I recently brewed a irish red trying to make something similar to Killian's Irish Red. I tasted it after a week in the bottle and it is sweet up front and not to much flavor. The recipe is: 3lbs Light dry extract, 3.15lbs Light liquid extract, .5 lbs Caramel 40L, .5lb Carapils, .13lb roasted barley, .78 oz Fuggls 4.8% aau(60 min), 1 oz Goldings 4.9% (15 min) primary for 7 days, secondary 9 days, bottled with 5 oz priming sugar. It is also very low carbonation. finished at 1.008 starting was 1.051. I am not sure why it is so sweet yet. Any suggestions?
"Sweet" Irish Red what happened
- Thread starter ruppca26
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McGarnigle
Well-Known Member
That doesn't sound like it should be sweet, but a week in the bottle isn't enough to carbonate it fully, so that may be affecting the taste. Carbonation adds a little bite to it that would work against sweetness.
jgilbreth
Well-Known Member
I brewed an irish red from a recipe on HBT. After 1 week, very sweet, little carbonation. After 2 weeks, sweetness mostly gone, poured with a great head but no residual carbonation. I think that's because I had it conditioning in my basement which is at 55 degrees right now.
On a suggestion from HBT, I have it upstairs for a couple weeks to finish conditioning at a better temperature, then will check it out.
On a suggestion from HBT, I have it upstairs for a couple weeks to finish conditioning at a better temperature, then will check it out.
Just at a glance, I would say the issue is not enough bittering hops. .78 ounce of 4.9% ounce would only give you about 7 IBUs if you did a 3 gallon boil. That would result in a sweet beer.
The addition of the flavor hops at 15 minutes would give you an additional 5 IBUs or so more, but the low bittering hops combined with a pound of crystal would tip the balance towards sweet.
Where did you get the recipe, and what size boil did it recommend? What size boil did you do? The IBU calculations depend on that.
Finishing at 1.008 is bit surprising- a pound of caramel malt along with the extract generally would finish higher. That should help with the perception of sweetness.
The addition of the flavor hops at 15 minutes would give you an additional 5 IBUs or so more, but the low bittering hops combined with a pound of crystal would tip the balance towards sweet.
Where did you get the recipe, and what size boil did it recommend? What size boil did you do? The IBU calculations depend on that.
Finishing at 1.008 is bit surprising- a pound of caramel malt along with the extract generally would finish higher. That should help with the perception of sweetness.
I don't get 20 IBUs, but I use Tinseth. I bet our settings are different.
That's quite a bit of crystal, with a low hopping rate. Irish reds are generally maltier anyway, so you're not out of line with the amounts, but that is why it is perceptibly sweet to your taste. Did you really finish at 1.008? That's surprising.
I don't know, my Beersmith says it uses tinseth also and it is showing with a 5 gal. boil I get 12.2 IBU's from the fuggles and 8.2 IBU's from the Goldings. Did you adjust the AAU's for the differant hops because they are differant from the preset ones in the program.
Yeah, I was supprised to see it finish at that FG but i actually checked it twice to make sure because I figured it should be about 1.0012 or so.
TheFlatline
Well-Known Member
Change your goldings from "boil" to "flavor" and you'll notice the difference in IBUs. I didn't punch this in, so I can't tell you if that's where your IBUs went. However, Beersmith is over-calculating.
In Beersmith it makes a HUGE difference in listing the difference between bittering (boil), flavoring (less than 30 minutes) and armoa/flame out.
In Beersmith it makes a HUGE difference in listing the difference between bittering (boil), flavoring (less than 30 minutes) and armoa/flame out.
manticle
Well-Known Member
Too sweet + low carbonation probably means you're tasting the priming sugar.
If it's carbonated and still sweet then something else (like hops ratio, crystal proportion etc) is the culprit.
20 IBU for this style doesn't sound unreasonable (providing your calculations are correct). Leave it another week or so and see how it changes..
If it's carbonated and still sweet then something else (like hops ratio, crystal proportion etc) is the culprit.
20 IBU for this style doesn't sound unreasonable (providing your calculations are correct). Leave it another week or so and see how it changes..
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