Homebrew Review: Hoppy Red Ale

Since Heathen Crusade III, about a year ago, I’ve been trying to perfect a hoppy red ale; something with a nice caramel backbone but with citrusy hops to finish. This is my third attempt. All of them previously haven’t been to my liking, but this one is by far my favourite.

Review:
I poured myself a pint of this ale into my New Glarus mug because it has a pint line compared to most other glasses I own. The head on the beer is quite large probably coming from the carbonation because the head dissipated fairly quickly. It has been sticking around as a ring since it has dissipated. The clarity isn’t great; it's slightly hazy. I can see through at the bottom of the glass, but not the entire glass. I think it’s mostly from not chilling the beer fast enough.

The nose on the beer is filled with spiciness with undertones of floral citrus hops. I can barely get some caramel notes, but it’s there, just in the background. The spicy notes dominate the nose, which isn’t really what I expected. When taking a sip of the beer the citrus/spice flourish. I also get a nice caramel bready flavour that lingers after the hops leave. What is nice about the flavour of this beer is that it isn’t a straight forward hoppy beer (like I mostly make), but it has a great malt back bone. The caramel sweetness almost has a plum flavour that I can barely pick up. If you’ve ever had a Bells Two Hearted, you’ll know the distinct hoppiness from centennial hops, and that flavour shines through, but the when mixing with Columbus hops there a unique flavour. It’s something of a floral citrus mixed with the spiciness that is in the nose. I can’t quite describe the spiciness except you can feel the resin in it. As I swish the beer in my mouth, I get a slight bit of alcohol, but here is also a nice mineral/estery flavour in the backend from the yeast. I’ve really come to enjoy Wyeast 1028 yeast immensely. The yeast gives another dimension to hoppy beers. I don’t like a lot of carbonation in my beers, so I didn’t carbonate this much, and I think the body is thinner than I expected; to my surprise, however, the bitternes fits incredibly with the beer. I didn’t use any bittering hops, only hops from 20 minutes to 5 minutes.

So what would I change for my next attempt for a hoppy red ale? I’m going to dry hop it for sure. I’m missing the hop nose. I’m also going to mash slightly higher, probably 154 to 155. I’d also be curious to mix different caramel malts, like a combination of Crystal 120L and 80L. I’m thinking about bumping up the crystal malts to 12-15% of the grist to give more body and a more pronounced caramel/bready flavour.


Recipe:
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 90.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
0.50 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (20 min) Hops 8.7 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.10 %] (20 min) Hops 15.3 IBU
0.33 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.10 %] (15 min) Hops 8.3 IBU
0.33 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.33 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.33 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.10 %] (10 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.33 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.10 %] (5 min) Hops 3.3 IBU
0.33 oz Centennial [8.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

Measured Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.37 %
Measured IBU: 51
Mash Temperature: 152 F