Batch #8-11: Irish Red Ale

Style Irish Red Ale
Ingredients View Here
Brewing Date: Sunday: 7/31/2011
Primary Fermentation: Sunday: 7/31/2011
Original Gravity: 1.044 @ 80F (1.0466)
Secondary Fermentation: n/a
Bottling Date: Thursday: 8/4/2011
Final Gravity: 1.012 @ 82F (1.0149)
Release Date: Friday 9/2/2011
Alcohol by volume: 4.2% (raw) / 4.7% (final)
Brand: Master Yeast Theater
Release Name: Shamrock Star

Summary:

This will be a revisit to the popular partial mash Red Ale of last year.

30 Jul 7:00PM :: Yeast starter created.

31 Jul 9:00PM :: A very good brew session.  The wort had a solid, steady boil with not even an attempt at a boil over for a good 45 minutes.  Pitched a very active yeast starter at 29 hours at a perfect 80 degrees.  The initial quantity is about 5.2 gallons in the fermentation bucket.

04 Aug 11:00PM :: This was the fastest fermentation I have ever seen.. literally 3 and a half days.  24-hours after pitching the yeast, the S-airlock had a near continuous bubble stream: 4 second-long bursts, with less than 1 second between bursts.  There was also no overflow of the S-lock, unlock the previous batch of Heavy Honey Hefeweizen.  The speed of the fermentation probably has something to do with the ABV being about .5 to .75% more than a similar batch taking 2-4 days longer to ferment.

Yield was 1x 1-liter snap top, and 42x 12oz bottles.

15 Aug 7:00PM :: Sampled a bottle.  The head generation was only adequate, but was definitely better than the last batch at this point.  Since this batch is in the high 4% range, the alcohol was prominent.  Overall, good taste.

05 Sep 9:00PM :: Sampled two bottles over the last two days.  One had good carbonation, the second only decent carbonation.  The taste is very good.

09 Sep 6:00PM :: Feedback on this beer was that it was decent.  Many of the bottles had no carbonation again, which is getting frustrating.  The taste of the beer, while good, was “off” from what I expect Irish Ale to be.  I need to solve the problem with lack of carbonation.