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talleymonster · 07-29-2007, 06:59 PM

When I first ventured away from BMC, Newcastle was my beer of choice. I tried one by accident and liked it. I still like it a lot, but I wouldn't say it is my favorite. I still by a six pack on occasion.

**raceskier** · 07-29-2007, 07:01 PM

Yeah, one of my favs. I have to put in a pitch for the Clone Brews AG recipe though. I like their clone more than the original.

**DeathBrewer** · 07-29-2007, 08:53 PM

i enjoy a good newcastle...will probably do a clone sometime. it's not my absolute favorite beer, but is one of only two beers i enjoy from the corner store next to my apt. the only other beer i buy from there is anchor steam.

McKBrew · 07-29-2007, 09:18 PM

I haven't had it on tap, but I bought a 6-pack once, and I'd have to agree with Yuri that it was watery and lacking much flavor.

***Yooper*** · 07-29-2007, 11:26 PM

I think it's ok- it's easy to drink and not harsh. English brown ale was my first homebrew, and its very forgiving. I would order one if there wasn't anything else I like better.

**BlindLemonLars** · 07-30-2007, 12:16 AM

I've always enjoyed Newcastle, although I find the quality tends to vary a lot from bottle to bottle.

A Newcastle clone was the first thing I brewed after my 20 year brewing sabbatical ended, and a direct side-by-side taste test with the genuine article was a real eye opener to the power of homebrew. Compared to mine, the real stuff tasted bland and watery, and while it had very little hop bitterness it did have a distinct skunkiness about it. Mine had identical color and the same base flavor, but it had a vastly superior mouthfeel, no skunky smell and a wonderful touch of caramel finish. It just seemed fresh and alive, while the Newcastle seemed lazy and dead. (Mine was a touch more carbonated, which could be a factor.)

Now I'm certainly no master-brewer, I know that for a fact. But if an amateur can make something superior to it's commercial counterpart, in his first attempt after a 20 year layoff, using extract on his kitchen stove, it's mind boggling to think what some of the more experienced people on here must be brewing!

**Dude** · 07-30-2007, 12:26 AM

That skunkiness is definitely a problem in store bought bottles of Newcastle Brown. I don't recall ever having one that wasn't slightly skunked at least. Newcastle should follow the lead of other English breweries (Samuel Smith comes to mind) where they went to brown bottles.

Flyin' Lion · 07-30-2007, 12:57 AM

I drank only Newcastle while on vacation and liked it a lot. This inspired me to brew my first brown ale, which after seeing the clone recipe was two brews, I went with the most chocolate malt in the clone brews magazine--Abita brown ale. This is in the kegerator ATM and tastes more like a stout. Go figure.

**BierMuncher** · 07-30-2007, 02:47 AM

Well it appears that Newcastle is well respected as a middle of the road beer. Seems to be the "Switzerland" of beers. Doesn't offend anyone and doesn't have a die-hard following like certain IPA's and hefe's.

I ordered the ingredients for my clone and I'm hoping I got it right. I like it well enough and seems to be a beer that can convert some of those "I don't drink dark beer" drinkers to drinking this dark beer.

I think the Whitbread yeast is the key to getting that slight plum undertone.

BYO's clone recipe called for brewing two separate 5-gallon batches (a heavier dark ale and a lighter ABV amber) and then blending the two beers at 2 parts dark and 3 parts light.

Since I do 10-gallon batches, I decided to scale the dark ale down to 4 gallons and scale the lighter amber up to 6 gallons...then simply combine the ingredients of those two recipes for my 10 gallon batch. This would give me the 60-40 mix of beer...doing one brew. Seemed like a logical approach to getting close.

I am tweaking a few things that seem to be universally "wrong" with the beer... according to beer critics. No lasting head is one complaint so I'm adding some cara. "Watery" seems to be another description so I'm increasing the crystal as well. CYO called for Challenger and I'm going with Target as this seems to be the hop of choice for bittering.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome and if it passes muster, I'll post the recipe on the database.