What is an Irish Red?

There is beer of all different colors. An American Lager is very pale straw to very pale yellow, while a stout is generally jet black. There is one color that sometimes goes un noticed. This color is red.

American red ale is an American style of beer made with a proportion of caramel and specialty malts, causing the beer to become more red in pigment. The focus on the American style is the malt. American reds are much hoppier than Irish reds because the American palate loves those bitter, hoppy notes in its beers.

Like its American counterpart, Irish red ales tend to lean on the emphasis of the malt content. An Irish red is an easy-drinking pint, often with subtle flavors. Slightly malty in the balance sometimes with an initial soft toffee/caramel sweetness, a slightly grainy-biscuity palate, and a touch of roasted dryness in the finish. Some versions can emphasize the caramel and sweetness more, while others will favor the grainy palate and roasted dryness. Irish reds can be brewed as ales or lagers, and the roasted grain characteristic of the malt leads to a dry finish in both. Brewed as a lager, an Irish red should have a lager profile. Brewed as an ale, the beer will have some esters, but the ester profile should be very restrained and subtle, just enough so you know the beer was brewed as an ale.

How do you brew an award wining Irish Red Ale?

Most brewers prefer to use a British Pale Ale malt, such as Maris Otter, as the base as opposed to American 2-row. The British malts are usually a little darker and add a mild malty flavor with slight nuttiness and biscuit characteristics.

For the caramel or toffee character in this beer, the obvious choice is caramel/crystal specialty malts. What isn’t obvious is where the reddish-copper color comes from. While one might be tempted to go heavy on the caramel-type malts to get both caramel flavor and a reddish color, doing so would most likely result in too much caramel flavor and not enough color. The deep reddish copper color comes from a small dose of highly kilned grain that also adds to the dry finish of the beer. Dark roasted grain can quickly overwhelm this beer’s flavor profile, so caution and precise measuring are important. In this beer style, you’re looking for a balance of all flavor elements and being too bold in any one area will miss the mark.

Target a bitterness-to-starting gravity ratio (IBU divided by OG) between 0.4 and 0.6. You’re trying to achieve a slightly sweet start to the beer, with a balanced overall character, and a slightly dry finish. Normally, a single addition at 60 minutes is all you need. If you want a beer with some hop character, a moderate later addition, around 20 minutes is acceptable. Hop choice for bittering and flavor is fairly flexible. Kent Goldings, Fuggle, Challenger, Target, Perle and Magnum all work well. Don’t use citrusy or catty American-type hops.

This style can be fermented as either an ale or lager, though my preference is to brew it as an ale. Regardless, temperature control during fermentation is also very important. You want the beer to attenuate enough so that it doesn’t have a sweet finish and you want to ferment it cold enough that any esters are restrained and the beer has a fairly clean character. While some commercial examples have a touch of diacetyl, keep any buttery flavors and aromas to an absolute minimum for the best results in competition.

Two great yeasts for brewing this style are White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale and Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale. If you want to use dry yeast, Lalbrew Nottingham or Ferments US-05 are great substitutes. Irish ale yeast provides the right low-ester profile but is only moderately attenuative. You’ll need to pitch the proper amount of clean, healthy yeast and keep a close eye on fermentation temperatures to ensure good attenuation. If you choose to go the lager route, you can use any continental lager strain with acceptable results.

Commercial Examples: Caffrey’s Irish Ale, Franciscan Well Rebel Red, Kilkenny Irish Beer, O’Hara’s Irish Red Ale, Porterhouse Red Ale, Samuel Adams Irish Red, Smithwick’s Irish Ale