Just brewed the Dundalk and everything went very smooth. I was surprised by the addition of a pound of corn sugar… Gonna be a sweet and malty beer.
OG is 1.06 and I pitched the yeast at about 64 degrees. Made sure to avoid getting a lot of sludge in primary but there is still enough that I will most likely move to secondary in a couple weeks.
This one is for a friend. His favorite type of beer is an Irish Red. Hope he likes this one when he visits mid May…
I made the Dundalk the last time it came out, (2014) and loved it. It was hit with friends too. My only criticism was a bit of burnt flavor, which could have been more roasted malt than I like, or could have been me burning some extract in the kettle. If they released the kit this year in a 3-gallon BIAB kit I would not have hesitated to order again.
It isn’t very true to the Irish Red style though. More like a Wee Heavy. This is not a complaint on my part. If your friend really loves Irish Reds, warn him the Dundalk packs more punch than a typical red.
As for the corn sugar, it does not sweeten the beer at all. If anything, it makes the beer less sweet. The corn sugar is in the recipe to increase the final ABV. Remember, the yeast gets first crack at any ingredient; they just love the corn sugar and eat it all as they produce alcohol.
Good info! Thank you
That’s really interesting that it skews more towards a Wee Heavy - I had no idea that was the case. Bottled 2 weeks ago and plan on opening the first one this weekend. Excited to see how it turns out.
Funny time to revive this thread. I’m brewing this kit again today. I have a finished starter of OYL-016 ready and waiting for this one.
As I recall from my tasting notes, the finished kit reminded me more of an Old Chub than other Irish Reds.
Have you tasted yours yet? What yeast did you pitch?
I pitched the Omega Yeast British Ale VIII, using a yeast starter. The one I tried last night was still a little green, having only been 12 days since bottling, but it struck me as more of a wee heavy than an Irish Red. The base is there for a really good beer. I’m going to wait a few more weeks before putting another one to chill in the fridge and see how it’s conditioned with a little more time.
Grant
Just an update - after 4 months in the bottle, the flavor’s really developed into something akin to a Wee Heavy, though with less of a caramel roast flavor that my Wee Heavy had. I do notice that the bottles appear to be a little more heavily carbonated than I was expecting. Worth brewing again, but would definitely keg it instead of bottle it.
Guess I finally need to suck it up and get a kegerator or build a keezer to do that…
Grant
Bottling is near the most difficult part of the process. Making sure priming sugar is equally distributed to the EXACT amount of beer is difficult. I bottled one batch. Beer was… “alright” but the carbonation was fine. Still, never bottle conditioned again.
