Red Tail Ale

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blacklab

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Hey, does anyone know of a good Red Tail clone recipe? I am still at the stage where I use malt extracts from my LHBS so I would need it in that form.

Love that stuff - took a trip to Hopland once just to check out the brewery.

thanks!
 
I just cracked open mine last week. Here's the tale:

Clicky

Started out with the recipe on BYO but "tweaked" it a bit. Stuff in bold are my changes. Haven't bought any real RT yet to compare, but I love it nonetheless. I'm going to rebrew it this weekend but had to make substitutions on the Cascade as my LHBS was out. We'll see how it turns out. Good luck.

Here's my recipe.


Red Tail Ale clone

(5 gallons, extract with specialty grain)

OG = 1.052 FG = 1.016 IBUs = 28 to 30

Ingredients:

1 lb. caramel malt (60° Lovibond)
0.5 lb. toasted pale malt (toast the malt on a cookie sheet for 30 min. at 350° F. Crack with rolling pin when done)
3 lbs. Briess unhopped amber dried malt extract (DME)
2 lbs. Briess unhopped light DME
(Used 7# Ultralight instead of DME)
4 AAU Cluster hop pellets (1/2 oz. of 8% alpha acid)
(1 oz. Northern Brewer @ 7.5% instead of Cluster)
4 AAU Cascade hop pellet (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)
1 oz. whole Cascade hops
American ale yeast (Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP-001)
1 cup Briess unhopped light dried malt extract (DME) or 1 c. honey w/1 c. water

Step by Step:

Steep caramel and toasted malts in 6 gallons water at 150° F for 30 minutes. Remove grains, add DME, bring to boil. Add Cluster hops, boil 30 minutes. Add Cascade pellets, boil 30 minutes. Turn off heat, add whole Cascade hops (in hop bag), steep 30 minutes and remove. Put wort into your primary fermenter. When cooled to 70° F, pitch yeast. Ferment warm (68 to 70° F) for ten days, rack to secondary and condition cooler (64° F) for two weeks. Prime with 1 cup unhopped, light DME or honey. Bottle and age two to three weeks.


My OG 1.045 Brix 11.2
FG 1.013 Brix 6.8

ABV 4.18%
 
There are at least 2 BYO clones for this brew.

This one from the BYO website: http://***********/recipe/638.html looks like the one Bruscar used.

The one in the 150 Recipes issue was a little different.

Mendocino Red Tail Ale Clone

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
IBU: 26
SRM: 13
ABV: 5.0%

Grains
9.75 lb Pale Malt
3.5 oz Victory Malt
1.0 lb Crystal 60 Malt

Hops
0.5 oz Cluster (60 min) (4 AAU)
0.8 oz Cascade (30 min) (4 AAU)
0.33 oz Cascade (0 min)

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash in 14 qts water at 153F, 90 min

90 min boil

Ferment at 68 F

I brewed that one last weekend.
 
Ooops. I re-read this and saw you wanted an extract recipe. Here's the one from 150 recipes:

0.75 lb two-row pale malt
3.5 oz Victory malt
1.0 lb crystal malt (60L)
2.3 lb light DME
3.3 lb light LME

Steep the malts in 3 qts water at 153F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains and rinse with 1.5 qts 170F
Add water to make 3 gal.
Add DME and bring to boil
Add Cluster hops at 60 min
Add Cascade hops at 30 min
Add LME at 15 min
Add Cascade hops at 0 min
Cool and add water to make 5 gal
 
Anyone have any feedback on how this recipe turns out (raceskier I'm especially looking at you)? I plan on making it this weekend from teh BYO recipe but doing a full boil. The recipe is for partial boil. Based on doing a full boil I'm tempted to cut the bittering hops by a quarter or so to end up with close to the right IBU's but that doesn't seem like enough hops for a beer with 30ish IBU's. Cutting the hops by a quarter would probably get me closer to the amount of hops used in the raceskier recipe.
 
well poop. Re-reading this thread I see that Bruscar did a full boil with similar (even more, actually) hops as called for in the BYO partial. I shall do the complete recipe but do a full boil, then I will compare to actual red tail and post results. Red Tail truly is one of the greatest beers ever.
 
I brewed the AG version. It came out OK, but not a great match to the original, IMHO. Don't get me wrong, it was good beer. I have not pursued any tweaks to get it to a more accurate clone.

My techniques have improved since I brewed it though. I would now look at adjusting the hop schedule based on the specific AA of the hops you have versus the recipe AA's and maybe better fermentation temp control. I brewed it in the summer and the fermentation temp may have been above the recommended 68-70F.
 
for this recipe. I started this over the weekend and it smells perfect! :ban: I used to drive up and down the coast from grad school and I'd stop there to get a brew. Lord I LOVE Hopland. Thanks for the great recipe. :mug:
 
I don't generally resurrect old threads in forums. That said, for the folks who have made this, how close is it to the real RTA? RTA is my 'go to' brew but is not always easy for me to find. Would love to be able to have near unlimited supply
 
This is a fab recipe! I miss my RTA and don't wanna pay the $8 for the shipped beer to the East. You will not be disappointed. Do the blind test when you've let it condition for three weeks and then enjoy the experience.
 
Thx Sidewinder. I will put this down then as the brew after the next to do. RTA was my beer of choice when I turned 21. Would drive over the grade to get some at the brewery, before they started bottling it. Now, when I find it here in chicagoland, I buy 2 cases at a time.
 
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