light brown...

I'm going to toss in the ale yeast tonight and see how this one goes after a few weeks...

I'll post pics this evening.
One of my first beers was a red x sorachi ace smash. Was pretty good and really red! I'll bet yours will be nice as well!
 
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