I am very excited because I got one of my closest friends into brewing. He bought the basic brew kit from Midwest supplies and it came with than Irish Red Ale kit. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly a style he enjoys. I thought I would help him tweak the recipe a bit to come up with West Coast Style Red Ale, since he does love IPAs.
Having a little trouble thinking about what types of hops to use. Was thinking of keeping it simple and going with just a little Magnum for bitting then some Cascade/Centennial and dry hop this some Cascade and Amarillo. I’ve never been a big red fan so don’t know how well all of this would play out. Some thoughts on my recipe would be greatly appreciated.
1.061
IBU: 53.3
Color: 14.2
6 lb Golden LIght LME
2 lb DME
1lb Carared
12 oz Crystal 40L
2 oz Special b
2 oz Roasted Barley
.5 oz Magnum (60 min)
.75 oz Cascade (15 min)
.75 oz Centennial (15 min)
.75 oz Cascade (5 min)
.75 oz Centennial (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (dry hop 7 days)
1 oz Amarillo (dry hop 7 days)
I agree with cutting the roasted barley…that may produce more astringency than you want…for a west cost red beer IMO. I would cut out the crystal40L also…You have enough color and body with those other malts.
Are you thinking of a red like Deschutes Brewery’s Red Chair…what they are calling a NWPA? Since your friend is an IPA drinker?
If so I think the Special B will give you more dried fruit/rasin-date character than is in those style beers…but maybe that would be a nice twist. Red Chair has some Munich in it and some crystal but no special B. Your hop bill looks good…the only suggestion I would lend is possibly substituting Simcoe, Citra or Zeus for the Cascade dry hop addition.
At any rate I’m probable making matters more confusing. You’re on the right track…for sure.
Thanks guys! As someone pointed out to me on another forum, if my friend likes IPAs why not just make an IPA. The extract is the expensive part of the kit. In the end I totally over thought this. So I am scraping the whole thing and helping do a Stone IPA clone. :cheers:
