21B Specialty IPA: Red IPA
Soft Red
In fermenter OG1.056 IBU36Grain bill
| Gladfield American Ale Malt | 3.65 kg | 60.8% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 0.6 kg | 10% |
| Gladfield Golden Oat | 0.48 kg | 8% |
| Gladfield RedBack Wheat Malt | 0.36 kg | 6% |
| Harraways Rolled Oats | 0.36 kg | 6% |
| Gladfield RedBack Malt | 0.3 kg | 5% |
| Gladfield Toffee Malt | 0.18 kg | 3% |
| Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt | 0.08 kg | 1.3% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | 1 tablet @ 10 min |
| Yeast Nutrient | 5 g @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | WP 75°C | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Jade | 12g | · | · |
| Superdelic | · | 40g | · |
| Nectaron | · | 40g | 45g |
| Mosaic | · | · | 45g |
Yeast
| LalBrew Pomona | 2 packets (23 g), dry pitched |
Water additions
| Calcium Chloride (CaCl2·2H2O) | 1 g |
| Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4·2H2O) | 3 g |
| Sodium Chloride (non-iodised table salt) | 3 g |
About This Beer
Robin’s sixth batch, the second revision in the red line after the hoppy red from August. The brief was a hazy red.
Haze in a dark red beer reads muddy rather than glowing, and some haze is a given here: no fridge, no cold crash, and bottle conditioned. So the beer is kept paler, 26 EBC against 35 on the August red, with Shepherds Delight down at 1.3%. Every colour malt is a red-hue Maillard malt. No chocolate, no roast barley.
Body from oats and wheat, a warm mash and chloride-forward water. Bitterness low on purpose, 0.64 to gravity against 0.85 on the August red, since caramel malt and a big dry hop go harsh together once the bitterness is up as well.
Brew day
Brooklyn, Wellington, Saturday evening 6 September 2026. Ran to plan.
Mash set to 67°C and held there for the hour, since dextrins are what carry the body. Sparge acidified as usual, mash pH not measured. No pre-boil gravity taken.
Whirlpool at 75°C for the thirty minutes standard on this rig, and most of the bitterness comes from it.
Water
Chloride-forward, roughly 1.5 to 1, the inverse of the August red. Only a gram of calcium chloride to hand, so the rest of the chloride came from 3 g of non-iodised table salt, with the gypsum lifted slightly. Sodium sits near 43 ppm, which reads as fullness rather than salt, and calcium a little lower than it would otherwise be. Epsom left out: it brings sulfate and magnesium, not chloride, and would have pushed the water the wrong way.
Fermentation
Two packets of Pomona, dry pitched, free rise left to find the top of its range.
Dry hop planned as one 90 g charge of Mosaic and Nectaron on day two, in during active fermentation. Pomona converts Nectaron’s geraniol while it is working, and whatever sugar the hops free from the dextrins gets eaten in the bucket rather than behind a swing-top.
In the fermenter. Final gravity, bottling and tasting to come.