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Recipe: Gigantic Mecha Red
“Mecha Red is a modern amber ale intended to be malty and caramelly, but not a sticky caramel bomb,” says Van Havig, cofounder and master brewer at Gigantic in Portland, Oregon. “It’s mildly fruity from hops and esters and finishes with a hint of chocolate.”
Photo: Courtesy Gigantic Brewing
To dive deeper into the modernization of amber and red ales, see The Reinvention of the American Amber Ale.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.009
IBUs: 30
ABV: 5.5%
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To dive deeper into the modernization of amber and red ales, see The Reinvention of the American Amber Ale.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.009
IBUs: 30
ABV: 5.5%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
8.8 lb (4 kg) pale ale
9.5 oz (269 g) Great Western Caramel Steam
4.5 oz (128 g) British crystal 120L
1.5 oz (43 g) chocolate malt
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.3 oz (9 g) Nugget at 90 minutes [14 IBUs]
0.75 oz (21 g) Mosaic at 15 minutes [16 IBUs]
1.3 oz (37 g) Crystal at flameout
YEAST
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale, White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh/Scottish Ale, Imperial A31 Tartan, or similar
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 153°F (67°C) for 40 minutes. Recirculate until your runnings are clear—about 20 minutes—then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, chill the wort to about 73°F (23°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 73°F (23°C) to encourage ester development. Wort should fully attenuate in 3 to 4 days. Once fermentation is complete and the beer has cleared diacetyl testing (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com), cool to 50°F (10°C). Two days later, rack off the yeast and crash to 33°F (1°C). Condition 5–7 days before clarifying. Package and carbonate to about 2.35 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Scottish Ale Yeast: Why anyone uses another ale yeast, I’ll never understand.
Water: We never do any water chemistry at Gigantic. Our water here in Portland is very soft, and we make it work for all our beers. Every brewer everywhere can buy the same malt, hops, and yeast as you, but they can’t get your water unless they live in the same neighborhood. You want a sense of place in your beer? Brew with your water, not against it. Ignore all the books. Accept the beer you can make with your own water if you want any kind of regionality, terroir, sense of place, whatever you want to call it. If everyone made the same beer, what would be the point? Just my opinion.
Hop it up: Want to make this more of a traditional Pacific Northwest amber ale? Double the bittering addition of hops. That middle hop addition won’t be as important—you can kind of do as you please there—different hop, more of it, whatever. Change out the Crystal for a more aggressively citrusy or piney hop such as Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo, or Citra, and double that, too.
