Irish Red Ale made with Red Shed

In all of my beer travels I’ve found that nobody does Red Ales as well as Alberta. Our province is fortunate to have so many great examples of Irish Red Ales and other Red Ales. Red Hart and Sawback have excellent examples as part of their core lineups since day one and of course Balzac nails the style. (you’ll notice some overlap on breweries getting recognition with last month’s Dry Irish Stout as there are a handful of breweries in Alberta that thrive in crafting British (and Irish) styles using Albertan ingredients). We gravitate towards Red Ales that have a touch of nutty flavour which can be achieved using our Amber malt.

Vital Statistics:

ABV: 4.75%   SRM: 18   IBU: 21   OG: 1.05   FG: 1.014

Ingredients:

Yeast: Escarpment Labs Irish Ale

Strike Water Temperature: 73°C

Water Profile: Edinburgh

Mash Rest Temperature: 64°C

Mash pH: 5.4

Brewing Process:

Mash:

• Heat strike water to 73°C.
• Add all malt and brewing salts to strike water.
• Mash in at a temperature of 64°C.
• Acidify the mash water as necessary to achieve a mash pH of 5.3–5.5.
• Hold the mash at 64°C for 60 minutes.
• Mash out by raising the temperature to 78°C for 10 minutes.

Sparge:

• Sparge the mash with water acidified to a pH between 5.2 and 5.7.

Boil:

• Bring the collected wort to a boil.
• Add bittering hops (Tettnang) at the beginning of the boil (60 minutes).
• Add flavor hops (Tettnang), Whirlfloc, and Yeastex at 10 minutes.

Cooling:

• After boiling for 60 minutes, cool the wort rapidly using a wort chiller or an ice bath.

Fermentation:

• Transfer the cooled wort to the fermenter.
• Aerate the wort by shaking or using an aeration stone.
• Pitch Irish Ale yeast at a temperature of 18°C.
• Ferment at a temperature of 20°C.
• Monitor fermentation until the final gravity is consistent for 3 days.
• Once fermentation is complete, proceed to canning, bottling or kegging.
• Carb to 2.6 – 2.8 volumes of CO2