In the Fermentor: Cloning Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale

I'm not a huge fan of trying to clone commercial beers. I did it once with Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter, but haven't tried since. However, I'm all for a challenge.

When a friend of mine asked me to try and clone Deschutes' Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale, I decided to grant his wish. Thankfully, the Deschutes website happily lays out what's actually in the beer. What their site doesn't do is tell you what lovibond Crystal Malt to use, how much of each malt to use, which maltsters provided their malts, and what yeast strain they ferment with.

I did a little hunting and found all sorts of conflicting information about Deschutes' yeast strain. The only consistent thread was that they use a proprietary yeast, rather than one of the strains most homebrew shops carry. Multiple sources (including the bastion of reliable information that is Wikipedia) stated that Ringwood Ale is the closest commercial strain. Yet another source said to use London ESB. I decided to go with Wyeast's London Ale, because I had some cultured from my Experimental Porter. I limited the malt choices to what one of my local homebrew stores stocks. Six grains from five producers. I don't know if Deschutes does that, but I have all the right types of malt needed. On the downside, my efficiency was really low this time around and I undershot my target gravity of 1.062 by .014. I've already told the friend I'm making this for that I may have created the official "Session Red Chair".

Here's my five gallon attempt. If nothing else, I should have a nice Red Ale when the beer is finished:

Grains:
6 lbs Great Western Premium 2-Row
2 lbs Canada Malting Superior Pilsen
1 lb Weyermann Munich Light
8 oz Briess Caramel 40L
8 oz Bairds Carastan
8 oz Briess Carapils

Hops:
1 oz Centennial (9.2% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Cascade (7.3% a.a.): 30 min
1 oz Cascade (7.3% a.a.): 15 min
1 oz Cascade (7.3% a.a.): 0 min

Total Boil Time:
95 min

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale

Mash Schedule:
Saccharification Rest: 152F for 90 min
Mashout: 168F for 15 minutes

Original Gravity:
1.048
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.010

IBU: 60
SRM Color: 11

Fermentation Schedule:
2 Weeks Primary
4 Weeks Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Cost: $17 per case
Commercial Equivalent: Deschutes Red Chair NWPA: $32
Savings: $15

Comments

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