Hoppy Red Ale (For Beginning Homebrewers) Recipe

When I visit a small brewpub for the first time, I love to order a red ale. It's a style that many small breweries make, but no two approaches it the same way. Sometimes you'll find yourself with a sweet, rich, malty beer similar to a Scotch ale, and other times it will be a double IPA in disguise.

The red ale is historically a close cousin to the American pale ale, and classic recipes resemble a pale ale recipe in everything except color. A base of American two-row malt sweetened with a variety of Crystal malts should comprise the majority of the grains. There is leeway for a few other specialty grains in this style, such as a bit of pale chocolate or dark Munich malts, but too much variety will make the malt flavor muddled as opposed to complex.

If you're looking for a bright, sparkling red color, the secret is found in a tiny amount of black malt. Adding one to two ounces of black malt to your steeping grains for five gallons of beer produces a surprisingly vibrant hue with no noticeable flavor contribution. Don't go overboard, though: More than a couple ounces could put the recipe into the brown ale style or change the flavor to be too roasty.

Red ales can be focused on malt or hop flavor according to your personal preference. In either case, the standard Northwest varieties of Centennial, Cascade, and Columbus are expected but not required. I have successfully used the over-the-top bittering hops Galena and Magnum in IPA-esque red ales, so if you want a chance to experiment with the bigger hop guns, this is a good style to play around with.

The recipe below is my own version of a west coast style red ale, with a lot of citrus hop character and aroma. Commercial beers with similar characteristics would be Founder's Red's Rye, or Stone Brewing Co.'s Levitation. This one is always a crowd-pleaser, especially among IPA-loving people, so invite your friends over and enjoy!

The specialty grains you will need for this beginner-friendly recipe are CaraRed malt, Crystal 60L and tiny bit of Black Roasted Barley. The hops used are Centennial and the assertive Amarillo varieties.

The yeast should be an American ale strain, and you'll need a 1 Liter starter of either White Labs WLP001 or Wyeast 1056. You can substitute one 11.5 gram package of Safale US-05 for the starter of liquid yeast.

To bring out the intense orange-citrus aroma of this homebrew, dry hop with 1 ounce of Amarillo hops for 1 week. It will add a brightness to the beer that will make your friends and family say "Wow!" even before they take a sip. The strong hop bitterness of this recipe is balanced by a touch of sweetness, similar to an assertive IPA. If bitter beers are not your thing, cut both of the Centennial hop additions from 1 ounce to 1/2 ounce. That way, you'll keep the aromas and flavors of the Amarillo, but bring the bitterness levels into pale ale territory.

As your beer cools, always keep proper sanitation as priority number one. Mix up at least three gallons of sanitizing solution in your sanitizing bucket (either Iodophor or Star San), and sanitize every utensil that comes in contact with the wort after the boil is complete. Before you transfer your wort to the fermentation vessel, pour the sanitizer into the vessel and swirl the sanitizer around so it touches every surface, then pour it back into the sanitizing bucket. There is no need to rinse the sanitizer or foam off of anything you use—there will be no residual flavor and the residue will actually help to keep everything clean.