Roasted barley in red ale..not sure about this flavor?!

[EkieEgan]

So I thought I would try something I hadn't done. I read lots of recipes and decided (probably against my better judgement) to throw some roasted barley into my red ale. Some people used 8 ounces in a 5 gallon batch! Well I went with 5 and now I can see I went too far. This beer is weird, like a weird I have never tasted and on top of that, I hopped the hell out of it with New Zealand's best hops. My question is, can I expect this "roasted" flavor to chill out? It's not overwhelming, but it's there and I am not singing it's praises. I also added crystal 120 and carared to this recipe. The 5 ounces is less that 4% of the total grist.

 

[Iceman2197]

For my red I use 2 oz for a 5 gallon batch which in my opinion is about right. Not sure how much yours will mellow in time. I like a little roasted barley in a red it kinda makes it. Don't let this discourage you from trying it again, cut it down to an ounce or two next time and go from there.

 

[jayway]

Agreed, cut it down to a max of 2 ounces. I usually throw it in at mash out as I've read it cuts down on the flavor impact as opposed to adding to the entire grist at dough in. You can even cold steep it.

I don't think the taste will 'chill out' if anything it will become more apparent as the hops die out with age.

 

[EkieEgan]

How about dry hopping it now that it is in the secondary? Perhaps the flavor won't chill? but a nice pungent aroma may make it more drinkable? What do you think?

 

[EkieEgan]

Well I dry hopped it. I did use the cheesecloth as it was in the house. I have 4 layers of cloth total so hopefully that will contain the vegetable matter. It looks like it will. I used one ounce of 16.2% Summit so hopefully this will help compensate for the roasted flavor. I will let it sit a week or so at the 60 degrees that it's at then bottle. Living in an apartment stinks. Man I miss kegging!!