Irish Red/ Pale Ale Extract Brew

Martyn1989

Ok as these 2 would probably be my favourite styles, I have deicided to try mix them for my first extract brew.
I'll be ordering my ingredients in a day or 2 so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I've based this on two recipes from the Complete Joy of Hombrewing. They look good and that way I have play by play instructions (less to mess up)

2lbs Amber or Light DME
450g Crystal
250g Pale Chocolate Malt (or roasted barley, I like the sound of the chocolate malt though, I imagine it to make it something like the O' Haras Irish Red)
Might I need to roast some of the Crystal to get that red colour or will the Pale Chocolate be enough

56g Northern Brewer Hops
30g (give or take) Cascade

Yeast: I was going to go the extra mile and invest in White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

and a decent sprinkle of Irish Moss for the sake of it.

Thanks.

oblivious

I would drop the roared malt/barely back to 100g-150g, it really just there for flavour

Or you could opted for a replacing your standard crystal malt with a dark crystal (200EBC) or even a 50:50 mix of dark crystal and special B, which will give around the same colour as roasted malt/barley but a intense caramel flavour, if you’re interested.

Best of luck with the brew

Martyn1989

Yeh, I like strong tasting (but normal abv (anything between 3.5-6.5% abv)) is cool with me.
I do want it to be a strong tasting beer, and the recipe I'll use is still being considered, I was considering lightly roasting 100gs of the crystal to make sure I get a dark red colour, and even being 'liberal' with the hop measurements, to try get more of an IPA character out of it.
I don't know if I'm just pushing the recipe too far, or actually on to making a good beer.

One of the flavours I really want to get is that coffee taste off O' Haras Draft Stout, which comes through in the bottled O' Haras Irish Red (but for some reason seems to mellow when on draft) which I thought would come from the Pale Chocolate Malt?

I think I'll just go light DME and over measure with the hops a bit, after roasting like 50gs of the crystal for safety and see what happens

irish_goat

Any recommendations for a 3KG Irish Red Ale beer kit(or something similar)?

mayto

irish_goat wrote: »

Any recommendations for a 3KG Irish Red Ale beer kit(or something similar)?

The St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale should turn out a nice red ale. I must try some of their own bottled IPA, have not had it in a while.

Martyn1989

Using BeerTools I've settled on my recipe

Extra Light Malt Extract 3kg

Crystal 400g
Pale Chocolate Malt 100g
(steep for 30 mins)

Hops @ 60 mins
Northern Brewer 15g
Cascade 15g

Hops @ 15mins
Northern Brewer 10g
Cascade 15g

tsp Irish Moss @15mins

Hops @0mins
I'll probably throw in 10g of each

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast

OG - 1.064
TG - 1.016
ABV - 6.3%
Bitterness - 34.5 (Beertools recommends an Irish Red be 17-28)
Colour - 19.46 (recommends 9-18)

Fingers crossed itll be good, I'm brewing it in the next 2 weeks (when I have time), I'll snap a few pics for anyone whos interested
Cheers.

Mashtun

Martyn1989 wrote: »

I'll snap a few pics for anyone whos interested
Cheers.

Please do

Martyn1989

Seeing as I had good Friday off, I deicided to brew, aswell as make a big batch of chicken wings and a raspberry and chocolate pavlova with the girlfriend, it was a good day.
I pretty much followed the recipe i posted here. I dont know how much aroma hops I used, it was less then the other two amounts anyway.
I could only boil with 10l as once the DME was in there the pot was nearly full.
My OG only came out at 1.044 @ 22C aswell, I think thats because my hob was having trouble keeping the water heat up
what I did was
Steeped grain at 65C-70C for 30mins in 10l
Sparged grain, the water in the kettle was about 85C
Removed grain, brought to boil, added DME and first hops
@15mins added 2nd hops and Irish Moss
@3 mins added aroma hops
Cooled for 15mins in the sink with ice (the wort was well covered)
Added to fermenter with cold water to make 5 gallons, stired well
The temp was at 22C, so I pitched my yeast
I attached a blow off tube, but just changed that for the airlock there as a good layer of gunk has already formed in the fermenter and there is still plenty of space

Heres the pics

Grain.JPG

hops.JPG

steeping grain.JPG

boil @ 40 mins.JPG

wort.JPG

Martyn1989

If you see where I went wrong or where I could have improved it let me know cheers.

Martyn1989

Kegged and bottled today with an FG of 1.011, tasting good cant wait to try it!!!!

Martyn1989

Had a pint of this with a mate last night, it isnt the beer I wanted it to be, but Im very happy with how it is turning out, a little bit proud of it to be honest

rednoggin

I was thinking of making an Irish Red Ale myself. Would you have done anything different Martyn?

I was thinking of maybe replacing the chocolate Malt with some roasted barley and maybe add a bit of flaked barley for a creamier head, something like a pint of "Special". Any ideas?

BeerNut

Flaked barley needs to be mashed, AFAIK.

rednoggin

Yeah I've seen it mentioned before in other places. It might not be worth the hassle it's worth.

Martyn1989

rednoggin wrote: »

I was thinking of making an Irish Red Ale myself. Would you have done anything different Martyn?

I was thinking of maybe replacing the chocolate Malt with some roasted barley and maybe add a bit of flaked barley for a creamier head, something like a pint of "Special". Any ideas?

This was my first extract beer and it turned out very well. I've made quite a few red ales since and they've all been pretty much like this. I always use loads of american hops because IMO theres nothing better then a hoppy red ale.

I think using the roasted barley would leave you with a drier end product, which a dry red ale is something I've always wanted to make but never got around to it. I'd say definatly give it a go but can't say I've done it myself.

It appears that flaked barley and oats need to be mashed, but Ive seen extract beer recipes that use oats with no mention of issues. I don't know the science behind it but maybe if you steep them you can get something out of them, maybe not. If you have some rolled oats (like flahavens) maybe chuck some in and if you get something out of it, if not no harm done?

beans

Martyn1989 wrote: »

My OG only came out at 1.044 @ 22C aswell, I think thats because my hob was having trouble keeping the water heat up

I had some similar problems with a lower than expected OG. Put it down to the potential of the extract I used, but is it possible that not being able to hold a good rolling boil for the 60 minutes could lead to this happening? May have over-filled the pot trying to keep 11.5l boiling.

Martyn1989

beans wrote: »

I had some similar problems with a lower than expected OG. Put it down to the potential of the extract I used, but is it possible that not being able to hold a good rolling boil for the 60 minutes could lead to this happening? May have over-filled the pot trying to keep 11.5l boiling.

No, I can't see any reason why it would, I started this thread while I was doing my first extract beer, my lack of knowledge at the time made me post that, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking

If I was doing an extract recipe now I would just steep the grain in the same quantity of water, then do my boil and hop additions and add the DME to the fermenter with some extra hot water (to dissolve it) in the same way you would for a beer kit.