Homebrew: Batch #2, Irish Red Ale

I just started batch #2, which is sort of a leap of faith as I haven't tasted batch #1 yet.

For this batch I wanted to make an Irish Red Ale, my favorite beer style. I ordered the Mr. Beer recipe but also ordered a pouch of liquid ale yeast.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe, though. The Mr. Beer recipe says it has a color of 9 and IBU of 14. The BJCP style guidlines suggest a color of 9-18 and IBU 17-28.

So instead of following the normal Mr. Beer procedure, I started with two gallons of water in a big kettle. I added the can of Pale Export UME and brought it to a boil. Then I put in 1/3 of the packet of US Goldings hops that came with the kit -- 5 grams, to be exact. I boiled it for an hour.

When it came off the heat, I added the rest of the hops (12 grams) and the can of Englishman's Nut Brown Ale extract. Then put the pot in the kitchen sink, which I had filled with ice, and cooled it down to 75 degrees. I put it into the Mr. Beer keg, added the liquid yeast (which I had activated earlier today), and added water (previously boiled to sterilize it) to the 8.5 quart mark.

I'm hoping that boiling that small amount of hops will add enough bitterness to make this brew more "to style." Qbrew says this should be around 24 IBU.