Reverse engineering a beer recipe - from a label I made

[philistine]

Yo!

So, Im new here n stuff and Im fumbling my way blindly through the minefield of self/google taught home brewing.
I brewed up a batch of ale which was a blonde style ale, with citrus and coriander thrown in to the boil towards the end.
I made a rad label for it (its in a post on the 'welcome forum' titled "The Story so far").

I ended up gettin gon a bit of a roll with adobe and banged out another label for a beer that I havent actually brewed yet - so here's the sitcho - I wanna brew up a brew recipe to go with the label!
It may be a stupid idea, but its keeping me amused
Anyway, in following the blonde ale style, I was hoping to make something similar in that it would be a sort of pale ale style of beer, but red in colour, with the same citrus/coriander flavourings (maybe?) and also a hint of smokeyness...

Anyone got any ideas to help me out?
What's a good way to impart smoke flavour into beer without overdoing it and/or making it taste like bacon?
Whats a good way to get a red colour into the beer without altering the flavour and clarity too much?

I feel that looking at teh picture is the only way to get a 'feel' for this brew-to-be, so here it is

BAM
(thanks in advance!)

 

[TimT]

Smoked malt for smoky flavour, obvs. Not sure if Full Pint has some? They're in Heidleberg

 

[TimT]

Since beer's natural colour varies from yellow to black, with a lot of browns and reds in between - this got just by adding the right amount of chocolate malt and crystal malt in addition to the pale malt - I'm sure you could get a satisfactory red colour without too much trouble. Follow an amber ale recipe, perhaps?

 

[MHB]

In my admittedly limited experience getting a satisfactory red colour into a beer is perhaps the single hardest challenge facing a brewer, smutty brown, garnet highlights, a reddish ting, all doable but a satisfactory red very hard.
Mark

 

[TimT]

Try doing a mash with beetroot, that turns everything red. I did a beetroot beer last year because, well, I just wanted a purple beer. It didn't quite get to the purple - but it was a very satisfying ruby colour.

 

[GrumpyPaul]

Call it "Red Sonja" after the comic cover the art came from.



Here's a Red IPA I did recently. Beautiful beer - probably the best beer I have made.

These hops have some great citrusy tones.

I would have preferred it was a bit redder.

There isnt any smoked in this recipe....and I wouldn't recommend it. I think it would be trying to get too much competing in the glass.



Grumpy's Red Shepherd (American IPA)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.067 (°P): 16.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.017 (°P): 4.3
Alcohol (ABV): 6.58 %
Colour (SRM): 21.8 (EBC): 43.0
Bitterness (IBU): 85.6 (Average)

89.75% Pale Ale Malt
7.88% Caraaroma
1.58% Melanoidin
0.79% Roasted Barley

0.8 g/L Apollo (18.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g/L Galaxy (14.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g/L Mosaic (11% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.8 g/L Galaxy (14.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.8 g/L Mosaic (11% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
2.2 g/L Galaxy (14.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Mosaic (11% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
2.4 g/L Citra (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Safale US-05

Hope this helps.....

 

[philistine]

MHB - smutty brown & garnet highlights hrrhrhrrhaha....

TimT - When you did the brew using beetroot in the mash, did you get any weird earthy, dare-I-say, rooty flavours?
I come from a Polish background and as wierd as it sounds, Im actually quite familiar with fermented beetroot. I make soup using a base of fermented beetroot as a stock every year at christmas.. its got a kinda sour, but very earthy taste and when done well has a bit of a peppery kick at the back of the throat and warms the chest. We call it Barscz, the Ruskis and the rest of the world call it Borscht.

I was thinking of maybe using Hibiscus - as in the tea. Anyone tried it? or heard of anyone who's tried it?

And as for smokey flavour in beer, Seems the general consensus is that its not that great....

Sounds like sonja may have to remain a fantasy after all (mmmm... sonja... Im on ya..... ooohhhhh...mmmmm)

 

[philistine]

Hey Grumpy - Your IPA looks pretty spectacular, but I got a real noob question for ya - With your grain bill, you've got the qtys listed as percentages (which I get) but whats your grain to water ratio? I know there're probably some simple rules and/or guidlines when it comes to ways of working this out...................................................................................... but i dont know them

 

[idzy]

The two malts you can probably use are "Smoked malt" and "Red X".

http://www.bestmalz.de/en/malt/BEST_Smoked_Malt.htm
http://www.bestmalz.de/en/malt/BEST_Red_X.htm

To get bacon. Try hop or hog the bacon like you would with hops. You could also add some maple syrup in with the bacon or cook it in the bacon before adding to the fermenter

I haven't ever done a beer like your proposition, but I hope it goes well!

Idzy

 

[TimT]

Actually I didn't mash the beetroot in mine, I just chucked it in during the boil, so I probably didn't get a lot of starch to sugar transformation. It was only after that I realised it probably would have benefited from a mash; I've heard other beetroot ales get that earthy/spicy kick happening. All told my beetroot ale worked pretty well though - just a pale ale recipe, with an attractive red colour and a pleasant kick from the citra hops at the end.

 

[TimT]

Love borscht, one of my favourite winter recipes. That said we unfortunately included a bit of sauerkraut in one of our borscht's last year and the taste was just too much.

 

[GrumpyPaul]

I BIAB and my urn is only a 25l so I fudge the water volumes a bit on the day until I get it right.

I have to mash in about 15 to 18l of water then do a "sparge in a bucket" to get the volume up to pre boil volume.

According to Brewmate if I was doing BIAB proper it would need 28.8l for the 19litre batch into the fermenter.

I am just getting my head around recipes formulation myself....I think I got this one right. However I am very rough and ready on the technique side of things, so dont look to me for the right advice on technique and process

 

[philistine]

Grumpy - sorry I'm still a bit confused, I guess I meant to ask, what was the total weight of your all your grain in this recipe?

(I'm still at a stage where I have to google parts of everyone's answers to understand the terms etc ;-) )

 

[philistine]

And ps. Rough n ready is how I roll... My brews didn't fit in the closet to good, so I banged some scraps of wood together from the shed, screwed in a set of fluros from an old fish tank and BAM - brew lab in the laundry

 

[GrumpyPaul]

Until you asked I didnt know how to get Brewmate to save the txt file with weights instead of %.

Now I figured that out....does this help

Grumpy's Red Shepherd
American IPA

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 6.704
Total Hops (g): 170.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.067 (°P): 16.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.017 (°P): 4.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.58 %
Colour (SRM): 21.8 (EBC): 43.0
Bitterness (IBU): 85.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 60
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
6.017 kg Pale Ale Malt (89.75%)
0.528 kg Caraaroma (7.88%)
0.106 kg Melanoidin (1.58%)
0.053 kg Roasted Barley (0.79%)

Hop Bill
----------------
15.0 g Apollo Pellet (18.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)
10.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Mosaic Pellet (11% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
15.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)
15.0 g Mosaic Pellet (11% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)
41.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (2.2 g/L)
19.0 g Mosaic Pellet (11% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
45.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (2.4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[philistine]

Yeah that helps , cheers ;-)

Is there a version of brew mate for mac?

 

[mr_wibble]

Smoke flavour in beer is not for everyone.

I personally can't handle rauchbier, Although I have only ever tried one.

I do make a smoked porter that I really like. Of the 6kg of malts, there is a touch under 0.5kg of smoked malt - so, go easy at first.

Potters Brewery at Cessnock once did a smoked saison, it was fricken awesome.

 

[Weizguy]

Cochineal in a very pale beer?