# Basic Question on an Irish Red Ale



## s1000r (22/4/21)

It is my first attempt at an all grain recipe and I have found a Red ale I would like to try as a first. My knowledge of things is raw but I have a couple of questions. 
1) I am aiming to get around 21 or 23 Litres in the fermenter but not sure if the grain is enough to achieve that. Do I need to increase and if so how would i do that. Just increase the % of each one.
2) The ABV on Brewfather (I am only just learning that too, shows around 3.9 and I'd like to make it around 5%, is that possible and if so how do I do it?

I know there is a lot of other good recipies for a red ale out there but this one looks like a goer for me so far unless I cant make the changes above. Thanks all. I am just about to take delivery of a 35L brewzilla. I have done a few extracts before but looking to play around a bit more. I am reading a few books to get some basics. 

Ingredients: 3.26KG Pearl Malt, 227g Crystal Malt 45, 227g of Crystal Malt 120, 113g Chocolate Rye.
I want to maximise the caramel and biscuit tones without overdoing it too. 

Any input most welcome but still learning. thx


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## s1000r (22/4/21)

Sorry meant to add that I will be using East Coast Golding hops at full boil of 60m


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## cedric (22/4/21)

bit of a novice myself, but my one and only main (successful)brews is Screwys irish red ale if you want to compare.
for a 25l batch, i use just over 5Kg of grain, so yours might be a bit light.
the original is for a 28l, probably knocking about the forum but i'll paste it here..........
*Irish Red Ale
Brew House Efficency:* 80% (This is what the Recipe was built on Adjust if yours is lower)

*Batch Size:* 28L
*Est OG:* 1050
*Est FG:* 1012
*IBUs:* 26.4
*EBC:* (Color): 33.4
*Est ABV:* 5.0%

*Grain Bill*
5140g Pale Malt, JWM
161g Cararoma
161g Dark Crystal, JWM
115g Roasted Malt, JWM
58g Chocolate Malt, JWM

*Hop Scedule*
40g East Kent Goldings, 5%aa @ 60
4.6g Amarillo Gold, 8.5% @ 40 *See Notes*
12g Styrian Goldings, 5.4% @ 15
12g Styrian Goldings, 5.4% @ Flameout (10 min Steep)

*Adjuncts*
1 Irish Moss Tablet @ 15 Mins

*Yeast*
Irish Ale - Wyeast #1084 (Skip 40 Min addition of amarillo)
Safale S-04 (See notes Below)

*Mash Profile*

Mash in 14.5 L to Achive 67.0 c Mash (75.6c water)
Mash for 60 Mins @ Around 67c
Mash Out add 8L of water to the Mash to Achieve 77c (98c water), Stir Gently and rest for 10 Mins
Drain First runnings, Recirculate the first 1-2 L in a jug to let grain bed set
Sparge with 20 L of water at 75.6c, Stir Gently and rest for 10 min
Run off 2nd runnings Recirculate 1-2L in a jug to set bed again.

*Boil*
70 Min boil, Once Boiling i give my wort time to regulate itself after the hot break about 10 mins then i will start the 60 min addition and follow with the rest.

*Fermentation*
Ferment Until for 10-14 days as yeast will be a slow floculator.


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## s1000r (23/4/21)

Thanks for the input. I had seen the screwy's one and have that in reserve if I can't get the grains I am looking for. Think I will just move each of the grains up and see how we go. Looking to get a sweeter taste if possible but will see how this first one goes.


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## MHB (23/4/21)

Just a quick glance at the recipe above and a couple of things poke out.
Grain bill comes to just over 5.6kg, water budget calls for 42.5L that’s something like 7.5:1 which isn’t going to work well. If you lose 1L/kg of water to the grist puts around 37L in the kettle, going to need hell of a good evaporation rate (~30%) to get down to volume (even allowing a litter or two for kettle loss).
You might want to walk that recipe through a calculator before using it.

I have brewed the original Kilkenny recipe by Graham Wheeler (Brew Classic European Beers at Home), comes out pretty well.
OG 1.048
FG 1.011
ABV 4.9%
Bitterness 33 IBU's
Colour 30 EBC

Pale Malt UK 95%
Crystal Malt 5%
Mash 65oC for 90 minutes
Kettle Hops Challenger and Northdown ~1/2 and 1/2 90minutes
Taste Hops (15 minutes) Fuggle at 0.4g/L
Late Hops (5 minutes) Golding at 0.4g/L

Got the best result with Heritage Crystal and GP for the base malt.
Pretty simple but very tasty beer.
Mark


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## s1000r (24/4/21)

MHB said:


> Just a quick glance at the recipe above and a couple of things poke out.
> Grain bill comes to just over 5.6kg, water budget calls for 42.5L that’s something like 7.5:1 which isn’t going to work well. If you lose 1L/kg of water to the grist puts around 37L in the kettle, going to need hell of a good evaporation rate (~30%) to get down to volume (even allowing a litter or two for kettle loss).
> You might want to walk that recipe through a calculator before using it.
> 
> ...


thanks MHB
Am i correct is saying that for my original post, I can just calculate up the ingredients equally to get a 23l wort for the fermenter? I do like a Kilkenny and will do a few different red ales at A later stage (may even go with some nitrogen too). Want to get a nice sweet caramel and toffee so not sure which recipe gives me that as only getting used to this currently so not sure what the outcomes will be.


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## MHB (24/4/21)

Pretty close, when scaling a recipe just remember a couple of things like your boil off and kettle loss stay pretty much the same. Say you are boiling a sensible 10% off and are leaving 5% in the kettle (fairly standard but something you will need to measure for your system)
You would be well advised to just do the calculations for each batch size.
Don’t be a dickhead and dump the whole kettle into the fermenter, you should leave the trub in the kettle.

If you want to bias toward Toffee and Caramel probably pushing up the amount of Crystal would be the easiest option. To get the colour you want, use more of a lighter crystal, for this beer I would probably go around 8-10% UK Medium Carramalt. You need to do the calculation to work out where that would put the colour.
Lots of late hops tend to hide the T/C flavours. Running the yeast a little warmer will build more of the fruity tones from esters.
For this beer W1084 would be a great choice, Nottingham, S-04 good ones, no doubt a lot of others would work, I'm a big fan of W 1084, brewed cool (16-18oC) it’s a nice elegant crisp Ale, run it warmer (20-22oC) and it throws lots of esters, goes close to being my house Ale yeast.

If you are new to AG brewing, keep your recipes simple, don’t cut corners, keep good records. There is a lot to learn, any idiot will make the occasional good beer but if you learn how to brew properly you will be able to make great beer consistently.
Mark


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## s1000r (24/4/21)

MHB said:


> Pretty close, when scaling a recipe just remember a couple of things like your boil off and kettle loss stay pretty much the same. Say you are boiling a sensible 10% off and are leaving 5% in the kettle (fairly standard but something you will need to measure for your system)
> You would be well advised to just do the calculations for each batch size.
> Don’t be a dickhead and dump the whole kettle into the fermenter, you should leave the trub in the kettle.
> 
> ...


Great feedback and guidance ce, thx for that. Iam pushing this through a Nd learning about brewfather as it has the brewzilla on its profiles which helps as a starting point. Will play with some of the suggestions around sweetness so tba ks fkr the steer. Think I'm getting there. Reading some brewing books too but I ain't usually the most practical of people so going slowly!!!


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## cedric (25/4/21)

MHB said:


> Just a quick glance at the recipe above and a couple of things poke out.
> Grain bill comes to just over 5.6kg, water budget calls for 42.5L that’s something like 7.5:1 which isn’t going to work well. If you lose 1L/kg of water to the grist puts around 37L in the kettle, going to need hell of a good evaporation rate (~30%) to get down to volume (even allowing a litter or two for kettle loss).
> You might want to walk that recipe through a calculator before using it.


hi mhb.
i use a 35l brewzilla, mash in 14.5L
after the mash, i go straight to sparge, and just sparge to about 27-28L volume.
i lose about 2.5L in the boil which leaves me with 25L for the fermenter.
does that sound about right?


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## MHB (25/4/21)

Well it adds up, sorry I misread a bit thought you were sparging with, not to 27-28L.
If you grain bill was ~5.6kg, mashing in to 14.5L is a pretty heavy ~2.6:1. Personally I would like to see a bit more water in at the start, but that’s one of the design problems with a 35L 1V, it really is only made for making US 5Gal (~20L) batches, 25L is pushing it's capacity a bit, 40L would be way closer to a good size for Oz brewers. Note the 20L Braumeister is around 42L, what you get from a German engineered product.
Mashing in with about half of your total water budget is probably better.
Mark


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## Nickedoff (27/4/21)

I made the red ale in this thread, turned out great:






Biab recipes?


Looking for tried and tested recipes that work well in a biab set up. Share your best if you dare!




aussiehomebrewer.com


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## cedric (28/4/21)

MHB said:


> Well it adds up, sorry I misread a bit thought you were sparging with, not to 27-28L.
> If you grain bill was ~5.6kg, mashing in to 14.5L is a pretty heavy ~2.6:1. Personally I would like to see a bit more water in at the start, but that’s one of the design problems with a 35L 1V, it really is only made for making US 5Gal (~20L) batches, 25L is pushing it's capacity a bit, 40L would be way closer to a good size for Oz brewers. Note the 20L Braumeister is around 42L, what you get from a German engineered product.
> Mashing in with about half of your total water budget is probably better.
> Mark


that recipe is not mine but copied from here(?) i think.
i scale down the grain bill to 5.07kg personally, maybe i should increase the mash in to about 17.5L?


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## s1000r (13/5/21)

THANKS all for the comments. It's in the keg so will give it a few days more and see how we go. Will use the conne T's to do another if this one is half decent.


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