Irish Red Ale
Brew day number one on the way to eighty-two styles features two Irish beer styles. First is the Irish Red Ale. The base malt was Maris Otter (10#) with Cara 40 (6 oz) and Cara 120 (6 oz) for sweetness and black barley (4 oz) to bring the color into the correct range. With a pretty standard mash OG came in at 1.054. Yeast was WLP004 / Irish Ale and the only hop addition was 1.25 oz of East Kent Goldings at 60 minutes. Fermentation finished at 1.014. The IBUs overshot the style by a hair but otherwise the numbers all came in where they belong. This isn’t one of my favorite styles but I do think it’s a successful beer. Sweetness is the predominant flavor but it’s quite clean with enough bitterness to avoid being cloying. The color is definitely coppery when it catches the light.
Dry Stout
The other beer from the first day was a Dry Stout. The base malt was also Maris Otter (5.75#) along with lots of barley – both flaked (2#) and black (0.75#). There was also de-bittered black (0.25#) to get that great motor oil color. This mash included a fifteen minute protein rest because of all that barley. OG was 1.048. Once again the yeast was WLP004 and the only hop addition was East Kent Goldings at 60 minutes but this beer needed 1.75oz of hops. Fermentation stopped at an appropriately dry FG of 1.010. The stout hit all its numbers but the ABV was right on the line. Dry stout is a style I like and I like this particular example quite a lot. It’s big and roasty without being overly bitter. Despite the dryness it has plenty of body and of course the perfect jet black color. Granted, black is probably the easiest color to create.