Irish Red Ale Recipe
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
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
on December 3rd, 2007 at 6:01 pm
When you tried getting a red color before, did you try using 80L Crystal malt? From what I have read, it seems like that this type of malt imparts a red color.
on December 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
IMO, the problem with deriving color using crystal malt is an imbalance in the finished flavor. Crystal malts give you good residual sweetness with varying degrees of flavor, lighter crystal is a maltier sweetness and higher amounts startes to give you raisin dried fruit flavors. To get the the same color from a quarter once of 450 Lovibond roasted barely using an 80 Lovibond (or even 120 Lovibond) crystal would put you in a range that imparts more crystal flavor than I would want in a beer. Such low amounts of the darker kilned roasted malt keeps that flavor impact minimal, but the hint of roast gives that drier finish in the final flavor. For this style, I think that a drier, maltier flavor profile is sought after. Too much crystal would give a sweeter malt character closer to English Pale instead of the drier Irish Amber. This recipe already has a fair amount of crystal in it, using more to drive the color would start to increase the residual sweetness out of style.
Realistically, I should drop the crystal 120L and use a little more “roast” now that I think about it.
on September 11th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I would keep the 120, drop the wheat as it doesn’t contribute to the style. Increase the 120 to 4-5 ounces; no wheat, no black patent. You may also want to drop the Roasted Barley to 2-3 ounces. Also keep either a 4-5 ounces of Crystal 20 or 40. CaraPils amazes me. lthough is greeat in contributing to some body and good at head retention, it throws the style off. Actually crystal 20 or 40 offer the same qualities, but of course increase color. Overall the recipe listed produces a good looking beer the color seems way high. I would like to see more alcohol to this beer and call it an Imperial Red instead.
on December 10th, 2008 at 6:41 am
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