Irish Red

[Peter Catizone]

I have very little information about Irish Red but want to make something authentic. I like Smithwicks. Other than some crystal malt and a small amount of roast malt or roast barley, I don't have much more to go on. Any suggestions? Cheers, Peter Catizone

[nchomebrewer]

Peter,

I have an Irish Red that I am brewing that has become very popular amongst a lot of people especially those that don't like hoppy beers. If you can I would choose a good quality base malt such as Marris Otter. For crystal I would go a little darker say 80L to help with the roasty flavors. I would watch the crystal use so as to not darken it up too much and lose the desired red color. As you stated I would then use Roasted Barley to create your roast flavors and let it go like that. For yeast I would pick something appropriate for the style. I tried to keep it simple with my recipe and so far it has worked. Low bitterness, Red appearance, malty, dry flavor should hit a home run.

I hope that helps,
Mike

[liammckenna]

2% Roast, 12% Crystal (70-80L) remainder Maris Otter.

35 IBU target, a little CaCO3 with brewing salts.

Malt should predominate. Dry hop not really appropriate for this style. But hey, could be great.

Good luck,

Liam

[Poc]

I'd agree with the base of Maris and the 1%-2% Roasted. I'd go with 10% divided between Cara and Crystal (again, agreed with the 70L-80L suggestion for the Crystal).

Keep it reasonably conservative with the hops, it should be a fairly malt driven beer.

And hope that it has a bit more going for it than Smithwicks.

[Simonok]

Yeah about 88-90pc Maris otter or some other English ale malt, 9-11pc dark crystal and 1pc Roast barley, about .33lbs per bbl of English hops and ferment with a traditional strain, but I prefer 1056 or something clean.

Also the only type for hop that was traditionally grown in Ireland were Goldings, so that's something to keep in mind.

Here in Ireland the tradition is that stout drinkers switch to reds during the summer, so something and thats medium to light body side of things is best.

I had a few "reds" in the States last year and they weren't quite on point, but that's just my opinion.

[StarCityBrewing]

Also the only type for hop that was traditionally grown in Ireland were Goldings, so that's something to keep in mind.

I'd definitely go with EKGs on a Irish Red.

[Ted Briggs]

red

CRISP - Pale Ale 79.23%
Weyermann - Cara Hell 6.60%
CRISP - Crystal Light 45 4.80%
Weyermann - Dark Munich 8.40%
CRISP - Black 0.48%
CRISP - Pale Chocolate 0.48%

13plato, 15 IBU- Fuggles and EKG. And if you want, No2 it or even better, dry-hop and cask/beer engine it.