Luck of the Irish Red Ale
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wyoDreamer
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It's neat to see how the color has changed. Hope this is a tasty brew for you.
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CrealCritter
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Day 6 - racked into secondary carboy to clear. I'm boiling water to wash the yeast in the bottom of the primary, to save for later.
Foam on top is StarSan (no rinse sanitizer). Their moto is don't fear the foam. It actually degrades into a yeast nutrient. Advances in homebrew have me amazed.
I don't know if you can tell or not but this Irish Red Ale is a dark mahogany red color. It will be interesting to see what color it clears out to be.
Foam on top is StarSan (no rinse sanitizer). Their moto is don't fear the foam. It actually degrades into a yeast nutrient. Advances in homebrew have me amazed.
I don't know if you can tell or not but this Irish Red Ale is a dark mahogany red color. It will be interesting to see what color it clears out to be.
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CrealCritter
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Yeast washing from day 6 - I was able to harvest approximately 4oz (1/2 cup) per jar out of the primary fermenter. Each jar should be enough to ferment another batch of any English style ale. The red on top of the yeast is a mix of beer & sterile water. This should be about the color of the finished beer, maybe a little darker red, after time in the secondary fermenter. It's Irish Red Ale after all, brewing beer is so interesting and delicious or maybe it's just I'm easily amused.
frustratedearthmother
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It's great that you can re-use the yeast. Talk about SS!
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Day 11 - no more bubbles through the airlock at all and clearing out nicely. Will most likely, bottle Saturday sometime.
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CrealCritter
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Day 12 - snuck a little sample out of the secondary to check final gravity, inspect clarity and of course taste test 
It has reached its final gravity and calculated out to 6.5% ABV. I'm really happy with the clairity, heck its beer and this clear already @ day 12 - that's some awesome yeast!
Sniff test, it reminded me a little bit like a very mild bourbon, maybe its the color kind of tricking my nose a little too. But it's most definitely not american hop and or american yeast smell at all. I was concerned maybe I brewed up a flower garden but that's not the case at all, thankfully.
Then a taste... It's full bodied and dry, most definitely fully fermented. It's not harsh at all, it's inviting and smooth, with a nice hint of sweet malt and cloves taste at first. Then it turns to a very slight bitter but mostly sweet taste as it hits the back of the throat. Then it finishes with a mild cinnamon and honey taste. This beer is complex, nothing like my golden american wheat, there's a lot going on with this one.
This is going to be one easy drinker for sure, I'll need to watch myself and not drink to much at one time. I just can't quite think of a food it would go well with. Maybe cabbage rolls and potatoes? Idk... I'll have to experiment some.
I would have liked it to be lighter red but you can't have everything... Next time I brew this I'll be sure and at 1 lb of pilsner light malt, that should help lighten the color a little and also boost the ABV one point also.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my first attempt at a Irish Red Ale, who know I could brew up something this complex and I didn't mess it up either (except the color maybe). It should be awesome once it bottle conditions & carbonates.
It has reached its final gravity and calculated out to 6.5% ABV. I'm really happy with the clairity, heck its beer and this clear already @ day 12 - that's some awesome yeast!
Sniff test, it reminded me a little bit like a very mild bourbon, maybe its the color kind of tricking my nose a little too. But it's most definitely not american hop and or american yeast smell at all. I was concerned maybe I brewed up a flower garden but that's not the case at all, thankfully.
Then a taste... It's full bodied and dry, most definitely fully fermented. It's not harsh at all, it's inviting and smooth, with a nice hint of sweet malt and cloves taste at first. Then it turns to a very slight bitter but mostly sweet taste as it hits the back of the throat. Then it finishes with a mild cinnamon and honey taste. This beer is complex, nothing like my golden american wheat, there's a lot going on with this one.
This is going to be one easy drinker for sure, I'll need to watch myself and not drink to much at one time. I just can't quite think of a food it would go well with. Maybe cabbage rolls and potatoes? Idk... I'll have to experiment some.
I would have liked it to be lighter red but you can't have everything... Next time I brew this I'll be sure and at 1 lb of pilsner light malt, that should help lighten the color a little and also boost the ABV one point also.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my first attempt at a Irish Red Ale, who know I could brew up something this complex and I didn't mess it up either (except the color maybe). It should be awesome once it bottle conditions & carbonates.
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CrealCritter
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Day 17 / Bottle day 3 very smooth and tastes really good absolutely no bitter at all. Odd I get a slight hint of cloves and oranges though, but no cloves or oranges were added. It must be east kent golding hops. It's only mildly conditioned/carbonated and only gets better from here. I'm not ready for a 4 leaf clover just yet, It is a deep red
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Bottle day 8 - Carbonated but the head falls fast. Tastes delicious, very easy drinker, maybe a little to easy. It has just a slight hint of hop bitterness that's hardly delectable. Very nice balance of warming as you swallow bourbon like alcohol and malty sweetness. Extremely smooth, with a bit of a kick, nice mild aroma also.
I want to tweak this recipe a bit.
1) I would like it a little more lighter color red, shouldn't be difficult.
2) the light copper colored head needs better retention, this may improve with bottle conditioning age. If not I'll add about the 3 to 5% of red wheat malt to the mini mash grain bill to increase the head retention.
Otherwise a awesome tasting beer in a frosty glass.
After finishing this glass, the sweet malty alcohol goodness lingers in my mouth, this beer could be very addicting for having such a high ABV, most definitely drank this to fast... Buzzzzzzz
Great call @sumi thumbs up
I want to tweak this recipe a bit.
1) I would like it a little more lighter color red, shouldn't be difficult.
2) the light copper colored head needs better retention, this may improve with bottle conditioning age. If not I'll add about the 3 to 5% of red wheat malt to the mini mash grain bill to increase the head retention.
Otherwise a awesome tasting beer in a frosty glass.
After finishing this glass, the sweet malty alcohol goodness lingers in my mouth, this beer could be very addicting for having such a high ABV, most definitely drank this to fast... Buzzzzzzz
Great call @sumi thumbs up
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CrealCritter
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I am just like you with bittering hops. As a matter of fact when I started brewing again, my wife asked my why, don't like beer that much. I explained, It's not that I don't like beer, its that I don't like bitter beer.
After a little trial and error I found that the absolute maximum I can take is 20 IBU. IBU is International Bitterness Units scale. Each classification of beer has a range for IBUs. Read more about ABU here ---> https://www.thebrewenthusiast.com/ibus
When a recipe calls for x amount of bittering hops I add 1/2 of what is called for and this generally puts the final beer in the lower range for that beer type. If even reducing by half still calculates to above 20 IBUs the I reduce the bittering hops even more to get below 20 IBUs.
Just because there is some standard to brew by doesn't mean it applies to everyone's taste buds (mine included).
Personally I think most commercially available beers are to bitter and it doesn't sound like I'm alone in this either.
This Irish Red Ale I brewed has an IBU of around 13 and its a very nice balance of sweet malts, Alcohol and barely detectable bitterness. The IBU standard for Irish Red Ale is 18 to 28. So, technically speaking what I brewed is not officially a Irish Red Ale. Not to mention the ABV (Alcohol By Volume) is right around 7% When the standard ABV for Irish Red Ale is 3.8 to 5.0 ABV. But I've never been one to "fit the mold" so why start now -:lol
Anyways, if anyone wants this recipe I can post it here. Everyone should have the opportunity to brew and try this tasty beer.
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