Since I can’t wait for two more months to drink the Belgian Tripel and I only have a dozen Bavarian heffe’ left, we are going to do an extract 5 gallon batch of the Irish red ale.
If you guys were brewing this… Would you add anything extra to enhance the flavor or boost the ABV ?
I’m not seeking anything in particular just curious to try something as an experiment without totally jeopardizing the batch.
After this batch I should have my all grain set up complete and will give that a try.
Nope. Unless you can’t stand I.R.s I would leave this one as it is(is it the NB kit?). The beauty of an Irish Red is it’s ready for packaging quickly and ready to drink within 3 weeks from the time it hits the bucket. Although I do my own recipe now, I have done the NB kit multiple times in the past. It turns out a beautiful clear red, nice malty beer.
But, having said that, if you prefer a hoppier brew, you can always hit it with a C-hop at 20 and 5 minutes and again as a dryhop and make something more like an American Amber.
I had my best results with this extract brew by adding all the extract at the beginning of the boil and fermenting WY 1272 not over 64°F.
Seems adding all the extract at the beginning of the boil enhanced the malt and mellowed the 60 minute bitterness. The cool fermentation reduced fruity flavors.
Just tapped a keg of that kit. I added a pound of table sugar just for the slight boost. I have been doing kits while away from our northern home and made it without boiling the extract. I will post a thread on how that went but so far my wife seems to be in a competition to drink more of it than me So I guess it turned out good.
I also used Kveik yeast do to the lack of temp control I have right now.
So I guess it turned out good.