Classic Irish Red Ale Recipe

[ScrewyBrewer]

I'm planning to brew my first Red Ale Recipe in a few weeks using WLP-004 Irish Ale yeast and UK Kent Goldings hops but I'm still working through the grain bill. I think 92% Pale Ale malt, 7% Crystal 60L and a few ounces of Roasted Barley will be enough to give the beer a red color, good head retention and a nice dry roasted finish. Any Red Ale brewing advice is more than welcome.

[Beer-lord]

I've only done one a few years back and it was just so-so. I then read a bit more about Irish Red Ales and thought I should have used Maris Otter instead of 2 row and added a tiny bit of chocolate malt and used some British dark crystal which my LHBS doesn't carry. I had a recipe somewhere but can't find it now.

[swenocha]

I love the red I recently did. I ran it 38% 2 row, 38% munich, 6% caramunich, 10% corn, 8% crystal 80L. EKG for bitter and flavor. Color and flavor was just what I wanted...

[John Sand]

I modified the Irish Red from Brewing Classic Styles last winter. I brewed with extract to use up my stock: 3.3lbs Briess LME, 3.3lbs Muntons LME, 1.5lbs Briess Amber LME, 6oz C40, 6oz C120, 4oz Chocolate Malt 350, 1.8oz fuggles @60. This was adjusted to match the SRM and IBU of the original recipe and my ingredients on hand. It scored a 37 at competition, and was one of my best brews. OG 1.057, FG 1.017.

[mashani]

I like 80L more then 60L in my reds personally. Or a mix, but there is always 80L in mine somewhere. And I love munich in anything, so I'm sure I'd be chugging Swens red.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I love the red I recently did. I ran it 38% 2 row, 38% munich, 6% caramunich, 10% corn, 8% crystal 80L. EKG for bitter and flavor. Color and flavor was just what I wanted...

@swenocha I must say I love the color of your Red, you definitely nailed it. Thanks for sharing[emoji482]
I'll pickup some Red Ales to aid in my research as I tweak and tune a recipe to brew on Thanksgiving weekend.

[John Sand]

Let us know what you do. My 'red' was quite dark, only ruby if held up to light.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Let us know what you do. My 'red' was quite dark, only ruby if held up to light.

@John Sand if a Red Ale's not red, now there's your problem, it's truly not a Red Ale.[emoji482]

I'm thinking WLP-004 English Ale yeast pitched at a rate of 200b cells per 5 gallons of 1.054 OG beer.

[Beer-lord]

yeastcalculator says 5 gallons of 1.054 needs 189b cells so you're right on.
Just made a starter with 004 for a stout this weekend and have only used this yeast once before years ago. I forgot what to expect. Not the best attenuation from what I read but since I'm part Irish, I should tell you that 004 is an Irish Ale Yeast and not English.

[Ibasterd]

Just bottled my first red, actually an IRA. It came out a bit lighter than expected. Maybe it will change in the bottle? I'm wondering, do hops effect the color of beer? They sure stained my hop bag that I used for dry hopping? Anyways, here is the recipe I used:

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: India Red Ale

Brew Method: All Grain/BIAB
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 2 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV (standard): 4.99%
IBU (tinseth): 75.61
SRM (morey): 15.2

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (87.7%)
4 oz - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (5.5%)
2 oz - American - Caramel / Crystal 120L (2.7%)
1 oz - American - Roasted Barley (1.4%)
2 oz - German - CaraFoam (2.7%)

HOPS:
0.3 oz - Falconer's Flight, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 32.55
0.3 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 20 min, IBU: 13.8
0.3 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 21
0.3 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 8.26
0.3 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 0 min
1.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temperature, Temp: 153 F.

YEAST:
White Labs - Irish Ale Yeast WLP004
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 71.5%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temp: 65 - 68 F
Fermentation Temp: 66 F

[John Sand]

Let us know what you do. My 'red' was quite dark, only ruby if held up to light.

@John Sand if a Red Ale's not red, now there's your problem, it's truly not a Red Ale.[emoji482]

I'm thinking WLP-004 English Ale yeast pitched at a rate of 200b cells per 5 gallons of 1.054 OG beer.

I didn't mean to imply that it was outside style guidelines, just that I'm surprised how dark a "red" can be. It scored 37 at competition. My only other "red" was Norther Brewer's Brickwarmer Holiday Red, which was even darker.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thanks John for the clarification. For my very first try I'd like to hit the red on the head. It's good to know the style has broader guidelines, it wasn't too long ago Reds weren't even a BJCP style.

[ScrewyBrewer]

After weeks of researching this style I've finally locked down my next recipe, I'll be brewing with option #1 below. During the past weeks I've also felt that both option #2 and #3 were equally great choices as well but for my first try at this style I'm going the Marris Otter/Melanoidin route with Kent Golding [UK] for bittering and a White Labs WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast™ starter.

Estimated OG=1.056, IBU=21, SRM=15, FG=1.014, ABV= 5.5%

-- Option #1 --
21.000 pounds Marris Otter Malt - 92% (5.77 pH)
01.500 pounds Melanoidin Malt - 7%
00.500 pounds Roasted Barley - 1%
----------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23.000 pounds total

-- Option #2 --
21.000 pounds Golden Promise Malt - 92% (5.58 pH)
01.500 pounds Crystal 80L - 7%
00.500 pounds Roasted Barley - 1%
-----------------
23.000 pounds total

-- Option #3 --
21.25 pounds Pale Ale Malt - 92%
01.50 pounds Crystal 80L - 7%
00.25 pounds Roasted Barley - 1%
-----------------
23.00 pounds total

-- Hop Bill --
3.00 ounces Kent Golding [UK] pellets

[MadBrewer]

I like option 1 too. What size batch? I know it's appropriate for the style, but that might be on the border of a little too much RB. But it's a good base recipe to try out and go from there. Melanoidin will take the place of Crystal malt and give you a nice rich malty/caramel character. It will also bring a nice Red to the beer. This pic below was a Pale Ale clone I did with some Crystal 60, Melanoidin Malt and a pinch of Caramunich and Special B. It produced a nice Red that I will try to duplicate in my next Irish Red when I get around to it. My beer is on the right.

[ScrewyBrewer]

@MadBrewer that's a nice looking red color you have there, mine looks like it did come out darker judging by my original gravity sample, I was targeting an SRM of 15. Note to self the next time they ask if you want the roasted barley packaged separately say yes. I was given the option of having the roasted barley crushed together with the other grains or bagged separately and I chose to have them crushed together. If they were kept separate I could have cut back on the amount of roasted barley and gotten a lighter shade of red.

redale-1sml.jpg (32.6 KiB) Viewed 1114 times

The original gravity sample has a lot of sediment in it that I know will drop out of suspension when cold crashed before packaging. I'm not too sure the color is completely too dark for the style though, I'll just have to wait it out to see what it looks like when I take a final gravity reading. Like you said it's a good starting point and the next time four ounces of roasted barley should be fine, instead of the eight ounces I used to make this batch. The Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast is a high flocculant strain with great sedimentation qualities so I expect the finished beer to be really clean and clear after some conditioning. I'm very excited to brew this new style of beer and add an Irish Red Ale to my ever growing pipeline.