I took the day off and brewed an Irish Red ale today. It’s a great session beer. I brewed my first batch last year for my buddy Eugene’s 50th birthday party, and I immediately took a liking to it. Which says a lot about it for a hop head such as I. Did you know that you can hardly find a true Irish Red Ale any more? Sorry, Killians is a lager and it’s terrible, thanks to Coors. Murphy’s Red is also a lager. Rogue makes a version called St. Rogue’s Red, but it’s not made in the true style of an Irish Red from the Emerald Isle, as they bitter it with northwest hops. I hear that Sam Adams makes an Irish Red; I’ll have to try it if I can find it. The only other one to be found is Smithwick’s.
That pretty much leaves you to drink my version if you are around these parts. Last year’s batch was a bit too dark, so I lightened up on the specialty grains and adjusted my water chemistry a bit to reduce the residual alkalinity. The numbers look pretty good. I was shooting for a gravity of 1.053 and wound up at 1.055. Nothing wrong with a wee bit more alcohol. If I have good attenuation with my yeast, I should be able to achieve a final gravity of 1.016 and an alcohol by volume of 5.3%.
Tonight the yeast should start their party…
4 comments:
MBF: I just wish I was there for the birth of the brew. What's the SRM and proposed IBU? (I just went to a beer tasting to become a little more educated)
Should I know what a "Session" beer is?
SRM about 7; IBUs only about 25.
You sure are smart.
It's a term we geeks use to describe a beer that you can drink many glasses of in one session. Like with your buddies at the bar and you drink several of one kind of beer. As opposed to a heavy, high alcohol beer of which you may only want to drink a single glass.
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