I have never made a Red IPA before, so I decided to throw together a recipe the other night. I’m trying to make something along the lines of Green Flash Hop Head Red or New Belgium Red Hoptober. After some research, here’s what I come up with…Let me know what you think.
60 minute mash at 150
Two Row Pale = 9 lb 8 oz (64%)
Munich Malt = 3 lb 5.75 oz (22%)
Flaked Oats = 1 lb (6%)
Caramel/Crystal 120L = 10.67 oz (4%)
Caramel/Crystal 80L = 5.33 oz (2%)
Caramel/Crystal 40L = 5.33 oz (2%)
Chocolate Malt = 1 oz (0%)
60 minute = .75 oz Columbus
45 minute = .75 oz Nugget
10 minute = .25 oz Amarillo
10 minute = .25 oz Simcoe
5 minute = .25 oz Amarillo
5 minute = .25 oz Simcoe
0 minute = .5 oz Amarillo
0 minute = .5 oz Simcoe
Dry Hop = 1 oz Amarillo
Dry Hop = 1 oz Simcoe Thinking about upping the dry hopping to 1.5 oz of each Amarillo and Simcoe
White Labs 051 California Ale V or WYeast 1272 American Ale II
Jamil’s West Coast Blaster is a pretty good example of a West Coast Amber/Red IPA. Just sub out the Cascade and Centennial for Amarillo and Simcoe (My fave hop blend, BTW) and the CTZ for the Horizon and you’ll have yourself a fantastic brew! Just bump up your base grain a little if you want to still have an OG of 1.070 and dry hop like you planned!
Cheers!
Brew it up! I did up the dry hopping to an ounce and a half of amarillo and simcoe. I also upped the late additions of each for a 1/4 to 1/2 oz. Mainly because I was able to get my hands on some bulk amarillo. Let me know how it goes, because I probably won’t get to it for a month or so. I’m doing a Pliny clone this weekend, and I want to get my Prima Pils clone brewed and lagered so it’s ready for late spring.
FYI, I see that you are from Columbus…Have you ever shopped at The Hops Shack? It’s in Bucyrus, outside of Mansfield. Most bulk hops that they have to offer are rather cheap. They currently have amarillo in stock, as of today…I just ordered two pounds.
I brewed an Irish Red IPA last night. It’s a simple American IPA fermented with Irish Ale Yeast. Not really sure how it’s going to turn out but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be super dry. I collected about 6.7 gallons of wort and took a quick gravity reading during boil when it was down to 6.5 gallons just to see what I was looking at as far as OG and to see the color. The color was absolutely beautiful. Copper Amber with a definite red hue. But, the gravity was at 1025 at 212 degrees which is about 1065 accounting for temperature for a 5 gallon batch. Shit! It has the potential for a super high post-boil OG. Oh well…
Here is the recipe:
12 lbs 0.8 oz Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) 92.0 %
13.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 6.6 %
3.1 oz Chocolate Dark 6-Row (Briess) (420.0 SRM) 1.5 %
1.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.37 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 45.0 min
0.37 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.00 oz Citra [14.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.00 oz Citra [14.10 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.0 pkg Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)
1.00 oz Citra [14.10 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
Looks good. I think you’re heading for the ~1.065 range. I just picked up 5 oz of Citra. I haven’t used them before, so I’m excited about trying them. I’m thinking about making a single hopped citra APA in a couple of months…A couple of months, just because there are a handful of brews in line before it!
+1 for Citra. I love Citra. I recently learned that Citra is a super high alpha aroma hop rather than a bittering hop. I have heard people talking about a really weird/nasty flavor from trying to use them for bittering but I could be wrong. Never tried. Only one way to find out!
bucyrus, outside of mansfield? hahaha. galion and winfield are in the way my friend. (okay, i am a galion tiger class of 1980) but hey, at least bucyrus is not shelby.
lol Yeah ok, you got me. I guess it’s a bit further away than I thought. I’ve been to Mansfield but have never heard of Bucyrus. Well at least until I bought hops from the Hops Shack haha.
To be fair Mansfield is the only “big” town near any of them. I was being sarcastic mostly because I thought you were from bucyrus. Bucyrus hosts a bratwurst festival (at least they did) that was outstanding. If you are a boating fan, Baja boats had a factory there that I helped build part of when I was a kid.
I’m a fan of the guideline of limiting to 4 grain varieties when making recipes, as it makes it much easier to learn the ingredients and know where to make adjustments. For me personally, I’ve ended up with a “grainy” taste when leaning on the darker crystal malts and not had the color desired. I don’t think you are going to get red but dark brown - condense & reduce on crystal and kick up the percent Munich or oats.
Seems like the main concern is that this is going to turn out more brown than red. I just drank a Green Flash Hop Head Red…It’s pretty brown. But anyways, I did do some adjustments to my original recipe.
American Two Row Pale = 9 lb 8 oz
Munich Malt = 4 lb
Flaked Oats = 1 lb
Caramel/Crystal 80L = 8 oz
Caramel/Crystal 40 L = 4 oz
Caramel/Crystal 120L = 4oz
Chocolate Malt = .5 oz
60 minute = .75 oz Columbus
60 minute = .75 oz Nugget
10 minute = .5 oz Amarillo
10 minute = .5 oz Simcoe
0 minute = 1.5 oz Amarillo
0 minute = 1.5 oz Simcoe
Dry Hop = 1.5 oz Amarillo
Dry Hop = 1.5 oz Simcoe
White Labs 051 California Ale V
WYeast 1272 American Ale II
I just bought the book “Beer Captured” and it lists the recipes of some of my favorite red-ish color beers amongst others. Burning River Ale from GLBC is somewhat amber / reddish… it’s just 2-row pale malt, crystal 40 and biscuit malt. The other one that I consider sort of red(ish) is Celebration Ale that’s 2-row pale malt, dextrin malt and crystal 80.
I think the point is and I’ve just figured this out, it’s doesn’t take a lot to color beer. I’m trying to figure this stuff out. A little bit of malt does go a LONG way. You might not need Chocolate malt if you’re using crystal 120. But, who knows. Brew a batch and let us know!!
I might not need the Chocolate malt. That still may go away. I have to brew this beer soon or this recipe will be completely different than when it was first thrown together. Burning River is a pale ale, and SN Celebration is an IPA. I guess I am going more for the “red” taste other than actual color. If you haven’t tried Green Flash Hop Head Read, Oskar Blue’s G’Knight Imperial Red IPA, or New Belgium’s Red Hoptober, then I suggest you try them. That’s the malt flavor I’m trying to achieve. Hop Head Red has a stronger malt taste than the other two. Normally I do not prefer a heavy malt taste in a traditional IPA, but since it’s a red IPA, I’m all about it.