Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099)
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 11
Original Gravity: 1.038
Final Gravity: 1.007
IBU: 22
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 17.4
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 at 69 degrees
Additional Fermentation: Kegged and chilled to 37 degrees for 5 days
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 5 at 69 with gelatin

I got the base clone recipe from BYO. Problem was that their clone recipe called for brewing two separate beers and then blending them in the same tradition that the NewCastle brewery uses. To make things more complicated, it called for a 3 gallons of one of the beers and two gallons of the other, so simply mixing the ingredient lists and dividing in half wasn’t an option.

So I modeled both beers in BeerSmith and scaled them to the right levels of 60/40 and then blended the two recipes to create a single batch recipe…keeping the IBU, gravity and SRM at target. Kind of a pain, but much less of a pain than brewing two separate beers.

As far as comparison, pretty damn close. Color (as you can see below) is spot on. Clarity is identical (using gelatin in the secondary). Aroma is right on and the taste is close…but the original has a real plum-like taste/aroma that hasn’t come though in mine yet. I used the Whitbread yeast and that put a nice fruity aroma in the air, so I think with time that mellow fruitiness will come through. Mine has just a bit more roast flavor to it because of a touch of Roasted Barley, but that will mellow.

As I said, there were a few things for which the commercial version is criticized, namely lack of head or lacing in the glass. The addition of Cara took care of this and my version actually has a better “slightly creamier” mouth feel.

All in all, a pretty darn good brown ale and at 4.1%, just right for a few pints without remorse.

This is a 10 gallon batch but it can be scaled back to 5 gallons very easily:
New_Caslte_HopsRatio.jpg

Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.69 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 17.4 SRM
NewCastle_Color.jpg
Estimated IBU: 22.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item
12.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.10 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Target [11.00%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min)

Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) with starter.
Mines the one on the left...the cara really added some body to this beer.
NewCastle_2.jpg

NewCastle_3.jpg

NewCastle_3.jpg