Beer Forum

Heyoo boys and girls, I have a buddy who wants to brew up a batch of Red Chair for his bithday later this month. I found a few links to recipes but am wondering if some of you more seasoned homebrewers could tell me if you think the recipe would work.

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/recipe/red-chair-nwpa-clone
This is the link that deschutes gave out to homebrewers, and gives out very little information.

Searching around I found Afterlab's recipe for making this clone, does it look good if so I'll roll with this.

Est. OG: 1.066
Est. Final Gravity: 1.018
Est. ABV 6.2%
IBU: 59
SRM: 11.3

9.750 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 63.9%
2.250 lb Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) 14.8%
1.500 lb Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) 9.8%
0.750 lb Carastan (30.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.750 lb Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (60.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.250 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 1.6%

28.35g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min
14.17g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
14.17g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
28.35g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
28.35g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
28.35g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min
28.35g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min

English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml]

28.35g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days
28.35g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days
-Schweinschlagen

good ol Afterlab.
I remember when he was an extract brewer. Ha! Just dont mention the batch of BW we made! Something about a rocketship.
Hes a smart dude and Im sure that recipe will get you pretty darn close.
You never know until you try, right?
Cheers and good luck.

I cant find Carastan 30L at a Local, so does using a half the amount Crystal 20L and half Crystal 40L work as a substitute? I don't know alot about what Carastan brings to the table, if im going to be losing some flavor aspects. The clone doesnt have to be perfect but I wanted to get decently close.

PorkSlapper wrote:I cant find Carastan 30L at a Local, so does using a half the amount Crystal 20L and half Crystal 40L work as a substitute? I don't know alot about what Carastan brings to the table, if im going to be losing some flavor aspects. The clone doesnt have to be perfect but I wanted to get decently close.

Carastan is just what some UK companies (Bairds, Thomas Fawcett) refer to as crystal malt below a certain Lovibond or EBC. I believe those companies will start calling it crystal malt when it reaches a Lovibond greater than about 30 Lovibond or 60 EBC. EBC is the European color scale which is basically Lovibond X 2. All that said, when I put Thomas Fawcett Carastan 30L into recipes, I find it tastes much better than an ordinary American crystal malt of a similar Lovibond. If you can't find the 30L carastan, and you found the Fawcett 60L malt listed in your recipe, then I think you could make a nice substitution by adding the Fawcett 60L in half the amount of the 30L addition and get closer than by adding a full addition American crystal malt. There's a reason why so many of the great craft breweries use English crystal malt exclusively, and that's because it just tastes so much better.