Peter’s Irish Red Ale

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My buddy Peter got me an Irish red ale kit from a brew shop up in San Francisco, and today we brewed it up. I modified it a little from the directions that came with the kit (primarily in the steeping volumes and top-off volume), to hit a slightly higher gravity than BeerSmith calculated for a 5 gallon batch. This is the first time in my memory that I’ve brewed with aromatic or Carafa malts, so I’ll be curious to see how the flavor profile ends up. I also didn’t do Irish moss on this recipe, so I expect it will have a little more chill haze than my usual batches (and the wort seems to foreshadow this).

Peter’s Irish Red Ale

  • 1 lb. 8 oz. Maris Otter malt
  • 8 oz. 30°L crystal malt
  • 8 oz. barley flakes
  • 8 oz. aromatic malt
  • 8 oz. Carafa malt
  • 4 lbs. pilsen light dry malt extract
  • 0.5 oz. Kent Golding hops, 5.61% alpha acid (first addition, 60 minutes total)
  • 0.5 oz. Kent Golding hops, 5.61% alpha acid (second addition, 30 minutes total)
  • 1 oz. Kent Golding hops, 5.61% alpha acid (aroma, steep ~20 minutes)
  • 1 package Windsor dry yeast
Directions
  • Steep grains in 6 quarts water at ~155°, sparge with 2 quarts of water
  • Top up to 4 gallons, heat to boiling. Turn off heat, add dry malt extract.
  • Bring back to boiling, add hops. Boil for 30 minutes, add second addition and boil for another 30 minutes (60 minutes total).
  • Turn off heat, add aroma hops, cool with cooling coil.
  • Proof yeast in 2 cups of warm water.
  • Transfer wort to primary fermenter and top up to 4.67 gallons, add yeast.
  • The original gravity was 1.034 at 74°, which works out to 1.037 at 60°.
  • The beer is a touch outside of the style guide for Irish red ale, with a slightly darker color and slightly lower original gravity than in the “ideal”. Nonetheless, this should be a tasty brew!

Citation Porter Bottled

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After one month in the secondary fermenter, I bottled my Citation Porter on January 5. Final gravity was 1.014; with a starting gravity of 1.054, this calculates out to 5.3% abv. I primed the beer with 1/2 cup corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water. This is a little less than I normally do, but some of my other batches have been more carbonated than I like. Plus, porters are supposed to be on the low end of carbonation.

The final yield was 25 12-oz. bottles, 10 18-oz. bottles, and 5 22-oz bottles. At bottling, the flavor was rich and toasty, pretty close to what I had expected. I can’t wait to try this one!

Citation Porter Update

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Tonight I transferred the Citation Porter over to the secondary fermenter, in which I will leave it for about 9-10 days before bottling (it was in the primary for 9 days). At 66°, it had an s.g. of 1.014; this translates to 1.014 s.g. at 60°, so no real difference there. Down from an o.g. of 1.054, I am now at 5.3% abv.

The beer is really nice; a clean taste (no overly bitter aftertaste or any off flavors), and you can really taste the roasted notes from the roasted barley coming through.

Citation Porter

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It’s time for the 2013-2014 brewing season! My last few batches of the 2012-2013 tended on the lighter side (English-style bitters, wheat beers, etc.), so I have a hankering to do some porters and stouts. I rather like the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from Great Lakes Brewing, so I found a clone recipe and modified that. The first batch is called….Citation Porter! So named because I brewed it on the night when I saw the first two citations on Google Scholar for a paper I published earlier this year. Now will this new batch increase the impact factor of my brewery?

Citation Porter

  • 12 oz. 60°L crystal malt
  • 8 oz. chocolate malt
  • 8 oz. roasted barley
  • 3 lbs. amber dry malt extract
  • 3 lbs. light dry malt extract
  • 1 oz. Northern Brewer pellet hops (9.9% alpha acid, __ beta acid)
  • 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops (estimated 5.5% alpha acid)
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss
  • 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops (estimated 5.5% alpha acid)
  • 1 vial White Labs London Ale Yeast #WLP013 (35 mL)

Directions

  • Steep crystal malt, chocolate malt, and roasted barley in 5 quarts of water at 154° for 45 minutes. Sparge with 2 quarts water. This is a smaller steeping volume than I normally do, but I saw a recommendation indicating that this would reduce tannin leaching (i.e., use a maximum of 3 quarts water per pound of grains). Based on the taste of the final wort, I am inclined to agree. 
  • Top up brew pot to 4 gallons, bring to a boil and add dry malt extract.
  • Once wort is boiling, add Northern Brewer hops.
  • At the 30 minute mark (post-boil), add 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops.
  • At the 50 minute mark, add 1 tsp. Irish moss
  • At the 60 minute mark, turn off the heat and add the final 0.5 oz. of Cascade whole hops
  • Coil, transfer into primary fermenter (leaving behind most of the trub), (3 gallons into primary) and top up to 5 gallons.
  • Starting gravity was 1.053 at 74°, corrected to 1.054 at 60°. This is spot-on with what Beer Smith 2 calculated for the recipe.
  • Starting temperature, when I pitched the yeast, was 74°.

The wort is quite delicious, suggesting a nice final product is around the corner.

Sam’s Mead Bottled

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After conditioning in a glass carboy for four and a half months, it was finally time to bottle Sam’s Mead. The mead had settled very nicely, and was wonderfully clear. It has a light straw color, and a surprisingly smooth taste for being so young. There’s just a slight “hot” note, that I’m presuming will mellow out over the next few months.

We got 43 12-oz. bottles (and one half bottle) as well as one 22-oz. bottle. The final gravity was spot on at 1.000, down from 1.119. This works out to around 15.6% abv. Bottling was completed on April 11, 2013. We plan to open the first “official” bottle on Sam’s birthday in November, and set aside a few bottles for special occasions through the years.

The other great thing about this mead was that both sets of grandparents helped/were around for either the brewing or bottling. A true family product!