T-minus 45 days.

St Patrick's Day is not that far away. So here's the red ale, with a bit of a tweak. I'm hoping that the rose will come through but not be overpowering. If it works, I'd like to add rose hips to the recipe, too, since they contribute a bit of color as well as a citrusy tartness. The extra time to sit in the keg should help the rose mellow a bit and blend with the caramel and honey in this.

Batch #54
Irish Rose Ale
--11.75lbs 2-row RAHR
--4oz Honey Malt
--6oz Crystal 40L
--6oz Crystal 120L
--4oz Carafa II (30m mash)
--4oz rose water (15m)
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--2oz Cascade 7.5%AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast, 1L starter
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: ~40

Mash in all grains except carafa at 154F in ~17qts water. Stir in carafa after 30m. Batch sparge with ~17qts hot water for mash out to 168F. I collected 6.75gal wort.

Wat.

Update 9-4 - Kegged. Cleared the keg with CO2, racked, set seals, put in fridge at 40F with 10psi. Also, very tasty, with a nice aroma.
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Update 8/28 - Racked to secondary. 1.5oz Willamette added. Tastes great. Will keg in a few days.
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I brewed up a batch of St. Rogue Red Ale clone last night. I made a bittering hop substitution since the shop was out of Chinook. An ounce of Magnum gave me a slightly higher AAU than the recipe called for. That in combination with the faster evaporation rate than expected led me to do a 75 minute boil instead of 90. The problem, though, is that my gravity came out 10 points shy. TEN! Even more irritating is that the hydrometer reading actually dropped between lauter and flame out. So my initial mash gravity reading of 1.043 (which would be perfect!), was probably high due to stratification in the collection vessel (despite my efforts to stir it around). This means that my overall efficiency is low...back to the books, eh?

Batch #19
St. Rogue (with substitutions)
--7 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt (RAHR)
--1 lb Dark Munich (recipe calls for "Munich", but this smelled tastier)
--1 lb Crystal 15L
--1.25 lbs Crystal 40L
--1 lb Crystal 75L
--1 oz Magnum 13.1% AA (75min)*
--1 oz Centennial 10.4% AA (2min + whirlpool)*
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1L starter)
OG: 1.040 [target 1.052 >:( ]
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4%
Calc. IBU: 45ish

*Recipe calls for ~ 10AAU Magnum for 90 minutes, and ~ 10AAU Cent. in whirlpool or hopback

Mashed grains for 60 minutes at 155F. Sparged with water at 168-170, extracting 6.5gal. The recipe calls for 6 gallons wort + 0.5 gallons water. I thought that was stupid.

At flame out, I removed the bittering hops, gave the wort a whirl with the Centennial. Chilled to about 70, and pitched just the slurry from my starter. Lag time of more than 3 but fewer than 10 hours (I sleep sometimes). I'll likely secondary with the leftover Willamette from the pumpkin brew to give it some more hop aroma.

St Patty's is just 60 days away...

...which means we've started brewing for that. We also now have our draft tower and tap handles are on the way.

The dunkelweizen is very tasty, if a little too hoppy and in need of another few weeks aging.

First up, the red. This is the version of Dana's Smilin' Irish Eyes Red Ale that I found at beerrecipes.org, with hop substitutions and a little extra bitterness. I've seen this recipe calling for 1/2# and for 1# of Special B.

Batch #6
"Dana's Smilin' Irish Eyes" Red Ale
Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs P004)
--6 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract (liquid)
--1 lb Belgian Special B
--1 lb Orange Blossom Honey (with 15min hop addition)
--1 oz Palisade 9.7%AA (60min)
--1 oz Amarillo 8.9%AA (15min)
--1 oz Amarillo 8.9%AA (0min)
--1 Whirlfloc tablet (15min)
OG:
FG: 1.01
ABV: ~5.2%
Calc. IBUs: 60

Specialty grains steeped from cold up to 170F (giving ~20 minutes between 150 and 170). Extract added all at once. First hop after hot break. Yielded 5 gallons in the fermenter for me. My hydrometer is currently hanging out with the Malty Brown, so no numbers there yet (should be ~1.05).

The First Batch

Welcome! This blog will be dedicated to our foray into the world of homebrewed beer. For me it started when the ladyfriend and I slipped into a brew supply store a few months back and decided to give it a go. As our first attempt, we brewed an irish red ale from an extract kit. A month later and a tasty red was in our glasses. Onward and upward...

The Beer
Batch #1
Irish Red Ale (MoreBeer Kit145), English Ale Yeast (White Labs)
Fermented in primary for 2 weeks, no secondary.
OG: 1.048 (temp. corrected from 1.046)
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.7%-5%
I lost my original notes on this one, so no recipe or calculated IBUs.

This is a good one. There's a reason the kit's a top seller. MoreBeer recommends the Irish Ale yeast, but the English Ale yeast was suggested to me by an employee at the shop and it does not disappoint.