Making an Irish red similar to O'Hara's

[benji]

Just wondering if anyone has a kit hack to make an Irish red similar to O'Hara's Irish red. I haven't made an Irish red yet but I tried O'Hara's a few weeks ago and I loved its heaviness and almost stout like taste, is there any kits out there that have this taste, I have 1kilo of dark spray malt left over from a previous brew, could I use this.

[BrianG]

I'd be interested in this too. Planning on making the St Peters Ruby Red my next batch maybe with the While Labs Irish Ale Yeast WPL004.

Anyone have any experience?

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[LordEoin]

no idea for o'haras in particular, but I hear great things about the Coopers Dark ale with biscuit malt and some EKG+fuggles steeped and some more dryhopped.

[irish_goat]

O'Hara's do late hopping with Mt.Hood hops if that's any help.

[Bubbles]

Just wondering if anyone has a kit hack to make an Irish red similar to O'Hara's Irish red. I haven't made an Irish red yet but I tried O'Hara's a few weeks ago and I loved its heaviness and almost stout like taste, is there any kits out there that have this taste, I have 1kilo of dark spray malt left over from a previous brew, could I use this.

I'd suggest the Coopers English Bitter kit as being as close as you're going to get. Add 750g of light spraymalt and brew short to 21 litres. I'd also steep a little medium crystal (100g) and a little roasted barley (no more than 30g) to give you some of that slightly burnt flavour you're after. It won't be exactly the same but will be a good beer. The kit yeast should be fine, or use something clean like Nottingham or US-05.

I wouldn't use the dark spraymalt in this particular beer - keep it for a kit stout or something.

[irish_goat]

Notty is the yeast O'Hara's use as well.

[Bubbles]

Ah well there you go then.

The EB kit makes a nice base for an American Amber also, btw.

Benji, where are you based?

[benji]

Hey bubbles I like the look of your recipe, just wondering what abv that brew would come to with 750g of light spray malt,
p.s. I'm based just outside Tullamore

[Bubbles]

Howya Benji. I just punched the recipe into BeerTools and it's coming in at 4% ABV. (That's 1.7kg Coopers extract, 750g spraymalt, 30g roasted barley, 100g crystal). I think the O'Hara's Red is slightly higher than this so you might want to increase the spraymalt a bit. You could also do a little hop tea to freshen up the flavour a bit.

I have a Coopers EB kit here that is up for grabs if you want it. The only problem is that it's out of date, but it should still be fine to use. Plus I'm based in Dublin, so you'd have to collect.

[benji]

Thanks Conor, I wouldn't mind getting that kit of you, I live in Tullamore but I commute to UCD (I'm a student), where abouts in Dublin are you

[Bubbles]

Thanks Conor, I wouldn't mind getting that kit of you, I live in Tullamore but I commute to UCD (I'm a student), where abouts in Dublin are you

Cool man, I'll PM you.

[Bubbles]

Hi Benji. I've just rooted that EB kit out and it's well over a year past its BB date. However, I wouldn't let that put you off. Only if the canned kit was bulging would I be worried about using it. It will have lost a fair bit of bitterness and will be a little darker than if it was fresh, but should be good to go.

I've also done a little ziploc bag of steeping grains for you (100g of crystal 75 and 30g of roasted barley, both crushed). Just steep the grains in a litre of water at around 60C. Put the grain in a muslin bag before steeping (or straining through a fine sieve will do in a pinch). Remove the grain bag and boil the resulting liquor for 10 or 15 mins to sanitise. Then add the liquor to your fermenter and proceed as you normally would for a kit brew. Remember to use a little less boiling water than you usually would in order to dissolve the kit and malt extract, as you have the boiling steeping grain liquor.

There's no yeast with the kit, but as it's well out of date, you don't want that anyway. Nottingham, as Irish_goat says above, is allegedly what O'Haras use, so I'd go for a sachet of that.

Because it's lost some of its bitterness I'd recommend you do a hop tea and add that to the fermenter. It's really easy - just add 30g of East Kent Goldings or Fuggles to your grain steeping liquor when you're boiling it (15 mins should be plenty of time to give you a little extra bitterness). Add cold water and pitch your yeast when the temp is <20C.

I can't guarantee it'll taste exactly like O'Hara's Red, but it won't be a million miles from it. I'll give ya a shout at the weekend about pickup. Enjoy! 

[irish_goat]

Nottingham, as Irish_goat says above, is allegedly what O'Haras use, so I'd go for a sachet of that.

Here, nothing "alleged" about it. 

[Bubbles]

I'd never doubt ya Tom, but we don't want Seamus & Co suing the NHC, now do we??  

[Gar]

Had a pint of the OHaras Red in a dark pub and couldn't tell if they gave me the stout by mistake or hooked up the wrong keg to the tap. I was convinced that had. The next week I realised they didn't even serve the stout!

Big fan of the Bru Rua (red ale) - can anyone advise on an extract recipe for that?