Irish Honey Red Ale

This recipe which is found on homebrewtalk.com caught my eye so I decided to try it out. The total cost was $56 + tax from Noble Grape.

Recipe Info

• Type: Partial Mash
• Batch Size: 6 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.06 (guess based on late honey add.)
• Final Gravity: 1.008
• IBU: ?
• Boil Time: 60 min
• Color: Garnet Red

Original Ingredients

• Malt 8lbs. Pale Liquid malt Extract
• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey
• Grain(s) 1.5lbs 120L Crystal
• 1.5lb Belgian Special B
• 1lb Flaked Rye
• 1oz Cluster (Boil 60 min)
• 1oz Cluster (30 min)
• 1oz Cascade, 6%, (30 min)
• 1 oz Cascade (last 10 min)
• Yeast White Labs Irish Ale Yeast
  

Actual Ingredients

Noble Grape didn't have some of the ingredients so I substituted some of them

• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey -> 2lbs Nova Scotian Non-Pasturized Honey
• 1lb Flaked Rye -> 0.3kg Malted Rye
• 2oz Cluster hops -> 2oz Galena Hops

Brewing

Brewed on August 23, 2009

Day 1

The liquid yeast manufacture date was mid June so I let the yeast prepare for a day before I did the boil. Thus the yeast was started on August 22.

Day 2

Began steeping the grains for approximately 20 minutes. Smell of the steep was very strong with a hint of chocolate smell.


After the steep was completed I brought the water to a boil while adding only 3/4 of the malted rye. Added the hops as per schedule and topped it off with the remaining 1/4 of the malted rye at the last 5 min of the boil.

At the end of the boil I cooled the pot and transfered it to the primary fermenter. The boil pot contained a significant amount of grains leftover which I dumped in the compost. This is the first recipe where it was mostly grain-based so I'm not sure if this is common or not. Hopefully dumping the grains won't affect the outcome of the beer.

After about 1.5 days I added the honey. The honey was added to 4 cups of water and pasteurize in the oven at 180 degrees for 3 hours. I didn't have a big enough casserole dish to heat 12 cups of water and I also didn't think that the primary would fit 12 cups. Hopefully it doesn't screw up the beer.



Review

I really screwed up on this recipe. Substituting the Cluster hops for Galena was a really bad decision. The Galena hops made the beer taste very grassy and there is virtually no honey taste in the beer at all. The color was really dark, almost similar to a really dark brown ale with a tint of red.

Conclusion

I am really disappointed with this beer, however I am eager to try it again with the correct ingredients. Never again will I substitute hops unless I get approval from other master brewers.