Hey everyone, I am finally back brewing again, it has been well over a year, as I have been building a new home here in Northern Kentucky. I am looking to make just something simple to get back into it. Extract with grains, and I want to make a Bright Red Ale. I don’t have any recipe for one, so I am looking for suggestions. I am doing a 5 gallon batch, and I am planning on doing a full boil, so I will probably start with 6.5 gallons. So if anyone has a really good recipe, that gets a really nice red color, and is willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it.
Check out my Home Run Red
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72841
. I believe there is an extract recipe given in that thread as well. Good luck, congrats on the home and welcome back to brewing. Cheers.
Thanks, I went through the post, and I can’t find the extract version. It sounds like what I am looking for. I would do the all grain recipe, but my equipment is still packed away. If you find the recipe for the extract and grain, let me know.
Oh, I could swear it was in there… my bad.
On this recipe you have some options. You could steep the C120 and Special B along with the Vienna and wheat (a lot of grains to steep but would still be okay) and when the steep is over you could add 5 lbs of light DME to the pot and go from there. You could also steep the C120, Special B and Vienna and add the 5 lbs DME and then maybe ½ pound of wheat LME, you would still come in around the recipe’s OG of 1.052 or so. The vienna is for body and mouthfeel and the wheat is for head stability so you could always skip an ingredient and just try to make it to the OG but there are a number of ways to accomplish this. The key is the 8 ounces of C120 and 8 ounces of Special B to get that color. If you wanted to just steep that one pound of grains and than make up the rest of the OG with DME, you’d still get that great color. Add the hops according to the recipe, pitch whatever yeast you like and giddy up. Good luck on the beer.
Ken,
what “style” is your red lager? would you consider it a vienna or some other german?
b.
If I make the ale, it’s American. If I make the lager, I guess I would consider it German, which is weird, right? Is there such a thing as a German Red Lager? But with the Hallertau or Tettnanger hops along with a yeast like 830 (which will actually make you speak German if you have too much of it), it’s distinctly German. Leinenkugel’s has a Red Lager that they describe as a Vienna Lager. I’m not sure I get that but I do enjoy the Leinie Red. Cheers.
I actually had a Sixer of that last night. I enjoyed it.
Ken, Here is what I have so far. Change somethings a little bit, as steeping that much grain made me nervous I wouldn’t get all I needed out of it.
7 lbs Light LME
.5 lbs Crystal 120
.5 lbs Special B
.5 lbs Wheat Malt
.5 lbs Vienna
1 oz Cascade @ 60 min
WY1335
Let me know if this looks okay or if you would change anything. I wasn’t real sure about what yeast I wanted to use so I went with what sounded interesting from WYeast website.
The best red ale that I’ve made is the Lake Front Fixed Gear kit.
LOL, I make it with 2206 and tell my friends its a Bavarian Rotesbeir.
:cheers:
Northern Kentucky could this be props to those Cincinnati Redlegs? Maybe late August I will have to do a Redlegs Red Ale. That Home Run Red Lager looks like a nice beer and you should have a decent brew with your recipe.
Okay, so I made the recipe I posted in this thread earlier, and I thank everyone for their input and advice.
I think we screwed up a little, as my brew buddy steeped the grains all the way up until the water was almost boiling. So there is a little bit of a bitter finish. But all in all, the beer is pretty good. It does have a little bit more of sweet aroma than I was expecting, but that is okay too, like I said, it is pretty good.
My question is, I put the keg under 30lbs of pressure, gave the keg a good shake, brought the pressure up to 30lbs again, and shook it again. Then I set it to 30 lbs and set it in the fridge for a couple of days. Now we are drinking it, and it pours with a really nice creamy head on it, but the mouth feel seems a little off, it doesn’t feel as though it is very carbonated. This is where I seem to have the most trouble with my beers, I cannot seem to get the carbonation level right.
Is there something I am not doing right? This is really frustrating…any help is greatly appreciated.
Yes, set the psi at 10-12, make sure the keg is cold, hook up gas, walk away and come back 2 weeks later.
Trying to speed up force carbonation will rarely give you consistant satisfactory results.
I do 25-lbs of gas for 48 hours with the beer already cold… about 35°, no shaking. This works well for me.
I have started using this method with great results, but only after going a year or so with the “set and forget” method so I had a point of comparison. Every time I have suggested a method similar to yours and what I currently do, it seems they do some variation of that with poor results. Sort of like 30 psi, shake twice, wonder why that does not work…
Set and forget is fool proof, but you gotta have a pipe line so you don’t need to rush it.
