RecipeDB - Better Red Than Dead

[Fatgodzilla]

A little update on this recipe as I've had quite a lot of it sitting around since being bottled in December. I've mostly been drinking APA's and as such this has had time to mellow right out.

I enjoyed both versions of the recipe, but the second version (with melanoiden etc) served at a close-to-ambient temp through a hand pump/beer engine was beautiful. The fuggles and EKG floral/herby spicness was coming through nicely.

In future I will carb this a bit lower and use the "pocket sparkler" trick (until I can pick up a hand pump of my own). My only feedback is that the colour of the original recipe is a touch too dark for my liking...I'll probably drop the roast and carared back a touch and increase the bitterness to maybe 32ish IBUs.

Cheers.

About to revive this favourite for this winter's drinking. Probably use you your recipe LF but use carared in place of your crystal (what grade was that?). Have no Munich so will use Vienna again. If I have enough / right grain, may even try to do an "original" recipe.

big78sam Posted Jan 19 2011, 01:05 PM
I will be brewing this soon and am debating a yeast selection. I don't have Irish Ale yeast but I do have 1187 Ringwood and 1469 west Yorkshire.

Interested how this would go with a different yeast. I have 1469 in the fridge so might split a brew and use this yeast in a sise by side capacity.

 

[big78sam]

Interested how this would go with a different yeast. I have 1469 in the fridge so might split a brew and use this yeast in a sise by side capacity.

In the end I went with the Irish Ale and after 2 weeks in the bottle I've opened a couple of sneaky testers. It's fantastic. I'd be interested to see what the difference is as I'll be brewing this again! Let us know the results if you go ahead with this.

As a side point, I carbed mine to 2.3 volumes and I think it hasn't quite finished carbonating yet in the cool condition it's stored in. What have others found is ideal?

 

[Bribie G]

I'm doing a similar IR as my next batch - ordering some RB for the comps season this week - however may I suggest that for a "to type" Irish Red a single hop addition works very well - I always use around 30g of Admiral. I'm going to do a batch with Willamette as a tryout.
And definitely the Caraaroma, lashings of it :icon_cheers:

 

[davewaldo]

Sounds good Bribie, care to share a bit more info? I'm trying to put together an IR recipe as we speak.

 

[Bribie G]

My IR from last year follows. However I am going tweak it a fair bit this time round: put in some RB for that bit of roasty aftertaste, also I'm going to swap the Polenta for some Munich and drop the Carapils to 200 then put in 200 of flaked wheat to get more complexity and a creamier head:

4000 Golden Promise
333 carapils
250 polenta
300 Caraaroma
150 Carared

30 Admiral 60 mins
Wyeast Irish Ale

 

[Fatgodzilla]

In the end I went with the Irish Ale and after 2 weeks in the bottle I've opened a couple of sneaky testers. It's fantastic. I'd be interested to see what the difference is as I'll be brewing this again! Let us know the results if you go ahead with this.

As a side point, I carbed mine to 2.3 volumes and I think it hasn't quite finished carbonating yet in the cool condition it's stored in. What have others found is ideal?

I'm lousy on advice about carbonating, as I naturally carb all my kegs with a whack of sugar (very scientific I know). When beer engining (sic ?) 1 carb low (lower than 2.3) and use without a sparkler. If bottling, half a teaspoon of sugar for a low carb. Drink this not too cold, so less carbing needed.

4000 Golden Promise
333 carapils
250 polenta
300 Caraaroma
150 Carared

If it's got corn it's one of those Boston Irish Red :icon_cheers:

bELOW IS WHAT A DARK IRISH LOOKS LIKE.

 

[bear09]

HI All,

I put this one down last night. Followed the recipe to a tee but ended up with 25L at 1059! I got bloody 86% efficiency - rarely do I go that high. My average is usually 78-82%.

Anyhow it all looked great.

One query, this beer did not look red as I transferred it down into the fermenter. It just looked to be a nice brown color. Stupid question - is an Irish Red a brown colored beer?

Looking forward to this one anyhow.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

HI All,

I put this one down last night. Followed the recipe to a tee but ended up with 25L at 1059! I got bloody 86% efficiency - rarely do I go that high. My average is usually 78-82%.

Anyhow it all looked great.

One query, this beer did not look red as I transferred it down into the fermenter. It just looked to be a nice brown color. Stupid question - is an Irish Red a brown colored beer?

Looking forward to this one anyhow.

Sounds good. You'll never get a red beer unless you add food colouring. Tried most grainy things to get "red" but failed.What you are aiming for is, when held up to the light (in a glass) the beer looks more reddish than brown.

Try it when carbed, you'll get what I mean.

 

[bear09]

Sounds good. You'll never get a red beer unless you add food colouring. Tried most grainy things to get "red" but failed.What you are aiming for is, when held up to the light (in a glass) the beer looks more reddish than brown.

Try it when carbed, you'll get what I mean.

Will do then - thanks.

Ill post a pic as well (when that wonderful day arrives :icon_chickcheers: )

 

[bear09]

Sounds good. You'll never get a red beer unless you add food colouring. Tried most grainy things to get "red" but failed.What you are aiming for is, when held up to the light (in a glass) the beer looks more reddish than brown.

Try it when carbed, you'll get what I mean.

Will do then - thanks.

Ill post a pic as well (when that wonderful day arrives :icon_chickcheers: )

 

[bear09]

WTF? Why did my post come up twice?

Am I drunk? :icon_cheers:

 

[jkmeldrum]

WTF? Why did my post come up twice?

Am I drunk? :icon_cheers:

Crissed as a picket I'd say!!

 

[big78sam]

I made this beer exactly to the recipe DB (other than a bit too much water) and I thought it was a bit "weak". it was my fault for miscalculating. However, I entered it into a smallish beer competition in Bendigo a couple of weeks ago and it took out the people's choice award (about 50 people came along and everyone got to try a small sample and rate each of the 26 beers out of 10). It's certainly a crowd pleaser.

I think next time I'll use the same amount or grain but only brew to 20 litres rather than the 25 I accidently did.

 

[Gar]

Really looking forward to giving this one a go on the weekend, I've substituted the roasted malt for pale chocolate malt though.

:kooi:

 

[Hammo7]

I'm about to put this one down, only to realize I don't have any EKG left :angry:
I Have plenty of Northern Brewer, Czech Saaz, southern Cross and tettnang left. ( have a heap of others like cascade, citra, amarillo and galaxy that I doubt would fit the bill)!
What would be the best substitute, if any?

Thanks in advance!

 

[manticle]

Northern brewer or wait and get some EKG.

 

[Hammo7]

Thanks Manticle.

Northern Brewer it is!

Cant put myself to buying EKG as mine will be ready in a couple of weeks!

 

[big78sam]

This really does improve in the keg. I brewed one 5 or 6 months ago and it's brilliant now. Interestingly I got a green apple flavour (acetaldehyde?) when I first kegged it but it disappeared after a month or 2 (fermented at 19 to 20 using Wyeast 1084).

EDIT: I also did a blind side by side with Kilkenny when a few of my family were around, one of whom says Kilkenny is his favourite beer. I didn’t tell them what they were drinking . Everyone preferred the Better Red Than Dead to Kilkenny.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

This is one of the first beer's I made over a year ago and loved every drop. I'll be doing it again in a few weeks but changing the crystal with Carared. Just wondering if 1469 went down well FGZ?? I see you might have used it in your last post. I'll probably end up getting some 1084 anyway.

Gav

 

[seamad]

Gav, got a similiar version of this on tap atm and used 1469, happy with the result.cheers
sean