Named for the housemate who inspired it. My housemate Steve Kieffer kept asking if I could brew a "Red Ale" or in his words "I love Killians can you do something like that". Explaining that Killians isn't really an Ale seemed less helpfull than just making a beer and seeing how it went over. Hence my own recipe for an "American Red Beer".
In formulating the recipe I was mainly interested in keeping the beer light red in color, but still giving it "real beer" taste. The final beer is about as light as a "Killians" but still manages to have a full body. And it pleases almost everyone. Those who fear homebrew aren't put off by it because it looks "Americanized", those who love beer like it because it still tastes great. Overal this beer has been almost as popular as my Apple Ale.
Feel free to change the extract around a bit. I originally planned on 6-7 Lbs. of "light dry malt extract" but my local shop only had 3lbs. of light and 3lbs. of "gold". So I figgured what they heck. I had never heard of "gold" before but it appears to be right inbetween Light and Amber extracts. Now I wish I could find it more often.
Recipe Ingredients:
1/4 Lb. Roasted Barley*
1/4 Lb. Black Patent Malt
1/2 Lb. Crystal Malt
3 Lb. Light Dry Malt Extract
3 Lb. Gold Light Dry Malt Extract
1/2 Oz. Cascade Hops (Boil)
1 Oz. Willamette Hops (Boil)
1 1/2 Oz. Hallertau Hops (Aroma)
1 Oz. Willamette Hops (Finishing)
1 Small Frozen Mystery Hop**
1 Tsp. Gypsum (Opt.)
1 Pinch Irish Moss (Opt.)
* I coulden't find any roasted barley so I cheated and just roasted some plain barley malt in my oven. I doubt this is really "roasted barley" but it's what I used
** The Mystery Hop in question came from a hop bine growing on the porch of some guy who lives one street away from my home. For more information see my Adventures with hops.
METHOD: Crack the malts and add them to 2 gallons of 150-degree F (66 C) water and hold for 30 minutes. Add malt extract and boiling hops and boil for 45 minutes to an hour also add the gypsum at this time. Add aroma hops and boil an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Add Finishing hops and Irish Moss. Sparge into fermenter and cold water. Add additional water to reach 5 gallons total. Pitch yeast as soon as temperature will allow. When fermentation is complete boil Corn Sugar and Priming Malt in 1 pint of water and add to wort before bottling.
YEAST: Ideally I'd use Wyest "American Ale" to ferment this brew, but at the time I didn't have a handy source and used EDME dry Ale yest instead. With the addition of a two step ferment this still managed to give great results.
FERMENT: I highly recomend a two stage ferment for all homebrew. This recipe is no exception. I gave it one week in the Primary, one week in the Seconday, and then two weeks before tasting.
GRAVITIES:
Due to my disorganized bookeeping I'm note sure if there are the reading for this batch or the pale ale I brewed next.
O.G. 1.048
F.G. - Into Secondary: 1.018
F.G. - Into Bottles: 1.011
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