So the wifey wants me to brew a red fro the first time. I have never researched a good recipe. Any pointers? Any recommendations on base malt. I normally use german malts so I realize that won’t work well here…
I was assuming that it would be mostly base malt with some crystal and enough roasted barley to make it ‘red’, EKG hops, and Irish ale yeast.
Looks like the most appropriate base malts that I have access to are:
Simpsons Marris Otter
Simpsons Golden Promise
Crisp Pale Ale
I have come up with this as a first draft. I am still not sure how much crystal should be there…
93% base malt
5.7% crystal
1.3% roasted barley
14 SRM
EKG @ 60 min, & ? for ~23 IBUs
Irish Ale yeast
As an alternative, could I get away with bittering with Magnum and using some Willamette? What about using S04 yeast? I get it if this takes me too far away but am just curious. I am not big on using hops that I don’t have or don’t use on a regular basis.
I think that using the magnum and Willamette would be fine. I think your grain bill looks good maybe a touch more roasted barely? as for a base malt everything you mentioned should work well. Personally I love Irish Ale Malt in many of my beers.
+1
How much roasted barley would you recommend? I think what I have ends up only being about 2 oz.
I use 3 oz of carafa III in my altbier and the roast is noticeable…
I wouldn’t use over two oz personally. Or you could use Midnight Wheat and get no roast at all.
You could use up to 4oz and still get the right amount of roast for your red ale. Personally in beers that have roasted malts I find that I use more than other people usually do. It’s really your call but either way I think you will have a good beer
With an Irish Red the BJCP guidelines mention a subtle toffee/caramel sweetness; curious if anyone knows if it is possible with the recipe as is? Wondering if some of the wort should be pulled aside and reduced like a scotch ale to achieve this flavor. I’m not sure how else to achieve it.
Cheers.
After searching for recipes, it seems that the majority have some combination of base malt, one or two types of crystal malt, and roasted barley. I assume that the caramel notes come from the crystal malt in combination with a maltier base.
Ingredients
9.9 lbs. (4.5 kg) Crisp British pale ale malt or similar British pale ale malt
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (40 °L)
6.0 oz. (170 g) Great Western crystal malt (120 °L)
5.0 oz. (142 g) roasted barley (300 °L)
5.25 AAU Kent Golding pellet hops, (1.05 oz./30 g at 5% alpha acid) (60 min.)
White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale), Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or Fermentis Safale US-05 yeast
I found this on BYO. The Caramel and toasted notes come from the biscuity base malt and the caramel Malts. You should have enough In your recipe to achieve caramel notes
This is the exact same recipe that I found and am going to fashion mine after. I am going to decrease the amount of roasted barley (use Crisp which is 500L I believe) and make a hop substitution but keep it pretty much the same other than that.
looks very tasty. Have not made an Irish Red myself yet, looks like a good place to start. Safe to assume MO would also work as the base?
for sure Frank on MO…personal preference
I think I have settled on this:
9.5# MO
5 oz British light crystal (45L)
5 oz British very dark crystal (120L)
2 oz Crisp Roasted Barley (500L)
10 g Magnum 60 min
14 g Willamette 60 min
US05 or S04 yeast
This may become this year’s pumpkin beer if I can’t find time to do what I was originally planning…
+1. Golden Promise works great for it, too.
+2 on the golden promise or MO.
Might have to try GP. Never used it before.
It’s awesome stuff - it’s Scottish so it’s in most all of the good Scottish ales. Doesn’t have the level of biscuity character that MO has. I actually prefer it for Irish Red.
“Welcome to all things Scottish. If it’s not Scottish its crap!” SNL flashback, sorry.
Never tried it either…added to must try list.