British Brown Ale New Castle Clone - Accidental

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McCuckerson

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
657
Reaction score
13
Location
Zebulon
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Wyeast London ESB
Yeast Starter
No
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.048
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
21.6
Color
15.4
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
10
Tasting Notes
Side-by-side tastes just like New Castle
This was purely accidental. i was attempting an Irish red ale for St. Patty's day and after 4 weeks of cold conditioning I tasted an almost exact replica of New Castle. I did not mean to clone this, but I thought I would share it for the NC lovers out there. I definitely will be making this again.

5# Vienna (cuz that's what I had...)
3 1/2# pale 2-row
1/2# aromatic
1/2# Caramel 80L
1/4# Chocolate

0.5oz Nugget @ 60min

Wyeast London ESB (super clear - love this yeast)

Fermented 10 days @ 65F in my downstairs 1/2 bathroom

Kegged and cold conditioned for 2-3 weeks.

IMG316.jpg
 
Definitely going to try this recipe! I'll be scaling it down for a 2.5 gallon batch though.
 
Brewed this a while ago, still waiting for it to be done carbing in the bottles. Looks real close to Newcastle, mine turned out a little darker and had a higher OG, but I am sure it will be good. Real excited to drink one!
5aca4152.jpg
 
I brewed this for a party a couple weeks ago and it is exactly what it is reported to be. Mine was darker and a little higher abv but was spectacular. We drank 5 gallons between 8 of us. We did a blind taste test and 3 of 8 got it wrong. This was smoother and lacked the dirty sock aftertaste.
 
The next batch I added 1/4# of biscuit and dropped it in the keg last night. It was even closer to Newcastle, but warm and non-carbed. Will report back in a few weeks.
 
It's in the 'drinking' state now. It's great either way, the biscuit makes it more true to form and without is good too. This is on the short list and will always be in circulation. Thanks again for a great recipe.

I love a summer time drinkable brown ale. Real smooth and not too heavy.
 
McCuckerson said:
This was purely accidental. i was attempting an Irish red ale for St. Patty's day and after 4 weeks of cold conditioning I tasted an almost exact replica of New Castle. I did not mean to clone this, but I thought I would share it for the NC lovers out there. I definitely will be making this again.

5# Vienna (cuz that's what I had...)
3 1/2# pale 2-row
1/2# aromatic
1/2# Caramel 80L
1/4# Chocolate

0.5oz Nugget @ 60min

Wyeast London ESB (super clear - love this yeast)

Fermented 10 days @ 65F in my downstairs 1/2 bathroom

Kegged and cold conditioned for 2-3 weeks.


McCuckerson... I used your recipe as a starting point last weekend. By starting point I mean, I didn't have all the ingredients exactly, so as we all do from time to time, I improvised...

Pilsner instead of Vienna malt (cause that's what I had)
Chocolate 350L, (you hadn't specified)
Target (12.2 AA) bitted to 26 IBU instead of Nugget
Rogues Pacman yeast instead of London ESB
And ramped it up to 10 gallons...

Other than that its EXACTLY the same. LOL!!

It's done fermenting, I'll left know how it comes out.

Cheers, MrBrewEsq (Dave)
 
McCuckerson..

I tried my version of your Nut Brown recipe last night.. Most drinkable.. I plowed through 3 pints of it. I plan to take 2 liters over to the weekly gathering of the usual suspects tonight. They’re a bunch of hop heads, except one, so I'm not sure how this will go. I think next time I brew this, I'll use the London II yeast to let the malt profile come through a little more. PacMan tend to be rather neutral with its flavor profile.

Thanks for posting the recipe..
 
Dolomieu said:
Brewing this now

Nice, many have tried it and liked it. I am planning to brew this one again but subbing the base malts with 100% MO. Dustjunkyscott used biscuit and found it even closer, so I am thinking the MO will be spot on
 
I tossed in some biscuit as well. Og 1.056 cleared up great after a whirlpool and 15 min rest. Color is a bit dark but im stoked to get it kegged when i get back from this next road trip. Its for my buddies birthday party in august. Thanks for posting the recipe
 
I tossed in some biscuit as well. Og 1.056 cleared up great after a whirlpool and 15 min rest. Color is a bit dark but im stoked to get it kegged when i get back from this next road trip. Its for my buddies birthday party in august. Thanks for posting the recipe
You must be getting really good efficiency. Either way, nothing wrong with a bigger new castle clone. Let us know how it turns out!
 
I just brewed this yesterday. I went with the 1/4# biscuit except I threw in some Nottingham. It's already fermenting away and OG was 1.051. I'm looking forward to trying this in 6 weeks or so.

I have some Newcastle bottles too. I'm thinking of using them, but I haven't decided whether I'm going to or not.
 
I've got the 3rd batch of it in the keg and serving now. This one has the biscuit as well. I can't keep this one on tap more than a week or two. One night if friends come over.
 
Just kegged after doing it in primary only. Finished at 1.012 with one tube of WL london yeast. Very clear when i racked it in to the keg. I am stoked to see how it is after its carbed and chilled for a week.
 
I've got a buddy who is a big Newcastle lover. I think I know what his birthday present is this year.
 
Nice, many have tried it and liked it. I am planning to brew this one again but subbing the base malts with 100% MO. Dustjunkyscott used biscuit and found it even closer, so I am thinking the MO will be spot on

How did this turn out? Ill be brewing it again tomorrow on my new 10gal system and plan on splitting it. Half will get dennys fav and the other will get cal ale yeast. Any thoughts?
 
Okay gents,

I just brewed this yesterday, with the biscuit. I hope is tastes as good as it looked and smelled. It could be a front runner for my winter seasonal. What are some of your guys regular seasonals?

Das Boot!!!!
 
Dolomieu said:
I like this alot with MO as the base malt.

Agreed, mo is the way to go with this one. 2 row just won't cut. I was going to update the original recipe for mo, fwiw
 
I used this to break in my 10gal system and glad i did. I did use MO as the base malt since i had it on hand. I really like it. I am drinking on the cal ale yeast batch now, the denny's fav is sitting in the keezer ready to replace the other keg when it kicks over the new years festivities.

Again thanks for the recipe!
 
I tossed in some biscuit as well. Og 1.056 cleared up great after a whirlpool and 15 min rest. Color is a bit dark but im stoked to get it kegged when i get back from this next road trip. Its for my buddies birthday party in august. Thanks for posting the recipe

I used a 'pale chocolate' that MoreBeer had on the shelf that gave the same flavor and a little less color.
 
McCuckerson, please what would be the final recipe for 10 gallons, when you replace the base vienna malt with Maris Otter? i'm planning to brew it soon, just looking for some ingredients. thanks
 
Agreed, mo is the way to go with this one. 2 row just won't cut. I was going to update the original recipe for mo, fwiw

McCuckerson, please what would be the final recipe for 10 gallons, when you replace the base vienna malt with Maris Otter? i'm planning to brew it soon, just looking for some ingredients. thanks
 
McCuckerson, please what would be the final recipe for 10 gallons, when you replace the base vienna malt with Maris Otter? i'm planning to brew it soon, just looking for some ingredients. thanks
It goes something like this:

10# MO
7# pale 2-row
1# aromatic
1# Caramel 80L
1/2# Chocolate

1oz Nugget @ 60min

Wyeast London ESB (super clear - love this yeast)

you can always plug this stuff into beersmith and make adjustments.
 
So i finally tapped the second half of my split batch of this. The Denny's fav batch is delicious. i caught my licking the inside of my mouth. very malt forward, as it should be but it seems a touch more flavorful than the cal ale yeast batch. I believe i am going to try to do an india brown ale with the recipe and the denny's fav. it seems like there is enough malt backbone and sweetness that it could deal with a bigger hop schedule.
 
Get this one going now for St Patrick's day...

so on the MO substitute. would it replace the 2-row only or would it be 8.5# of the marris otter for the 5.5 gal. also what is the 1/2# aromatic? sorry for the questions but want to use this as my first AG brew.
 
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