Brew 3: Red Curry Ringstinger

There's a cheap and nasty Indian takeaway up the road from where I live. It has become quite the tradition to venture up there of a Sunday afternoon to order a curry. I also enjoy a good amber ale and I've discovered nothing goes better with a good curry than a well balanced amber or american red ale. Hence, the Red Curry Ringstinger experiment. It's a deep red, malty extract brew, spiced up with a few delicious US hops. Soon to become a Sunday funday favourite.

This recipe was based on a Coopers recipe of the month: Midnight Mosaic. I just switched out the Midnight wheat grain with some Caramalt and I used US05 yeast.

Recipe:

Volume: 22 Litres 
Yeast: US05 
Kit: Coopers Lager
LME: Coopers Amber Malt Extract 1.5kg
DME: 700gs Light Malt Extract
Specialty Malts:  250gs Caramalt BB

                         150gs Medium Crystal Grain 

Hops:     Amarillo  25gs - 15min           
             Mosaic    20gs - 10min 

             Citra       20gs - Dry

OG: 1.060 
FG: 1.012 
Estimated IBU: 40s 
Estimated ABV: 6.8%

Fermentation was dead on two weeks at about 22 degrees. There were a couple hot days during which I needed to surround the fermenter with ice blocks!

Thoughts & Tasting:

Ringstinger has turned out similar to Plague IPA. The Mosaic and Citra hop flavours come out pretty strong. However, I appreciate this beer a lot more. It's a more balanced beer and I think the clean fermenting US05 yeast has given it a crisp finish. 

Initial taste is massive pineapple and passionfruit. The caramalt and amber malt extract give a pleasant malty sweetness that balance the hops nicely. 

This one gets the "brew again star". Sunday afternoons just got even better.