Irish Red

[bosium]

This is my nod to St Paddy's day next month. We are spending it with an Irish mate and so I felt it was appropriate to brew something for the occasion. I was originally going to brew a dry stout but I'm not sure I want 40 pints of stout so Irish Red it is.

I want something along the lines of Smithwicks / Kilkenny, something malty with a dry finish and it must be very drinkable as I want something I can knock back several pints of in one sitting. I put some flaked barley in for good measure to help ensure a nice, creamy mouthfeel and creamy head with good retention.

This was my first attempt at no-sparge brewing, and it worked very well indeed and saved me considerable time at the expense of a bit of extra grain (62% efficiency). No biggy, really. I douged in 5.7Kg of grain to 25L of water to give me a very full tun, then drained off slowly without any sparge. May well use this method again in future as it really saved me considerable time and effort.

OG: 1.050
FG:
IBU: 25

Recipe:
5KG Maris Otter (Crisp)
200g British Dark Crystal
200g British Pale Crystal
200g Flaked Barley
100g Roast Barley

25 IBU - East Kent Goldings 5.6% - 60mins
Mash at 68C for 1 hour, ferment at 18C with WLP004.

I made about a 1L starter with the WLP004, and it was all fermented out in about 3 days flat. Quite impressive, looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Also, I may put some of this in bottles as this yeast looks to be very flocculant and should be great for bottle conditioning.

[bosium]

[leedsbrew]

Looks like a good brew man! I'm gonna be doing a dry stout for St Patricks! You not a massive stout fan?

[bosium]

Cheers! No, I do like the odd stout, just dunno if I like it enough to get through 40 pints of it in a reasonable time.
Might give it a go anyway as I have 900g of roast barley lying about now and a big pitch of WLP004...

Maybe I should do an all pale-malt mash split into two kettles, then steep crystal malt and roast barley separately and spike the resulting wort to make two completely different brews?

[Spud395]

I guess being Irish I have both an Irish red bottled and my stout in the fermenter for Paddy's day

[bosium]

@spud - care to critique my recipe? Never made one before so took a bit from here and from there to get something drinkable..

[Spud395]

To be honest mine is a 1st attempt at the style as well.
The only difference in our recipies being I used wheat where you used flaked barley and I threw in a few late EKG.

Yours is probally more authentic

[leedsbrew]

our baby is due on the 14th so as of today I'm T total incase mrs LB needs running to the hospital! should mean my sticks will be healthy and have plenty to drink for both st P and baby head wetting! Woop

[bosium]

Came home yesterday to find this had bubbled up through the airlock and made quite a mess. This Irish yeast is a really strong fermenter! I've had to fit a blow-off tube and clean up the mess, probably lost a couple of pints but such is the cost of brewing beer eh?

Smells great though, can't wait to try it!

Oh @ Leedsbrew, many congratulations!

[WishboneBrewery]

I hope it turns out nice and red

[bosium]

I hope it turns out nice and red

Thanks, me too! I think it might be into brown ale territory actually, but I'll only really know when I can pour a pint.
I didn't really accurately know how dark my roasted barley was, so I've had to take a bit of a shot in the dark!