#22 - Raging Red Ale [All Grain]

I had an Odell's Red Ale recently and while I enjoyed the flavour I didn't enjoy the €7 price tag. I had been contemplating brewing a red ale since making the Ruby Red Ale kit. I knew I couldn't replicate that unique, sweet, hoppy aroma and flavour that is common across most of the Odell's range but I wanted something similar. While searching for a recipe I discovered that they used to brew a beer called "Extra Special Red Ale". I found an all grain recipe (see end of post) for this beer and modified it based on the ingredients which I could find in my local home brew store. 

The fist issue with this recipe is that it doesn't really conform to any BJCP style guide lines. Its really an imperial red ale but that style doesn't exist. I have put it in as an american amber ale due to its deeper red colour but even at that all the other categories are maxed out for the style. An American IPA style might have fitted better perhaps but does it really matter? 

My efficiency has been consistently poor in the 50 to 60% range so I have been adding more grain to account for this. I also forgot that the plumber had replaced my tap in the kitchen so my hose to tap connection, for hooking up the wort chiller, no longer fitted at all. I had to fill my mash tun with water and run that through the chiller instead which was a pain. After nearly an hour of water slowly trickling through the wort chiller, the temperature was down to 28degrees C, being impatient and tried after the brew day I decided to pitch the yeast at this temperature. It was fine and kicked off the next day, it is still in the primary fermenter so I don't know whether I will pay for that impatience later in terms of affects on flavour. 

Recipe: Extra Special Red Ale
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 26.21 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 35.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 79.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.0 EBC)         Grain         1        46.2 %        
2000.00 g             Munich Malt (14.0 EBC)                   Grain         2        30.8 %        
500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         3        7.7 %         
500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (200.0 EBC)   Grain         4        7.7 %         
500.00 g              Munich Malt - 10L (22.0 EBC)             Grain         5        7.7 %         
35.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           6        46.9 IBUs     
15.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min         Hop           7        18.4 IBUs     
7.00 g                Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           8        7.2 IBUs      
15.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min   Hop           9        4.8 IBUs      
15.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min    Hop           10       2.6 IBUs      
30.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min    Hop           11       0.0 IBUs      
30.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         13       -             
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 6500.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash In           Add 12.11 l of water at 168. 152.0 F                60 min          
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 23l) of 168.1 F water

#13 - Pinnaple and Grape dessert wine [Juice]

This brew was suggested on a local forum as being delicious and in my never ending , and so far unsuccessful, attempts to create a SWMBO friendly brew, I went for it. It took a few private messages to the user who posted it but I finally got the full recipe.

This was the users recipe:

2ltrs aldi pineapple juice
1ltr aldi white/red grape juice
600grms sugar/to o.g. 1090
Yeast
Pectolyse

Notes:
Add all to d.j. and fill to shoulder with water(watch out for a big ferment as it can spill over in the first couple off days)after ferment is finished rack and add more water if needed and use finings (i use bentonite)
bottle and drink.

After the fermentation is complete the must needs to be stabilised. This can be done by adding 1 crushed campden tablet and half a teaspoon of potassium sorbate to 1 gallon of must. I also added bentonite to clear the must. I just mixed up the bentonite solution and added the campden tab and potassium sorbate to it also. I let this sit for 30 minutes and added it to the must. A significant amount of sediment is created from both the dead yeast and suspended solids.

The final gravity after stabilisation was 1008, I think I should have stopped the fermentation earlier as it was too dry for my taste. I bottled the brew and samples over a period of several weeks were the same, it tasted like chemical flavoured silage. It wasn't really drinkable and unfortunately had to be dumped. :(

#9 - St. Peters Ruby Red Ale [Kit]

I was informed about this kit after seeing a couple of videos making the kit and later tasting it. I was impressed by the little bit of extra hops that they supplied and it fed my urges to have more control over my batches. The kit also came highly recommended from several sources so I decided to give it a shot after seeing it stocked in my local home-brew store. 

This brew is quite slow to ferment and it really needs to be left in the primary fermenter for a full 2 weeks as it took nearly a week for the beer to get from a FG of 1018 down to 1016. I had a similar experience to that in the tasting video as I opened a bottle after 2 weeks and was very underwhelmed. I had high expectations yet the head retention was quite poor but the taste was still quite nice. 

This image is after opening a brew almost 2 months after bottling, I think I got a bad leaky bottle as there was very little hiss when I opened the bottle (Coopers Plastic bottles). The head disappeared relatively soon but the taste was quite nice. The colour is pretty much as you would expect. I'm hoping that by the time I have the next beer tasting it will have "sorted itself out". :) Overall a nice brew and I would recommend it. 

Stats:
Started - 10.7.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 20.7.11
Bottled - 21.7.11
Code - 1009
Yeast Brand - St. Peters Premium
Yeast Code - XHZB6G
Y-Temp - 26.0 
Beer/Product Type -  St Peters Ruby Red Ale
Malt/Sugar Type - Rye Malt Extract, Barley Malt Extract, Hops
Volume -  23.0L
OG - 1044
FG - 1016
Proof  - 4.25% (Including 0.5% for priming)

#8 - Red Wine* [Juice]

At this point I decided I was confident enough to attempt a small red wine batch. I started looking for grape juice in my local supermarket but the closest I could find at the time was a juice which was 70% red grape with the rest a mix of raspberry and cherry. I also bought some blackberries for a late addition. 

Wine Recipe

Wine Recipe & Guidelines

• 1 tsp of allspice

• 550g Caster Sugar

• 4L Red Grape And Raspberry Cherry (Not From Concentrate)

• 500ml Bottled water

• 300g Blackberries  

Add the allspice granules to 500ml of water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes.Then add the sugar in portions while stirring.This will cause the sugar to dissolve into the solution.Leave this solution to boil for 5 minutes.  

Crush, juice or grind all of the blackberries into a pulp. Take the solution off the hot plate and add the pulp to the hot water and stir in gently. Put the solution back on the hot plate and bring to the boil then turn off the heat and take it off. 

Thankfully I didn't go to bed early the night I made this brew. It was the first time I have ever had to use a blow off tube. I was minding my own business, reading home-brew forums probably and I glanced over towards the freshly made brew (2 or 3 hours I would say). Sure enough grape and cherry trub as spewing out though the airlock! Normally I would have started having a heart attack at this point but thankfully my months of reading forums and watching YouTube videos finally paid off. The solution was to simply use a blow off tube and bottle of water which did the trick.

I recently tried the wine after letting it age in bottles for 2 months. It was bloody disgusting! That was what I get for using the last of the champaign yeast for this batch. I now officially HATE champaign yeast and will not buy it again and I really don't know why it is recommended for recipes above a normal wine yeast! The wine itself was very very slightly carbonated but it tasted like champaign which I don't really like at the best of times. Basically it was rocket fuel which homeless men one the street wouldn't even drink. Another batch down the drain unfortunately but valuable lessons learned.

Stats:

Started - 6.6.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 15.6.11
Bottled - 7.7.11
Code - 1008
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 24.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Red Wine
Malt/Sugar Type - Grape, Raspberry, Cherry & Blackberry Juice with 550g of sugar
Volume -  4.8L
OG - 1094
FG - 998
Proof  - 12.87%