Red is in, right? I mean, has it ever really gone away?As we were brewing our most recent homebrew, I got to thinking, what are the top 5 Red things of all time? In no particular order:

• Red Sonja
  • Sure, the comic is cool, but how can you deny the acting magnificence involving both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen?

• Eric The Red
  

  Apparently the world used to look like this.

  • When you’re too rough even for Nordic times and they have to send you away, well, I guess you’ve gone and written your legacy. “Hey, so, um, instead of killing and pillaging, why don’t we just go on a boat ride?” Seems to be a popular theme among explorers – thank goodness we don’t do that anymore.  Siring (<–a term I’m sure they probably used back then) Leif Ericson is another feather in your cap (Leif the Lucky? Not as cool.), as is being in Marvel Comics. I’d like to be in a Marvel Comic one day. Hey, he was cool enough for Odd13 Brewing to name a beer after him, so there’s that too.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • I’m a fan of funk. I like my funk, well, funky. The RHCP are the epitome of funkiness. Now, you’d probably think that this is going to deviate into an article about sour beers and Belgians and what not, but no,  we’re going to play that game some other time down the road. Although I find that Freaky Styley is a great album to just groove to, I’m more partial to Mother’s Milk. More so than Blood Sugar Sex Magik? Ooh, that’s a tough call.

• Redheads

Gratuitous Christina Hendricks shot! Cause she’s a redhead, get it?

• Red Ales
  • I like red ales; mostly because of the color, but in general, the malt profile is usually pretty tame, allowing for a lot of room for play with hops and yeasts and what not. So, OK, I guess this list was in some sort of particular order, but hey, this is mostly a beer blog, right?
    

    Lupulin everywhere!

What the missus and I decided to do was to brew a fresh hop red ale using hops grown from our very own garden. That meant some Columbus, Cascade, Sterling, and Nugget fresh hops. Yeah, it could end up being a little stanky. But in a good way, right?

Anyway, here’s the recipe we used for the red ale (5 gallon batch):

• 8 lbs. 2 Row
• 1 lb. CaraAroma
• 8 oz. CaraFoam
• 8 oz. Melanoiden Malt
• 0.5 oz Columbus (for bittering)

Then a whole mix of homegrown hops. How much? Not really sure, but it ended up tasting pretty good.

It looked something like this. FWIW.

I guess the moral of the story is – don’t be afraid to use homegrown hops, and just throw them in. It didn’t ruin the beer or give it any additional off-flavors, aside from the unusual gnat drowning in his own happiness. Unless you have fancy science equipment, you’re not really going to know the IBU’s of your beer. If you’re a little unsure of how things are going to turn out:

1. Add a little bit of pellet hops. As shown above, I added just a bit for a baseline bitterness.
2. Dry hops slowly, so that you don’t overshoot it. Once you have your hops, break up the collection into thirds. Do a third early in secondary, let it sit for a day, take a taste. Add another third, wait another day, and taste. Repeat until desired flavor is achieved. Although, I have noticed that fresh hops mellow a lot sooner than dry/pellets, so going a little over probably wouldn’t be a bad thing. I will likely go this route next time.