Bell's Deb's Red Clone

Hi - I'm a longtime lurker, first time poster. I'm a novice brewer, I've done maybe half a dozen all-grain brews.

I recently visited Bell's cafe and very much enjoyed their Deb's Red Ale. I thought I might want to brew something like it, but I couldn't find clone recipes online. I emailed them on their website and got a response less than 24 hours later with this:

Gravity of the beer is around 1.056, 5.8 ABV and 46 IBUs. Here’s how I would recommend making something similar:

Base malt of 80% 2-row to 20% Pale Ale malt blend. If you are an extract brewer, use 2 cans of Briess Golden Light LME.
0.5 lbs each of Caramel 20L and Victory or Biscuit malt.
Maybe 2 oz. of Roasted barley just for color adjustment.
I don’t know that it’s all Centennial hops, but that would make sense. I’d add a good ounce and a half for bittering (adjust based on your software’s IBU calculations), maybe ½ ounce around 30 minutes and an ounce near flameout.
If you can culture our yeast from a bottle, that would be best, but S-04 dry yeast is a decent alternative.

Click to expand...

As this is my first time constructing a recipe, I wanted to get some advice before I finalize anything (I plan to brew this weekend after next). Here's what I came up with:


Type: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.99 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Volume 6.24 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Est Mash Efficiency 86.4 %

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
7 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 70.5 %
2 lbs Pale Ale Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 18.2 %
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.5 %
4.0 oz Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.3 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 31.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 12.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 1.4 IBUs
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs

Est Original Gravity: 1.057
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 %
Bitterness: 45.4 IBUs
Est Color: 15.1 SRM


I'll make a starter from some Oberon I've got in the fridge. I added the dry hop because it was mentioned somewhere online that it was dry hopped, and it makes sense due to how floral the beer's aroma is.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

SchmidtHappens

EDIT: Updated Recipe
EDIT 2: Updated again, dropping the roasted barley and adding Carafa III

According to the email, the biscuit and caramel should be .5lbs each. So reduce them each, then add another pound of base (9.5 lbs total). For the base, 80% should be 2row and 20% pale ale malt. So it will be 7.6 lbs 2row, and 1.9lbs pale ale malt.

Ah, I clearly misread that. I've updated the recipe to fix it. I also added a bit more Roasted Barley to up the color - will that start to impact my flavor too much?

I don't think I would add that much roasted barley, as it could add the roasty flavors at that level. Maybe 3 oz, then a touch of dark crystal if you want it darker (120L/special b/ etc). Or maybe use a couple oz of something darker, such as 500L roasted Barley or carafa III, in place of the 300L RB. Another thing you could do if you just want color is add it to the mash with about 15 min left to pull the color but not so much flavor.

Okay, I've dropped the roasted barley and replaced it with a quarter pound of Carafa III, which will put the color up in the 15 SRM range, where I think it belongs. Will that impact my flavor in a noticeable way? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions skeezer, I really appreciate the help.

Add it toward the end of the mash.