Jem's Wicked Red is brewed to be a medium bodied beer that displays a WICKEDLY RED colour when held against the light. Well, of course its also brewed to be very tasty.
So why the fascination with a beer's colour you ask ? Simple, I once spent a few months living in yonder land called America, Pennsylvania to be precise. And whilst there, unable to brew beer I spent my energies reading about brewing with a microbrewed beer firmly in hand. OK, I also did some work.
Now, there was once a homebrewer by the name of Pete Slosberg who brewed beer in his kitchen. His mates loved the stuff and told him to do more of it. So he did. Hence the Pete's Wicked range of beers. One that caught my palette in particular was Pete's Wicked Red, it was a brown ale I suppose but full of flavour whilst being very . . . RED ! Now, brewers are curious people and you eventually think about what sort of recipe would give that colour.
Hold a glass of Guinness up against the light and, if the lightbulb is strong enough you will see an awesome ruby red colour. Not black after all ! The key to redness is therefore some roast malts but not necessarily at the crystal malt end of the spectrum. Instead you need to tweak things up and down, varying the types of coloured malts and balancing their relatively different effects that they have on both colour and flavour at the same time. Not easy but with time I managed to get a fairly red colour in that beer. My wife says its topaz . . . subtle hints about jewellery perhaps ?! Jem's Wicked Topaz just didn't have the right ring to it though !
So what does Jem's Wicked Red look like ?! In a tall glass it looks blacky-brown from a distance. It keeps a thick head of foam for an absolute age. The head is slightly brown, a tad off cream. The nose is smooth and hints at roast malts hidden down deep. Hop characters are non existent to this nose.
Its colour is naturally red when held against the light and its flavour a rich mix of overlapping malt varieties. The initial taste is partially lost in the carbonation fizz on the tongue but I keep the CO2 level down to around 1.8-2.0 litres of CO2 per litre of beer. A rich, medium bodied liquid gets slung around your mouth, unleashing different malt flavours over time. After about 2 seconds the fizz is subsiding and a definite chocolate flavour lingers on your tongue. Then its a burnt sensation, almost charcoally ( a new word I've just invented). And I'll be damned if a second later you don't have a subtle smoked malt flavour running around your taste buds. This is not a Rauch beer but, heck, it could be some day !
Brewing Jem's Wicked red is simplicity itself and you are left in no doubt whatsoever during the brew session, particularly after the mash has finished and you are sparging hot, clear wort into the boiler, that something WICKEDLY RED is happening so . . . . get with it and get wicked . . . .
Please feel free to go check out the recipe for Jem's Wicked Red.
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