# Celtic Red Ale Recipe



## Noxious (27/9/07)

Hey all,
Have been contemplating brewing a Celtic Red Ale....one problem...no recipe!
I could propbably search and find one but thats not very personal is it?

Heres my ideas so far....any additions or subtractions would be appreciated.
BTW, looking for something similar to Killkenny (although im unsure whether that is a Red Ale itself...and yes, I have drank plenty!)

So far i have this-

Kit= Coopers Irish Stout (too dark??)
Malt= Liquid Caramalt/Amber (???)
Yeast= Safale S-04
Hops= ????

Thanks people


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## PostModern (27/9/07)

Noxious said:


> Kit= Coopers Irish Stout (too dark??)
> Malt= Liquid Caramalt/Amber (???)
> Yeast= Safale S-04
> Hops= ????
> ...



Stout kit is too dark. if you were making 100 litres or so, a kit of Stout would be fine for colour.

Pick something like a Muntons or Brewcraft Bitter and colour it with 20-30g of steeped roast barley (boil with a little extract and a hanful of fuggles or something). Irish Red doesn't have much hop flavour, so make the hop addition small, 10-15g or so.

So I'd go something like this:

Steep 20g of cracked roast barley and 100g of cracked light crystal in 1 litre hot but not boiling water for 30 mins. Strain then boil the runnings in a large saucepan with 1kg of light malt extract and 15g of fuggles for 20 mins. Cool this mixture, add another 500g of extract and the Bitter kit to fermenter and top up to 21L. Ferment with WLP004 or Wyeast 1084 (Or Nottingham or US-05 if using dry).

There are surely other ways to go, but that's what I'd do if making from kits and bits.

Cheers,
PoMo.


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## Noxious (27/9/07)

Is there a way without all the extra steeping of grains etc.
My closest brew shop doesnt stock any grain anyhow...
Im not a huge dark beer fan but thought trying this type of red ale would be achieveable through simple kits....oh well!
I dont even use liquid yeasts yet...
*Prepares for flaming!*


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## bconnery (27/9/07)

I made an Irish Red with the following a while back and it was very tasty. I got a Bronze in the club comp with it...
1.5kg Amber LME.
1kg Morgans Caramalt Master Blend. 
500g Malto Dextrin. 
100g Crystal 60L 
30g Roast Malt 
30g Northern Brewer hops. 
30g Perle Hops 
Safale S-04 yeast.

Steeped grains. 30g Northern [email protected] 1kg Morgans @30. [email protected] 30g Perle hops @ end

Edit: Now I've read your above post. Read up on the Morgans master blend products and what goes into them. If you don't want to get into steeping grains (it really will help though...) then these are an excellent replacement. They list what grains where used to make them so you can get an idea of what they should contribute to the sort of beer you want. You could easily use one of them to approximate for the grains in the above recipe. But it will be better for it...


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## PostModern (27/9/07)

ESB used to have a seasonal Irish Red Fresh Wort kit. Not sure if ndbrewing still makes one??? Gerard?

If you haven't seen a fresh wort, brewing can't be any easier. Just tip the 15L bottle into your fermenter, add a couple litres of water and pitch yeast. Gives you all-grain taste without any brewing required.

I can't think of a tin of goo Red Ale kit. But I haven't exactly been on the lookout for them, sorry. Maybe a Muntons/Brewcraft bitter with a 1kg Morgans Caramalt Master Blend and 500-750g of dextrose? 

Personally I avoid maltodextrin like the plague, and did even when I made kits and partials. It makes me fart and adds what I reckon is a "slimy" texture to the beer. (Sorry bconnery and all others who use and like it, I reckon it sucks.)


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## brettprevans (27/9/07)

check out this thread on Red Ale or this thread

I reccon something like this:

1.7kg Thomas Coopers Premium Selection Bitter or Mt Mellick Cream Ale
1.5kg Coopers Amber Malt
150g Crystal Malt
50g Roast Malt
60g Roasted Barley 
50g Carapils Malt
50g East Kent Goldings @ 60min
S-04 English Ale Yeast or Wyeast Labs #1028 (London Ale) or 1084 (Irish Ale) 

depends on what your looking for.


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## Cortez The Killer (27/9/07)

I've found kilkenny to be lacking in any flavour

Pomo's recipe does sound good - definitely go for some fuggles or EKG

and maybe a touch more crsytal say 150g

you could experiment with some melanoidin malt if you are after a red colour - like kilkenny

Cheers


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## PostModern (27/9/07)

citymorgue2 said:


> depends on what your looking for.



He's looking for no grain, hops or liquid yeast


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## Cortez The Killer (27/9/07)

in that case 

might be worth trying a coopers real ale kit
all malt

with nottingham or us-56

chhers


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## Noxious (27/9/07)

Sorry postmodern....i am using hops!
Lots of them actually....just no mashing equipment and i have only used dried yeasts thus far...

I love hops!!


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## PostModern (27/9/07)

Noxious said:


> Sorry postmodern....i am using hops!
> Lots of them actually....just no mashing equipment and i have only used dried yeasts thus far...
> 
> I love hops!!



Steeping grain only needs a coffee plunger. Even just steep in a pot of water and pour off through a large strainer. You don't need to mash crystal or roast barley, just a half hour steep in hottish water to get their goodness out. Makes a HUGE difference in what you can make.


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## brettprevans (27/9/07)

PostModern said:


> He's looking for no grain, hops or liquid yeast



I meant it depends on what flavours smarty  Now that I re-read the post i see that liquid yeast and grains are out.

Noxious go with Ben's recipe (Bconnery). But you should look into using basic specialty grains that just require steeping. You dont need any specialty equipment (just a 4L pot) and its pretty simple and the results are outstanding. 

PoMo has outlined how to do a basic grain steep. its piss easy once youve tried it.

Go the nottingham yeast if you want dried yeast. I love nottingham


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## bconnery (27/9/07)

I would highly recommend Northern Brewer as a hop choice. I love Fuggles and EKG but there is something about Northern Brewer that really works with this style for me...
While Irish Ale yeast is the classic choice this style can be made well with S04, Nottingham or Windsor, although perhaps Windsor might be a little fruity. 
As has been said, the flavour from specialty grains WILL make a big improvement, particularly for this style, but if you really really don't want to go the morgans. 
And always listen to citymorgue


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## PostModern (27/9/07)

It's lunchtime, so I have a few mins to post some rambling thoughts that might help here. 

Irish Red ales are a simple beer. In a commercial brewery (Ireland, NZ, St Peters or whereever), I'll bet they use three, at most four different grains:

Base malt
Crystal for body and touch of colour
Roast barley or roasted malt for colour and a ~hint~ of roasted flavour.

Maybe some even use sugar in the kettle to control body and gravity!!!  

Hops, well, I doubt many have late kettle additions. The style depends on the yeast and malt to provide aroma and "fruity" flavours. As home brewers, we're all too keen to "improve" recipes with hops here there and everywhere. Not really needed to make great beers. 

The continental brewers use multiple hop additions, as do American craft ale brewers, who learnt to brew from their German ancestors and their apprentices over the years. In the UK and Ireland, now correct me anyone if I'm wrong, the commercial breweries MOSTLY use a bittering addition and a whirlpool addition for flavour and aroma, then dry hopping in primary or secondary fermentation for SOME beers. Stouts and Irish ales would not have been so generous with their late additions. 

Kit brewers have different methods and constraints to commercial breweries, so tossing hops in at various points in the boil and fermentation can be useful to get the effect that can't otherwise be emulated without all the equipment and vessels etc that the pros have.

The reason my recipe in post #2 above is so simple is to emulate the simplicity of the style with extract and kits. A basic bitter kit will have the bitterness close enough to what you require. The extra extract will bring the gravity up to what you need. The extra crystal, well, it's nice to have. The roast barley is for the colour traditional in the stlye. Late hops, well why not? The fermentation will scrub out lots of the aroma anyway and the foam stability properties will be nice. Also something fruity might compensate for using a neutral ale yeast like Nottingham or US-05.

So why use three different crystals, fart powder (maltodextrin), two different roast malts, etc?? It's a simple style, even with kits and bits, the recipe should be simple, rather than complex for the sake of it.

Kit
Extract
Crystal
Roast 
Hops and yeast.

HTH.


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## ironxmortlock (27/9/07)

How about this:

Morgan's Amber Ale Kit
1.5kg Cooper's Amber Liquid Malt Extract Tin
500g Dried Corn Syrup
Safale S04
Top up to 20L

Brewcraft's Calculator puts it to about 6% Alochol

:beer:


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## Brownie (28/9/07)

I have what some have said is a Kilkenny Clone.....I think it is close, but not quite;

Kit - Morgans Royal Oak Amber Ale kit 1.7kg;
Safale S-04 Yeast;
150g Maltodextrin;
80g to 100g Dark Brown Sugar;
1KG Light Dry Malt Extract;
Tetnanger Hop Tea Bag;
Goldings Hop Tea Bag;

Boiled everything (except the kit), for 30 mins then did the normal stuff.

I also primed with LDME and Dex;

Brownie.


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## MHB (28/9/07)

A 1 Kg can of Morgan's Dark Crystal Malt, throws a nice red/brown colour, with either the Brewcraft English Ale or the Morgan's ROA

Would be a good place to start, I would love to see some hops even if its one of the commercial T-Bags, surely your LHBS has them.

Golding is defiantly the right hop.

MHB


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## Gerard_M (30/9/07)

PostModern said:


> ESB used to have a seasonal Irish Red Fresh Wort kit. Not sure if ndbrewing still makes one??? Gerard?
> 
> If you haven't seen a fresh wort, brewing can't be any easier. Just tip the 15L bottle into your fermenter, add a couple litres of water and pitch yeast. Gives you all-grain taste without any brewing required.



Yes PoMo we have a Celtic Red in our range, I put one down on Thursday & it is just shy of blood red!
There is more info, including a list of stockists on the website.
Cheers
Gerard


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## brettprevans (3/10/07)

Nox

Check out this thread on irish red ale  and read the incoming posts. Its right up this topics alley.


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## Barge (3/10/07)

Dug this recipe out of the archives back when I was just starting out. I brewed a version before this one which wa very close to kilkenny but never wrote it down. I came up with this one to fill the 'flavour hole', hence the honey. It was veddy nice as I recall.

The HBS Pale Ale was a 'cleanskin' can of hopped extract that the HBS sold. Told me it was from coopers. Dunno what the go is and have never bothered to find out. My guess is that you could sub for Coopers Real Ale and be pretty close. The hops were the Morgans packets, a little pricey comparatively but better than nothing. IIRC I boiled the hops in a saucepan with only water. This goes against current wisdom of boiling in malt but, it worked at the time. 

I moved away from using the darker extracts as there is no way of knowing what grain bill (or colouring) is used to acheive them. As mentioned previously the Morgans Masterblend range are good as they give %'s of malt types used. Invaluable for formulating a recipe when you can't get your hands on a little steeping grain. I still use them to bump up the O.G. for partigyle brews.

Anyhow, here it is...go with a better yeast though (i had no idea how important yeast is! I even paid for the sachet :mellow: )

eerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Honey Amber
Brewer: Barge
Asst Brewer: 
Style: English Pale Ale/Strong Bitter
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L 
Boil Size: 1.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 11.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: - %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU 
1.70 kg HBS Pale Ale (Coopers) (18.6 SRM) Extract 45.9 % 
1.50 kg Morgans Kettled Extracts - Amber (14.2 SRM) Extract 40.5 % 
12.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (20 min) Hops 5.1 IBU 
12.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] (10 min) Hops 3.7 IBU 
0.50 kg Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 13.5 % 
1 Pkgs Ale Yeast (Morgans) Yeast-Ale


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