After forgetting about my more ambitious first brew recipe... and looking at a few options, my friends suggested an Irish red ale. Here's what I have so far, what do you all think? Irish Red Ale Batch Size: 5 gallons Boil Size: 3 Gallons OG 1.053 FG 1.015 Yeast: US-05 6# dry malt extract - light 1# crystal 40 1/4# roasted barley 1 oz Fuggles for 60 minutes 1 oz Willamette and Kent Goldings for 15 minutes I'm going for about 5% abv and around 22ish IBUs. Can I use US-05 for this brew? Any input is appreciated!
Assume 5 gallons means 5 gallons going into the fermenter, that recipe is likely to land you closer to 6% ABV than 5%. (Unless you are leaving substantial wort behind in the kettle, and therefore using more water to compensate. Otherwise, your OG will probably be a bit higher, and your OG a bit lower (US-05 will attenuate quite a bit more than your FG assumes).) Did you use software to calculate? Also, you can certainly make an Irish Red Ale with American yeast (US-05), but then it ain't really Irish IMO.
I do mean 5 gallons going into the fermentor. I used Brewer's Friend calculator, and what yeast do you recommend?
Wyeast 1084 (or White Labs WLP004) would be my first choice. You may want to re-check the calculator. It ought to be giving you a higher OG into 5 gallons.
Getting fermentables from only the DME I see about 5%, the grain being steeped isn't going to add anything in those terms, only color and flavor. My self, being a Dry yeast user, would use Nottingham, otherwise I agree White Labs WLP004.
Because they are not being mashed, they are being steeped. There may be a small amount of fermentables but nothing I would consider more than negligible.
The starches (most of them anyway) in crystal malt have already been converted during the malting process (stewing step in this case). That's why they are steepable and don't have to be mashed.
I brewed an Irish red recently and used US-05. Afterwards I wondered what exactly made it Irish. That being said I really like it. For comparison I made the morebeer.com kit which uses 7lbs ultra light LME, steeps 1 lb Crystal 120L, 8 oz Abbey, 8 oz Caramunich, 2 oz Black Roasted, 2 oz Special B. 1.5 ounce northern brewer at 60 min, and 2 ounces willamette at 1 min. The steeping grains smelled great, and really added a lot to the beer.
Honestly, I put the malt extract and steeping grains in the recipe calculator and was suprized how much it added. I stand corrected. I never steep grains, I'm all grain. So I have to say your right here, maybe just adjust the water to get 5.5 or 6 gallons to level out the alcohol or use less extract.
Alright, I will probably adjust the water by a gallon. Should I possibly look at diversifying my specialty grains or will I be getting enough flavor, aroma, and color from what I have?
Complicated rarely means better. Your recipe looks pretty tasty, but I'd side with vikeman in that a different yeast choice may be more appropriate for the style.
For UK/Irish pale and amber/red styles I like Wyeast 1968 and White Labs 007. I use either depending on how much attenuation I want. That being said, a Chico type yeast will work just fine. Recipe looks good to me.
