Well sitting in front of the wood stove after shoveling 18" of snow drinking my awesome ESB. Feeling quite mellow and thinking about brewing an Irish red for st Patrick’s day. How about I brew this recipe with a splash of roasted barley and call it an Irish red. From what I’ve gathered an Irish red started life as a pale ale anyway.
What yeast will you use for it the Esb yeast?
Correct 1968esb yeast
I just brewed a simple recipe Irish red last weekend that was in byo September issue and used west yorkshire in five gallons and other five gallons added yeast bays Flanders.
I say go for it. I would try and drink it. On my two Irish reds planing on kegging three gallon of each and blending the the rest
You could really freak people out and pulverize a couple ounces of black malt and toss it in the boil. I haven’t tried it yet, but apparently you get great color extraction and it falls out with the break material. I might try it this weekend, actually.
I’ve made more than a dozen IRs over the past 5 years, and will say that WY1450 Denny’s 50 yeast makes the best IMO.
I’ll keep that in mind but I’ll have to brew it with what I have
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So I have to admit, I’m kind of confused on the style. I’ll admit that I don’t know the history. But you know what it reminds me of? Mild ale. Basically take an old school pale ale, cut back on the hops, and serve it as a running ale.
Not sure why mild ale got dark, but swap out the caramel syrup and dark invert and sub some black malt. Boom. Irish red. It kind of makes sense. Hit it with some flavorful base malt, sub some Munich or Vienna if you can’t, and darken it with roast malts. Keep ibu down.
Basically mild ale. Am I missing something?
That’s what the book says but of course I’ll kick it up to my liking. A higher abv and IBU than a standard Irish red. Probably an Irish red in name only
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This is a style I’ve never brewed to my liking. I brewed NBs Irish Red a few times and it was ok, i’ve also tried smithwycks’ clone recipes. One thing I discovered is I don’t really like Fuggles hops and I find that english and irish ale yeasts turn out a sweet fruity ale with the sometimes complex grain bills you find with this style. Maybe you’re on the right track with keeping the grain bill simple. I’ve read that Killian’s is actually a lager. Maybe that’s the secret?
George Killian must have really been German since it’s brewed by Coors 
I do think it’s a lager though.
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I was reading about a beer called big red lager that got my interest. It’s true I don’t think I’ve ever had a Irish red or scotch ale that I liked except killians. I haven’t had killians in a long time so not sure if that would be the case. Actually last year I tried to brew one but used to much dark malts. I split the batch one with lager yeast and one with ale yeast. I ended up with a brown ale and a black lager. People preferred the lager I didn’t really like either .
I just googled it and it is now a lager but apparently when Coors bought the name not the recipe it originally brewed it as an ale. I think in the mid 90s it changed to lager.Not sure which I had.
Either way I’m brewing mine as an ale.
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Not sure if you can get it where your at but if you can you must try 3floyds Robert the Bruce scottish ale if you have never had a Scottish ale that you liked it will most likely change your mind about scottish ales.
American red… I like what your doing and Pork Chop has an intriguing idea of crushing some roast malt thingy… This why whats so fun about this hobby, you don’t HAVE to follow guide lines to a tee. Own it Brew Cat… Isn’t there more snow coming too? Sneezles61
Interesting idea to lager it… maybe ferment with 1084 or an English strain, on the cool side, and then lager it for a few weeks. Maybe even use a kolsch yeast. One of those top-fermented lagerbier thingies that people get up in arms about classifying. Funny thing how the Germans traditionally didn’t classify their beers as ales and lagers (neither did the English). Just top-fermented and bottom-fermented lagers.
Easiest way to make an Irish red, though, is to take away his liquor. Womp womp.
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I’ll just have it with a shot of Tullamore dew to make traditional
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