SWMBO Irish Red Ale

[Monkeybrew]

SWMBO has asked me to brew her some Irish Red Ale.

How does this little extract batch look that I am going to brew tonight?


Higgins Irish Red ale

Brewlength - 8L
1.000kg Light DME - 10EBC
0.050kg Crystal Malt - 120EBC
0.050kg Cara Red Malt - 50EBC
0.050kg Cara Malt - 30EBC
0.015kg Roasted Barley - 1350EBC
13g of Goldings Leaf Hops 5.7%AA @60mins
Colour - 39 EBC
Bitterness - 22 EBU
OG - 1.048
FG - 1.011
ABV - 4.7%
Yeast - Gervin Ale (rehydrated)
Fermented @20-21C

Cheers

MB

[CestrIan]

Looks good MB!

I make a similar recipe AG that's a great session beer with a ruby red colour and lovely roasty flavour. The amount of crystal malt is exactly the same as mine scaled up to 23L brew length. I add twice the amount of roast barley that you've got there though and I add the same amount of amber malt, but it's a question of taste. If you want the roast to balance the crystal I would up the RB to 35g for 8L.

[seymour]

Looks really good to me, too. The only minor quibble I have is the yeast selection. Gervin is the same as Nottingham strain, so it will likely attenuate almost everything, and leave a very neutral finish. If you're shooting for something like a mass-market "Irish Red" like Killians, etc, which are usually lagers, then perfect. But if you're shooting for a maltier, breadier, toastier, fruitier true-to-style Irish Red Ale, then I'd recommend you switch to a different English ale yeast strain. Do you have any other cheap dry yeast: Windsor, Muntons, Coopers, etc?

[Monkeybrew]

Looks good MB!

I make a similar recipe AG that's a great session beer with a ruby red colour and lovely roasty flavour. The amount of crystal malt is exactly the same as mine scaled up to 23L brew length. I add twice the amount of roast barley that you've got there though and I add the same amount of amber malt, but it's a question of taste. If you want the roast to balance the crystal I would up the RB to 35g for 8L.

I've decided to go with 25g of RB because my Wife isn't a fan of bitterness, and I know the roasted grains can increase perceived bitterness.

I have also dropped the EBU's to 20.

Cheers for the feedback, I'm currently steeping the grains

[Monkeybrew]

Looks really good to me, too. The only minor quibble I have is the yeast selection. Gervin is the same as Nottingham strain, so it will likely attenuate almost everything, and leave a very neutral finish. If you're shooting for something like a mass-market "Irish Red" like Killians, etc, which are usually lagers, then perfect. But if you're shooting for a maltier, breadier, toastier, fruitier true-to-style Irish Red Ale, then I'd recommend you switch to a different English ale yeast strain. Do you have any other cheap dry yeast: Windsor, Muntons, Coopers, etc?

I would like a maltier finish so I hear what your saying Seymour.

I do have Windsor and some Coopers Ale/Lager yeast sachets.

Maybe I'll save the Gervin for an NZ pale ale I've got planned

[seymour]

Bump.

So, did you brew it? If so, how's it lookin'?

[Monkeybrew]

Bump.

So, did you brew it? If so, how's it lookin'?

Sorry for the slow reply, life is just too busy sometimes!

This was my actual brew in the end after a few tweaks. The 3g of Goldings were an after-thought, because they were all that was left in the packet

Higgins Irish Red ale

Brewlength - 8L
1.000kg Light DME - 10EBC
0.050kg Crystal Malt - 120EBC
0.050kg Cara Red Malt - 50EBC
0.050kg Cara Malt - 30EBC
0.025kg Roasted Barley - 1350EBC
12g of Goldings Leaf Hops 5.7%AA @60mins
3g of Goldings Leaf Hops 5.7%AA @0mins (steeped at flameout for approx. 15mins)
Colour - 51 EBC
Bitterness - 20 EBU
OG - 1.048
FG - 1.012
ABV - 4.8%
Yeast - Windsor
Fermented @20-21C

I haven't tasted it yet, but will do this week once it reaches the 2 week mark.

I got a suprising apparent attenuation of 75% from the Windsor which caught me out a bit

MB

[seymour]

...I got a suprising apparent attenuation of 75% from the Windsor which caught me out a bit...

Well done. That's good news, I hope my current Windsor ferment gets closer to that, it's still creeping along around 58%.

What temperature did you mash at?

[Monkeybrew]

...I got a suprising apparent attenuation of 75% from the Windsor which caught me out a bit...

Well done. That's good news, I hope my current Windsor ferment gets closer to that, it's still creeping along around 58%.

What temperature did you mash at?

I used DME, so someone else did the mashing for me

[seymour]

...I used DME, so someone else did the mashing for me

Geez, I really need to pay closer attention to context. Well, the maltster/masher did a good job of providing you with a highly fermentable wort. Cheers to that!

[Monkeybrew]

I had a taster bottle of this tonight and it's not great yet.

It's clear, but is dominated by yeasty flavours and I can't really pick out any malt flavour

It is only 2 weeks old so fingers crossed!

MB

[DaveyT]

Hello MB
I extract brew and bottle condition and I find I need at least 6 weeks before any malt profile comes through. Having said that, I have no problems with my 'black' beers probably because the malt is so up front. It's the 'brown' beers with subtle malt flavours that I have problems with. They age very well, though, so I try not to be in a hurry to drink them.
By the way, is it red?

David

[Monkeybrew]

Cheers Davey

I was just curious, especially as it's for SWMBO.

It's a dark reddy brown colour.

Hopefully it should improve nearer to Xmas then

MB

[DaveyT]

Thanks MB. I'm taking an interest in red and ruby ales at the moment. Only chin scratching at the moment though.
Let us know how it turns out.

Atb
David

[seymour]

I had a taster bottle of this tonight and it's not great yet. It's clear, but is dominated by yeasty flavours and I can't really pick out any malt flavour ...

Same with my Windsor-fermented batch, not very good and going on about a month now. It's getting a little better each time I test a bottle, but it's kinda bumming me out. I'd gotten the idea from user's comments that Windsor and Fullers give very similar performance, but that definitely doesn't match my limited personal experience.