Irish Red Ale Recipe - Extract

John here. Brewing up an extract version of an Irish Red Ale.

Ingredients:

6.5 Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
6 ounces Roasted Barley
6 ounces Crystal 40°L
6 ounces Crystal 120°L
.5 ounce Northern Brewer boiled 60 mins
1 ounce East Kent Goldings boiled 30 mins
1 teaspoon Irish Moss boiled 15 mins

Yeast: WLP004

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.014
Color: 17 SRM
Bitterness: 25 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.2%

I was probing around some online chat forums and discovered some advice on making a red ale. I have struggled in the past with getting a red ale to actually be red and not some sort of weird yellowish-hued-brown color. A couple other red ale brewers said that low amounts of black patent or roasted barely (1-2oz total) imparts a red color without much flavor.

So I put my own recipe together. Don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I am intrigued to try it. Here it is:

Irish Ale #1 - All Grain

9-D Irish Red Ale

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 65%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.049 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)
Color: 19.2 (9.0 - 18.0)
Alcohol: 4.82% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 26.79 (17.0 - 28.0)

Ingredients:

12 lbs American 2-row
1 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt
0.5 lbs Midwest Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.125 lbs Crystal 120
0.25 lbs American Black Patent
0.25 lbs Roasted Barley
1.5 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.5 oz Nugget (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min

1 ea White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout

Mash temp 154F.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.28

This recipe comes to us from a good brewing friend of mine, Lauren.  He loves this beer from the Seattle area.  He originally posted his recipe for this on the Brewing KnowledgeBase website, and its become one of the most viewed recipes on the site.  Furthermore, at least a dozen folks over there have brewed the recipe.  I know this is a popular beer for folks that can get it.  So I thought I’d pay homage to Lauren and his brewing success with this one, and also publish his great recipe here to reach out to an even larger audience.
Brew it in good health and enjoy!

10 gallon batch
90 minute boil
1.060 OG
1.018 - 1.013 FG

18lbs Marris otter
2lbs munich
1lbs crystal 80
2oz centennial 60 min
1oz dried sweet orange peel 30 min
2oz cascade 2 min
2oz cascade dry hop
White Labs WLP005 (British Ale) or Wyeast 1098 (British Ale) yeast or Fermentis Safale 04

Mash at 155F for 60min.
Lauren recommends adding the dry hops in primary after 5-7 days of primary.
He also isn’t very particular about the type of orange being used for the peel.  He has also used the peel from 2 fresh oranges if you can’t find dried peel.
Lauren doesn’t use any finings in this brew (Irish moss) because the original has a slight haze to it.
Dryhopping is a MUST for this beer to get the profile right.
Lastly, this beer does well to sit for 30 days in the bottle or keg.

For his original write-up on the official recipe, click here.

A word from the man himself:
“If you ever get to Seattle try it, it’s fantastic.  My brother just sent me some, and this clone tastes exactly like the original, the original is just a bit sweeter, but I contribute that to the house yeast.  Use the WLP005, and it’s exactly like the original in flavor profile, and esters.”

BREW ON!

In a previous post (Return to Extracts), I pondered the value of doing a little extract brewing when I don’t have the time available for my 6 hour all-grain sessions.

I was pondering some of my recipes and decided that I would convert on of my recent American Brown ale recipes to an extract version.  When last I brewed it as all grain, I really enjoyed it an thought I had hit a real nice balance between malt flavors, chocolate notes and residual sweetness.  Although it is an American Brown ale, I kept the hopping to a milder schedule to not overwhelm the flavor with citrus and piney flavors typical in some American hopping schedules.

I offer the converted recipe below:

American Brown #1 Extract

Brew Type: Extract	Date: 3/4/2009
Style: American Brown Ale	Brewer: Mike Warren
Batch Size: 5.50 gal	Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 6.50 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: My Equipment

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
6.25 lb	Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)	Dry Extract	75.03 %
1.00 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM)	Grain	12.00 %
0.50 lb	Special Roast (50.0 SRM)	Grain	6.00 %
0.33 lb	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	3.96 %
0.25 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)	Grain	3.00 %
1.50 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	27.3 IBU
1.00 oz	Liberty [4.30 %] (10 min)	Hops	5.2 IBU
1.00 oz	Liberty [4.30 %] (1 min)	Hops	0.6 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 1200 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.052 SG (1.045-1.060 SG)	Measured Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.012 SG (1.010-1.016 SG)	Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Color: 19.6 SRM (18.0-35.0 SRM)	Color [Color]
Bitterness: 33.1 IBU (20.0-40.0 IBU)	Alpha Acid Units: 8.3 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.20 % (4.30-6.20 %)	Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.61 %

Since this lager style won in the lager poll, this is the update to Maibock Recipe post.   Here is my all grain recipe:

Ingredients

10.5 lbs. Pilsen Malt
5.5 lbs. Munich 10L
.75 oz. Northern Brewer Pellets, 8.5 %AA boiled 60 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.070
Terminal Gravity: 1.017
Color: 9.96 °SRM
Bitterness: 26.5 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume): 7.2%

Made a 7 liter yeast starter with 2 tubes of the WLP830.

Ferment at 50° F for at least 2 weeks.  Lager for at least 4 weeks. 

---

Here is my extract Maibock recipe:

Ingredients

8.5 lbs. light malt extract
0.75 lb. Munich malt
1 lb. cara-pils malt
0.75 lb. crystal malt, 60° Lovibond
1 oz. Hallertauer hops for 60 min.
0.5 oz. Hallertauer hops for 30 min.
1 oz. Saaz hops at end of boil
WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast
2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

Step By Step

Crush crystal and cara-pils malt and put in grain bag. Steep grains for 60 minutes at 150F in the volume of water your pot can handle for brewing. Remove grain bag and add liquor to brew pot…if it’s not in your brew pot already. Bring liquor to a boil. Add first Hallertaur hops portion and light malt extract. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops on schedule indicated above.

Cool to fermentation temperature and add yeast. Ferment at temperatures as directed on the yeast vial. Final gravity should be 1.008. Move beer to secondary vessel and condition for up to two weeks. Prime and bottle condition for up to two months.

Get started now and it will be ready for April.

Last weekend a quick trip to a local farm had me pondering hard cider.  I wanted to make a cider last year but never got around to it.  But I took the plunge and made my own variant of a cider based beverage.  I wanted to go with a malted cider to be different and to not worry as much about trying to get a good healthy ferment of just apple juice.  I was thinking the malt addition would help add some needed nitrogen sources for healthy fermentation.

Here’s my recipe and process:

3 Gallons apple cider
2lbs Extra Light DME
1lb Turbinado Sugar
1.5 gal water
S-04 English ale yeast repitched from slurry.

The cider had an OG of 1.040 on its own.  I wanted to get a little higher than that, so I added the sugar and only a gallon and a half of water to the DME.  My resultant OG was ~1.058.

The cider was preservative free yet pasteurized.  My process was to boil the DME in the 1.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes to sterilize.  I then added the 3 gallons of cider (at 55F).  I continued to heat the cider slightly until it was at 165F and held it there for 20 minutes to pseudo-repasteurize the mix.  I cooled it to 74F and pitched the yeast.

I am actually fermenting the cider in a water bath in the garage which is holding a steady 64F the last couple days.  It’s supposed to get warmer this weekend.  The water bath should only warm up slowly, so I think that should really help dry out the cider as it comes towards the end of its fermentation.  As of last night there was a good 6 inch head of Krausen on the cider and it was chugging along nicely at 65F.
We’ll see how it turns out.

I have some ideas for what to do with this post ferment, but I’ll save that for future posts.

BREW ON!

Continuing my adventure into sour ales, I used the following recipe for a Berliner Weisse.  Being totally new to the style I used the recipe from “Brewing Classic Styles” by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.

Berliner Weisse is a light wheat beer, fermented clean but has an acidic sour bite.  Sourness is contributed usually from lactobacillus bacteria activity that makes for a clean but sharp sourness.

The real neat part about this style is the use of a 15 minute boil!  Yes 15 minutes!  As an all-grain recipe that really shortened the brew day.  I would only recommend doing trying this style as an all-grainer if you have good cooling capabilities.  I was able to get my wort chilled to under 140F within 5-10 minutes using my immersion chiller and a prechiller set-up.

On to the recipe:

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
4.20 lb	Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)	Grain	58.33 %
3.00 lb	Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)	Grain	41.67 %
1.00 oz	Hallertauer [4.00 %] (15 min)	Hops	6.8 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	European Ale (White Labs #WLP011)	Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs	Lactobacillus Delbrueckii (Wyeast Labs #4335) [Add to Secondary]	Bacteria

I have fermented the beer for two weeks at 65F in glass.
My OG was 1.035 with only 6-7IBUs.
I’ll transfer to a keg and let it condition in the mid 60s, sampling it until the sourness is where I want it to be.

I don’t brew too many porters.  I can only remember two in my lifetime.  But I have become intrigued with the Brown Porter style (BJCP 12A).  I have never used Brown Malt before and this recipe and style seems like a perfect way to get a taste of it and see what its like.

For a 6 gallon batch
70% efficiency
1.046 OG
154F Mash Temp

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)	Grain	81.63 %
1.00 lb	Brown Malt (65.0 SRM)	Grain	8.16 %
0.75 lb	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	6.12 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	4.08 %
0.75 oz	Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	20.0 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [3.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	5.7 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	English Ale (Fermentis #Safale-04) [Starter 1000 ml]	Yeast-Ale

I’ll actually be pitching some yeast slurry of Safale-o4, from a current batch of Ordinary Bitter.

This recipe is slightly based from the Brown Porter in Brewing Classic Styles.

BREW ON!