Irish Red Ale

Ireland's answer to England's pale ales, Irish-style red ales range from light red-amber-copper to light brown in color. These ales have a medium hop bitterness and flavor. They often don’t have hop aroma. Irish-style red ales have low to medium candy-like caramel sweetness and a medium body. The style may have low levels of fruity-ester flavor and aroma. Diacetyl should be absent. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. Slight yeast haze is acceptable for bottle-conditioned products.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound 20º L crystal malt

• 1/4 pound roasted barley

• 1/4 pound Munich malt

• 6 pounds light malt extract

• 1 ounce Northern Brewer hops

• 1 ounce Fuggles hops

• 1 teaspoon Irish moss

• Wyeast 1084 Irish ale yeast

• 3/4 cup corn sugar

Instructions:

1. Place the crushed specialty grains in a nylon hop bag and steep them in 1 gallon of preheated 150º water for 30 minutes.

2. Drain and discard the spent grains.

3. Bring at least 3 gallons of liquor to a boil, remove the brew kettle from the heat source then stir in the extract and the Northern Brewer hops.

4. Return the brew kettle to the heat source and boil for 45 minutes, then add the Irish moss and the Fuggles hops.

5. Boil for an additional 15 minutes, then remove the brew kettle from the heat source, cover it and drop the temperature of the wort as quickly as possible to 77º F.

6. Once the wort has cooled to below 77º F, take an original gravity reading, pour the wort into a primary fermenter through a funnel with a strainer and add enough cool water to create 5 gallons.

7. Once the wort has been transferred to the primary fermenter, pitch the yeast, stir the wort vigorously, seal the fermenter with an airlock and ferment at approximately 68-72º F for 2 weeks.

8. Rack the beer to a secondary fermenter and allow the beer to finish fermentation.

9. Once fermentation is complete, rack the beer to a bottling bucket, prime with the corn sugar and bottle and condition as usual.