January 21st Brew Day

[Bill Lawrence]

Ok so below is what the BJCP calls the "target" for Irish Red:

Aroma: Low to moderate malt aroma, generally caramel-like but occasionally toasty or toffee-like in nature. May have a light buttery character (although this is not required). Hop aroma is low to none (usually not present). Quite clean.

Appearance: Amber to deep reddish copper color (most examples have a deep reddish hue). Clear. Low off-white to tan colored head.

Flavor: Moderate caramel malt flavor and sweetness, occasionally with a buttered toast or toffee-like quality. Finishes with a light taste of roasted grain, which lends a characteristic dryness to the finish. Generally no flavor hops, although some examples may have a light English hop flavor. Medium-low hop bitterness, although light use of roasted grains may increase the perception of bitterness to the medium range. Medium-dry to dry finish. Clean and smooth (lager versions can be very smooth). No esters.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body, although examples containing low levels of diacetyl may have a slightly slick mouthfeel. Moderate carbonation. Smooth. Moderately attenuated (more so than Scottish ales). May have a slight alcohol warmth in stronger versions.

Overall Impression: An easy-drinking pint. Malt-focused with an initial sweetness and a roasted dryness in the finish.

Comments: Sometimes brewed as a lager (if so, generally will not exhibit a diacetyl character). When served too cold, the roasted character and bitterness may seem more elevated.

Ingredients: May contain some adjuncts (corn, rice, or sugar), although excessive adjunct use will harm the character of the beer. Generally has a bit of roasted barley to provide reddish color and dry roasted finish. UK/Irish malts, hops, yeast.

Vital Statistics:
OG FG IBUs SRM ABV
1.044 - 1.060 1.010 - 1.014 17 - 28 9 - 18 4.0 - 6.0%

A few things to pay attention to based on this. First of all, you want at most a medium body beer so I would mash around 150 or so. Secondly, hop flavor is low to none so when I made mine, I just had a bittering addition, if the judges smell hops, they are going to mark the beer down. In terms of flavor, you want a bit (as in moderate) caramel/toffee flavor which you get from using crystal malt and a bit of roasted dryness in the finish (a bit meaning just a touch). Just a couple of things I have learned the hard way with this style; First, I kept getting way too much roast flavor, the recipe I use now has PALE chocolate malt and no roasted barley at all. I also pushed the crystal malt really hard and ended up with a pretty sweet, heavy beer which really didn't get it. By the way, all crystal malts are not made equal. I personally like the English stuff, it's about 65L and you get nice toffee from it which in combination with a bit of diacetyl from the yeast is sublime (of course I tend to get all erotic about that flavor in UK beers so take that for what it's worth). Anyway I rather like this style of beer and for some reason you rarely see it being brewed, it's sort of underappreciated. For some reason, the pundits seem to think this is an easy style to brew. It may be easy to brew but I think it's damn hard to get the recipe exactly correct. Brew up your version and put it into the club only competition. You will probably then flog me like a "red haired stepchild" but that's ok, we will both get to drink some great beer along the way. If I remember, I'll put up a couple of extra bottles when getting ready for the Bluebonnet and we can do a swap at a brewday or whatever,:D

[bpillmore]

Quick question on yeasts and hops... I am brewing with the aforementioned Brewer's Best kit for an IPA. Would you all recommend me picking up a liquid yeast? Also, should I pick up different hops? It includes a dry yeast and a couple packages of hop pellets - one is Cascade and I can't remember the other.

Thanks!

Brian

[RobDrechsler]

Brian, Graham,
nice to meet you at brewday, .. hope you had fun..

Mike thanks for hosting, turned out to be a great day...

my SMASH+some is happily bubbling away..

[bpillmore]

Rob,

Great to meet you as well. I had a great time and everyone was so helpful. I learned a ton and it was great to get home, pitch the yeast and see those yeast begin making the beer.

I look forward to many more brew days.

Thanks!

Brian

[JGraham]

Rob,

It was great to meet you as well as everybody out at the Brew Day. I definitely learned a lot and got some good ideas on how to improve my brew system while saving my back -- Academy Fry Cart.

Also, a huge thanks to Bill for advice on recipe formulation and especially Tom for helping me getting the Irish Red going on the Brew Day. It's bubbling away, just as the SMASH is happily bubbling.

Thanks!

Graham

[slackerlack]

Rob,

It was great to meet you as well as everybody out at the Brew Day. I definitely learned a lot and got some good ideas on how to improve my brew system while saving my back -- Academy Fry Cart.

Also, a huge thanks to Bill for advice on recipe formulation and especially Tom for helping me getting the Irish Red going on the Brew Day. It's bubbling away, just as the SMASH is happily bubbling.

Thanks!

Graham

Graham,

Did you end up calling it Slanted Red?

-Jonathan

[JGraham]

I did end up calling it Slanted Red. Guess it sounds better than Murphy's Law Irish Red.

[Mike Grover]

Thanks to all who showed up on Saturday. I believe we had 8 brew rigs going which is a great showing. The only "lost and found" item I have come across is a large (~1 liter) brown swing top bottle. Let me know if it is yours and I will get it back to you at the next club meeting or event.

[RobDrechsler]

Beer's in the bottle..

[Mike Grover]

My share of the big batch is still showing signs of active fermentation. I used a California Common yeast and have been fermenting at 58 to 60 F, so I expected it to take awhile. The altbier that I brewed went much faster (thanks to almost a pint of yeast slurry to get it started) even though it was fermenting at the same temp. I racked it to a secondary this weekend. Rousing the yeast and bringing the temp up seems to have gotten it going again. This is good since it was at 1.020 and I really was shooting for FG closer to 1.013, give or take. When it looks done I will lager this one below 40 F for at least a month.

[RobDrechsler]

the FG on the BB2 ended up at 1.011

final recipe for mine

steeping
8oz biscuit malt
3oz aromatic
3oz caramel

1 oz Columbus in primary
1/2 oz Amarillo in secondary

[bpillmore]

Bottled my first brew today. Taste from the wine thief was good - well balanced IPA. Started at a 1.064 and ended at a 1.018. Recipe and process is posted here:

http://hopville.com/recipe/1126332/amer ... s-best-ipa

I will bring a couple bottles to the March brew day. Thanks to everyone for all the help!

[RobDrechsler]

the FG on the BB2 ended up at 1.011

final recipe for mine

steeping
8oz biscuit malt
3oz aromatic
3oz caramel

1 oz Columbus in primary
1/2 oz Amarillo in secondary

had a couple of bottles already... I'm enjoying this one... nice hop aroma and taste.. hopefully I'll have some left in march