If you were going to Americanize a European style....

[Charlie]

... like Irish Red Ale.

I brewed Pasquinelli's IRA (Zymurgy 32:2, 2009. 40-44) and I am very pleased with the results. It beats Killians's Red into a cocked hat! (so what else is new

You can review the recipe at http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13154.

It is clean, and the body and maltiness are pronounced and quite nice, so I don't think we want to "F" with that. What I do think we want to do is "F" with is the hop schedule.

How can we give this brew a more American hop profile in both bitterness and aroma? (besides chunking in a s**t load of cascade or amarillo....)

TIA,
Charlie (looking to brew the perfect American Red Ale)

[HopRunner]

I hate to go first but here's a thought.

If I were to Americanize the recipe, I would half or maybe completely drop the crystal 120 and just get the color from the roasted barley. I would do that because I personally don't like a lot of 120 flavor in my beer. I might add a handful of pale chocolate malt to help keep the color. I know you don't want to change the malts so...

The classic American recipes for pales and IPA's often use the three C's, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook. So that combination will always Americanize a brew. I'm a bit tired of that combo so I have been using a combination of Simcoe and Crystal hops. 80% Simcoe and 20% Crystal for the 60 minute boil and 80% Crystal and 20% Simcoe at flameout. Adjust quantities to match your desired IBU's. I think putting a big blast of late hops would be a very "American" thing to do.

I would also use a very clean, hop accentuating yeast like the WLP001 instead of the 004.

Hope something in there is useful.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I hate to go first but here's a thought.

If I were to Americanize the recipe, I would half or maybe completely drop the crystal 120 and just get the color from the roasted barley. I would do that because I personally don't like a lot of 120 flavor in my beer. I might add a handful of pale chocolate malt to help keep the color. I know you don't want to change the malts so...

The classic American recipes for pales and IPA's often use the three C's, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook. So that combination will always Americanize a brew. I'm a bit tired of that combo so I have been using a combination of Simcoe and Crystal hops. 80% Simcoe and 20% Crystal for the 60 minute boil and 80% Crystal and 20% Simcoe at flameout. Adjust quantities to match your desired IBU's. I think putting a big blast of late hops would be a very "American" thing to do.

I would also use a very clean, hop accentuating yeast like the WLP001 instead of the 004.

Hope something in there is useful.

I think you are living up to your new avatar!

[Phil_L]

Kolsch?

that would be nice?

[Quin]

You could use the Firestone Walker model. Reduce 60 min hops to about 5 IBUs. Increase/Add hops at 15,5,0, dry hops, etc. to get desired IBUs, flavor, and aroma in final product (still using Fuggles & EKG).

[Charlie]

Those are good ideas, and the more I think about it, the more I think I should mess with the grain bill.

Recently I brewed a series of three American Pale Ales using all pale 2 row, 1/2 pale 1/2 Marris Otter, and all Marris Otter for the base malt. Other than that the brews were identical. My conclusion was that all MO was a bit too heavy, all pale was a bit too light, and half and half was about right.

So I'm tempted to sub 1/2 pale and 1/2 MO in the recipe, mod the hop schedule as suggested, and wing it. But what I'm going to do is sit down with my copy of Brewing Classic Styles and see if I can pull some sort of American vs European style gestalt out of the hat.

Charlie

[Phil_L]

You could use the Firestone Walker model. Reduce 60 min hops to about 5 IBUs. Increase/Add hops at 15,5,0, dry hops, etc. to get desired IBUs, flavor, and aroma in final product (still using Fuggles & EKG).

also called the Oakham method. and a few others over here.

[Field]

you could also try to replace some of the pale malt with Paul's Mild Ale malt, 4 SRM with higher dextrins for more body

I use it for American Amber Ales for some of the base malt, gives the malt profile a different base than pale ales/IPAs and then you don't need as much crystal