Diabhal Rosta, the roasted devil

So its about time I brew.  I have been working some crazy hours the past couple days and just need to chill out a bit.  What better way than to brew!

My long time buddy, Jonny, and I came up with this recipe for an Irish Red Ale.  We were thinking of something that wasn't too sweet and had a nice toasty roast edge to it that you could sit and drink multiple pints at one time with out feeling bogged down.  

Being a style from across the pond, we had to go with Maris Otter Malt for the base.  The "MO" as we call it, adds a nice malty backbone that is prevalent in beers from these parts of the world.  To achieve the toasty roast edge we decided to throw in a bit of Special Roast Malt.  I love the stuff.  It is double malted and double kilned which gives this stuff some awesome nutty toasty flavors that you'd expect in an English Brown Ale.  To keep the sweetness at bay, we didn't want to use any crystal malts under 60ºL.  So we threw in dash of Crystal 60ºL and Crystal 120ºL.  The 60 gives you a slightly darker burnt caramel flavor which doesn't leave a ton of sweetness behind.  The 120 gives off a devilish red hue and a burnt, dry, raisiny dimension to the brew.  To top off the roastiness of this red, we went for some Pale Chocolate Malt which adds some roast without the acrid characteristics of say, Roasted Barley or even Chocolate Malt can bring to a beer.  

Keeping with style here, we picked a traditional English hop...  East Kent Goldings!  I love these guys for their flavor and aroma characteristics!  Beautiful gentle floral aroma and soft citrus flavor, mmm!  We are shooting for a BU:GU ratio of 1:2, to keep it on the maltier side.  We hit the devil with a 20 IBU charge at 60 minutes then a half ounce at flame-out for those aromatics!

I decided to use my house yeast, Wyeast 1335 British Ale II.  Jonny's recipe calls for the Guiness strain, Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale.  Just make sure you pick a yeast that can finish this brew to a fairly dry, shoot for an attenuation in the mid to upper 70's.

To the recipe!

Diabhal Rosta (Irish Red Ale 9D)

6.5 gallons

OG:  1.045

60 minute boil

FG:  1.012

SRM:  18ºL

Grain:

3.75 kg Maris Otter
225 g Special Roast Malt
170 g Crystal Malt 60°L
170 g Crystal Malt 120°L
170 g Pale Chocolate

Mash at 152ºF for 60 min.

Hops:

0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (7.2%) - 60 min - 20 IBU

0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (7.2%) - 0 min

Yeast:

1 pack Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

Start at 65ºF and let rise on its own until finished

That name, 'Diabhal Rosta' you ask?  Gaelic for Roasted Devil:  170 g = 6 oz x 3 = 666!  Get it?!?!

On to the brew day.  Started by preheating the mash tun with a gallon of boiling water.  I just let it sit in there until my mash water hits its temperature.  In this case I was shooting for 168ºF.  I got my 6 quarts of mash water up to temp.  Drained the preheat water off.  Tossed in the 6 quarts..... What the hell....  I now have dough in my mash tun!  I don't know where I got 6 quarts from but I was off, by 7 quarts.  Luckily I had that preheat water, added 3 more quarts to that and started heating that up to 168ºF.  Took only a few minutes.  No biggy!

After doughing in with the correct amount of mash water, I measured out my sparge water and double checked that stuff!  Got my 22 quarts of sparge water on the burner and cranked her up!  Everything was smooth sailing through the sparge.  I tried a new technique, heating the wort as it is lautering from the mash tun so that I don't have to sit around for 20 minutes after the sparge for the boil to start.  Worked like a charm, I was basically at boil 5 minutes after the sparge was complete!

One thing that this did to my process is that I had a large evaporation rate...  So my OG came out a couple points high and a little less wort into the fermenter.  Oh well, now I know.

Chilled my wort down to 65ºF in about 60 minutes and pitch my yeasty buds.

Fermentation took off in about 6 hours and finished up in 4 days!  Love my 1335!  The Diabhal Rosta is gonna rest for a couple more days then it will hit the keg for carbonation!

Look out for a review around St. Patty's Day!