Irish red ale yeast suggestions

Well by the feel of my keg it seems my dead ringer is almost gone. The Kama citra is still in the primary… Looking to brew another batch of Irish red ale I think.

My first batch of Irish red I made all the mistakes… It was an extract kit, I think I added too much top off water to " get that full batch ", and I misread my Irish moss package and added 10x what I should have. So I feel a need to redeem myself and brew it again.

I will try the all grain version, but I notice they have a few different choices in yeasts. Anyone have any suggestions on a good yeast for this brew ? And since the beer is going fast around here, I may try to play with beersmith and extend the target batch to 5.25 or 5.5 gal.

Should have bought that 15 gal pot…I love this stuff. Wish I discovered it 20 years ago.

I’ve always had very good results with WY 1272. This is a medium flocculant yeast. The temperature will need to be kept from dropping after the active fermentation is over for the best attenuation. I’ve had best results fermenting with this yeast under 64°F to prevent fruity flavors from developing.

I quadrupled the ingredients from the Irish red AG instructions and used Nottingham. Only because it was easy. One packet in each five gallons and just sprinkled it in. Kept it in the mid sixties until the gravity dropped and let it warm to seventies. After it was done I force carbed ten gallons and primed the other ten.

Have it on tap now and it is flavorful enough to be a nice house beer but not scary to the light beer crowd. Kind of a departure from my normal high gravity stuff.

Seems like more and more I lean towards the dry yeast because it has improved so much and is much less work. My next one will be a wheat and I’m thinking of using Safale WB rather than my standard Wyeast 3068. It doesn’t have as much banana and clove zing IMHO but again, it’s easier.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I have another question… Since my first batch, which was the chinook IPA extract, my sister in law has been strongly hinting she would like more of that. So I am contemplating now to brew up another chinook extract on the same day as the Irish red all grain. For all my extracts so far I just have used my city tap water and had no clue about the dechlorinating tablets. I am thinking about brewing this extract using distilled water. I don’t want to ruin the batch so I wanted to ask you guys what you think. So I could stick with tap water and treat it first with the dechlorinating tablet, or give the distilled water a try. It’s pretty easy for me to do either.

Thanks!

Try the distilled water for any of the water used to brew the Chinook. Even the water to make up your Star San solution. After bottle conditioning check the taste difference. If there is no taste difference go to the Campden tablets to treat your tap water if this would be more convenient.

I think you will find a brighter flavor and crispness to the Chinook hops, in my humble opinion.

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Thank you Flars, I am going to give the distilled a try and see how it comes out. It will prob be a week or two before I get to it as I have quite a bit of work travel coming up, but it will take a little time to gather everything I need anyway.

Tom

Here’s a suggestion- try WY1450, “Denny’s Favorite” in your Irish Red. It’s a very versatile yeast that works well in malty beers. It’s becoming my ‘home ale yeast’ for use in IRs, Porters, Stouts, Ambers, PAs.

1968 great year great yeast. I use it for ESB, Irish red and Porter. Just did a side by side I’m my IPA and looks like I’m going to be using that for my American beers now also

I’ll second the suggestion about 1450. I don’t know whether it is traditional or not, but it turned out great in an Irish Red for me.

I do that when bottling sometimes to try to push to 54 or so 12 oz bottles, but for kegging using a single corny, you’re stuck with less volume, usually a bit less than 5.25 and sometimes alarmingly so. My recent Oktoberfest filled to the top with a fair amount left over…(I didn’t waste it :yum: )

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Wow, lots of great suggestions thanks! Sounds like I need to do some yeast experiments.

I am going to expand my batch as it seems I usually come up a bit short by the time I get ready to keg or bottle. Maybe it’s all the hops in the IPA that suck it up.

Do the math and up the volume and the amount of grist so you can comfortably have 6+ gallons in the fermenter… Then, you can leave the trub behind and have a full keg… You don’t start brewing a 5-er with 5 gallons… Sneezles61

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I keep the domino dots around and bottle the last bit. I try to keep some head space in the keg for carbonation. Not sure how much you need though

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Ya I am not trying to fill to the brim, but my last IPA started with a 7.5 gal boil and by the time it got to the keg it seemed like 4.5 gal. Maybe a bit less.