First All Grain - Recipe Review (kilkenny Irish Red Ale.)

[francismcphail]

I've deceided to be patriotic and put my Australia Day Holiday to good use.. Going to start my first AG on Australia Day.

Wifey is asking for a Kilkenny style of ale, and I found TL's in the recipe section of AHB. Just wondering in relation to sparging for this recipe (batch sparging) how much liquid should go into the mash?

At the end of the day I'd like to end up with 25L of wort to ferment.

As the recipe is for 23L (% Change from 23 to 25 is ~8.7%) would I be able to add about say 10% to everything (incredents wise) and still come out looking ok?

Beer's Name: TL's Kilkenny Klone
Style: Irish Red Ale

Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol content: 4.42%
Method: All Grain
Efficiency: 75%
Total IBU (Bitterness): 21.5
EBC (color): 27

Ingredients: (portions for a 23 L batch)
4.2 kg TF Maris Otter Pale Malt
0.25 kg TF Crystal
0.08 kg TF Roasted Barley
34 g Goldings, East Kent (Pellets, 5 AA%, 60 mins)
500 ml Wyeast Labs 1028 - London Ale

Directions:

Mash at 68C. Add 1tspn of Gypsum and 1tspn of Calcium Carbonate to the mashtun if your water is soft. Optional - add 200g of CSR Dark Brown Sugar for a darker version with a touch more sweetness / less dry version. Cheers, TL...

Thus with my 25L batch it would look something like this.

Beer's Name: TL's Kilkenny Klone
Style: Irish Red Ale

Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol content: 4.42%
Method: All Grain
Efficiency: 75%
Total IBU (Bitterness): 21.5
EBC (color): 27

Ingredients: (portions for a 23 L batch)
4.62 kg TF Maris Otter Pale Malt
0.28 kg TF Crystal
0.09 kg TF Roasted Barley
38 g Goldings, East Kent (Pellets, 5 AA%, 60 mins)
500 ml Wyeast Labs 1028 - London Ale

Directions:

Idea's suggestions comments?
I've also raised the batch to 25L to make sure I can keg 18 litres, and then bottle the rest.

 

[Keifer]

I think you'd be lucky to get 75% efficiency for your first go, you may, but i say more like 60-65.

An easy way to play around with the recipe is to get promash and plug the recipe in, then you can change your batch size and efficiency and promash will adjust your grain bill automatically.

I like to aim for 25L as well for a single batch, bottles can be matured longer/ given away easier.

Also, a brewing program will be able to work out all your water uses, deadspaces, boil off etc so you can start off with the right amount of water to end up with 25L.

Good luck!

 

[Hogan]

Hi Sicnarf

I've brewed TL's Kilkenny and found it excellent. The only thing I might suggest you consider is dropping the amount of roast barley down to perhaps 50 - 60 gms. I found that the RB came through quite pronounced until it was well matured in the bottle.

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[francismcphail]

I think you'd be lucky to get 75% efficiency for your first go, you may, but i say more like 60-65.

Good luck!

Ok so taking into account lower efficiency ratings (60%)

Running the recipe through Beer smith this is the outcome.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: FnC - Kilkenny
Brewer: Francis McPhail
Asst Brewer: Cassandra McPhail
Style: Irish Red Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 28.62 L
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 9.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.12 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 94.3 %
0.28 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 %
0.09 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 1.4 %
48.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 23.2 IBU
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [Starter 50Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 6.49 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Step Add 16.39 L of water at 76.9 C 68.3 C 40 min
Step Add 16.39 L of water at 68.3 C 68.3 C 40 min

 

[Trough Lolly]

G'day Francis,
I agree with Hogan re the Roasted Barley - if you want a readily drinkable version, cut down the roasted barley to around 60g and don't add more than 300g of Crystal to the batch otherwise you may end up with a cloying beer. To remain tru'ish to style, I've just got the one hop addition, but if you like a bit of aroma, you can toss in 20g of Goldings with 5 mins to go in the boil and that'll help smooth out any malt overtones in the beer.
I've done this beer with Wyeast 1028 and 1084 (Irish Ale) yeast and they both came out fine...
Let us know how you go.
Cheers,
TL

 

[Screwtop]

Francis,

Have been trying to make a good AG Kilkenny Clone for quite a while. Really have not had much success to date, however while weighing up for the last attempt I had a sudden rush of s&ite to the brain and decided to include 300g of peat smoked malt that I had gotten from Craftbrewer.

Put it on tap in the party keg setup on New Years Day for the family, totally forgetting I'd added the smoked malt. Took a taste, straight away realising what I was about to unleash on the un-initiated, too late the party keg was all setup. Warned the father in-law that it was a smoked beer, but he downed the taster I'd handed him saying it was beautiful and promptly filled a pint followed by many more until the mother in-law suggested he have a little lie down

The inclusion of smoked malt in the Irish Red recipe produced a really nice beer with a beautiful peaty flavour. What I found surprising was that the female drinkers all loved it, even the young nieces.

I your wife is keen on the Kilkenny style then PM me if you'd like the recipe.

 

[francismcphail]

Ok so it's now out of the fermenter and into the fridge for a week before then being kegged, and carbonated over the following week, and ready for drinking in two weeks.

Well I must say although I only reached 66% efficiency, and boiled off too much wort without realising it. The brew thus far has turned out the best I've ever done.
I can defiantly taste the difference between, a KK brew, and AG. With just the small sampling I've had when taking hydrometre readings.
The only darn problem is now ... I want to brew all the time!

If you're interested the final rundown on the recipe I used as outputted from BeerSmith is below.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com

Recipe: FnC - Kilkenny

Brewer: Francis McPhail

Asst Brewer:

Style: Irish Red Ale

TYPE: All Grain

Taste: (35.0)



Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size: 25.00 L

Boil Size: 32.99 L

Estimated OG: 1.050 SG

Estimated Color: 9.5 SRM

Estimated IBU: 26.7 IBU

Brewhouse Efficiency: 66.0 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes



Ingredients:

------------

Amount Item Type % or IBU

5.90 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 94.1 %

0.28 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.5 %

0.09 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 1.4 %

50.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.20%] (60 min) Hops 26.7 IBU

1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [Starter 50Yeast-Ale



Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge

Total Grain Weight: 6.27 kg

----------------------------

Name Description Step Temp Step Time

Mash In Add 16.35 L of water at 78.6 C 70.0 C 45 min

Step Add 16.35 L of water at 66.3 C 68.3 C 5 min



Notes:

------

26/01/2007 - Efficiency 66% (First AG brew.)

4/02/2007 - Final gravity of 1014

4/02/2007 - Rack to container for 1 week cold condition

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[PostModern]

The only darn problem is now ... I want to brew all the time!

Yeah, I know that feeling. I started AG late last year and every spare timeslot has been used to brew. Thanks to the IBU's pioneering the No Chill method, I can brew as often as I like, even when there are no free fermenters. Check my sig for brewed-not-fermented beers...