Irish Red Ale

[RobSnoo]

Will be doing this next week

23L
2kg Light Dry Malt
1kg Wheat Dry Malt
250g Medium Crystal
150g Roasted Barley
50g Fuggles @ 60 mins
50g Challenger @ 10 mins
Lallemand London ESB @ 18°C

Estimated OG 1.052 FG 1.013 ABV 5.5% in the bottle.

 

[RobSnoo]

This went down today made up to 23L. I changed the fuggles to 30 mins and dumped cold water in to the boil at zero to stop any further isomerisation(?).

I used spring water from Aldi. The last batch i did with spring water was freaking amazing compared with the Muswellbrook tap water....could just be luck or could be a thing i need to investigate.

Pitched at 22°C, shoved in the fridge andwill ferment at 18°C for 10 days then 4 days at 22°C.

Smells and looks the goods. Will report back soon.

 

[RobSnoo]

This is amazing after 10 days in the bottle. Beautiful head and tasty with the tiniest hint if toasty notes coming through. Definitely not red but a fantastic beer yum yum

 

[RobSnoo]

Head lasts to the last mouthful

 

[wide eyed and legless]

This is amazing after 10 days in the bottle. Beautiful head and tasty with the tiniest hint if toasty notes coming through. Definitely not red but a fantastic beer yum yum

Just change the name to Brown Ale and your home and dry.

 

[RobSnoo]

Just change the name to Brown Ale and your home and dry.

I reckon that's the go

 

[wide eyed and legless]

You would have to almost half the roasted barley to get the red colour.

 

[RobSnoo]

You would have to almost half the roasted barley to get the red colour.

I'm thinking of shepherds delight next time, but yeah a bit too much roasted barley but its a good beer I'm happy.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

That's what counts as long as you like it, did you cold steep the roasted barley? The last brown ale I did I didn't cold steep but got away with it.

 

[RobSnoo]

I didn't either, just 30 mins at around 70 degrees. Next time deffo cold steep

 

[ianh]

Geez I only used 20 gram roasted Barley in my extract Irish Reds, along with some CaraRed and CaraAroma..

 

[MHB]

The recipe in Graham Wheelers "Brew Classic European Beers at Home" is just Pale Malt and ~9% Crystal malt.
Given the colour of the finished beer it would have to be a Medium Crystal. My personal choice would be Bairds Heritage Crystal (it a bit darker so somewhere near 8.7% hits the 30 EBC target).
Given the access Wheeler and Protz had/have to breweries I suspect the recipe is pretty much on the money.
The hopping is interesting, about half and half Challenger and Northdown for bittering with Fuggle (about 0.4g/L)in the last 15 minutes, personally I prefer EKG for finishing maybe at around 0.5g/L. Target is 33IBU.
The best yeast I have found is Irish Ale (the old Guinness yeast), I've brewed this beer many times over the years and find the Irish Ale goes closest. Muntons Gold was a good dry yeast, sadly hard to get nowadays.
Keep the Carbonation very low or serve on mixed gas (have used 40/60), the low carbonation makes a big difference to the taste and mouthfeel of the beer.
Bit of a favorite…
Mark

Edit
Sorry it was the Simpsons Heritage Crystal, not Bairds - and no roast or chocolate in sight.
m

 

[koshari]

I found i had to up the amount of crystal malt a bit on the recipes i tried to get the perceived sweetness i recall smithwicks tasting of when i was in ireland, kilkenny is the diago international offering of smithwicks, apparently the marketing dept figured international consumers would struggle with the local pronounciation,

A nice irish red is cherry ripe to go through a beer engine to give it the lovely creamy head the style exhibits.