Deschutes Red Chair clone attempt

I didn't know the Deschutes website had "hints" for homebrewers until recently. I thought I'd try my hand at cloning their Red Chair NWPA. I've only formulated recipes from scratch twice before so please critique!!

From the Descutes website:

Red Chair NWPA Clone
A thrilling citrus-y ride
Recipe Type: Homebrew
Red Chair NWPA

Specifics
Recipe type: All grain
Batch size: 5 U.S. gallons
Original gravity: 1.060-1.065
Final gravity: 1.015-1.019
Boil time: 95 minutes
Fermentation temp: 65° F
Yeast type: English Ale

Malt
NW 2-row Pale Malt
Crystal Malt
Carastan
Carapils
Munich
Pilsner
Hops
Cascade
Centennial
**Note: Temps, times and weights are the challenge. Happy Brewing!


I don't currently have Carastan in my system and I'm not sure if my LHBS has it so I replaced it for now with Crystal 30...

Here's what I've got so far:

The ABV on the side of the bottle says 6.2%. The estimated ABV from this recipe is 6.18% with an estimated FG of 1.016.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Red Chair clone attempt 1
Brewer: Wicked Chicken
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.78 gal
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 8.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 60.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 95 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 68.38 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 12.82 %
1.25 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.68 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.27 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 2.14 %
0.20 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.71 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 34.1 IBU
0.75 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
0.75 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
0.75 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -

1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11.70 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.63 qt of water at 167.7 F 152.0 F

I'm liking what I see. I just recently discovered this beer and love it!

I'm thinking that WLP001 or Wyeast 1056 may be more appropriate - or even Wyeast 1272.

Let us know how it turns out!

AZ_IPA said:

I'm liking what I see. I just recently discovered this beer and love it!

I'm thinking that WLP001 or Wyeast 1056 may be more appropriate - or even Wyeast 1272.

Let us know how it turns out!

Click to expand...

The problem with 1056 or 1272 is that Deschutes specifies "English Ale" yeast.

cracked1 said:

The problem with 1056 or 1272 is that Deschutes specifies "English Ale" yeast.

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oops.



I find that interesting that NW Pale Ale would use an English ale yeast, especially since it specifies NW Pale malt....

AZ_IPA said:

oops.



I find that interesting that NW Pale Ale would use an English ale yeast, especially since it specifies NW Pale malt....

Click to expand...

I'm with you on that... Looking at a few of their other beers it would seem that they have some sort of "house" strain that they find is closest to an English Ale yeast. Nearly every beer lists the same thing...

Here's the list --> http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/brews/homebrew-recipes

@cracked1 - Did you ever brew this? How did it come out? Did you / would you make any changes? Thanks in advance

I'd swear it has amarillo in it. Although I guess it could just be a longer and bigger cascade dry hop

glienhard said:

@cracked1 - Did you ever brew this? How did it come out? Did you / would you make any changes? Thanks in advance

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Yup... Brewed and currently on tap! I'm not 100% how close I came to Red Chair since it's not currently available. But it's pretty dang tasty. Like Red Chair, it's not as hoppy as an IPA but more hoppy than a typical pale. I took a growler to my LHBS when they were having a tasting and all the comments were very positive. Most people said it was very well balanced. One particularly inebriated female asked if I wear a cape when I brew... The Sam Adams rep was saying that he needed to go and not drink anymore, then poured himself another pint. I will probably brew it again soon so I will have another batch to do a direct comparison. But even if it's not close I'm pretty sure it'll be a regular in my line-up.

I know this is old....but your yeast should be WLP 007 for this one.

Red Chair is back on shelves too. May be time to try this out!

joetothemo said:

I know this is old....but your yeast should be WLP 007 for this one.

Red Chair is back on shelves too. May be time to try this out!

Click to expand...

From what I've read, White Labs WLP 007 and Wyeast 1098 are essentially the same thing.

Also, from what I've read, Deschutes' "house strain" that they use is Wyeast 1968 (along with Lagunitas and Big Sky I think), so if anything I will probably got that direction next time.

You can see from the attenuation levels that they are not the same yeast. My source was LHBS, so not entirely reliable.

007 is great tho.

cracked1, what LHBS do you use? I live in Caldwell, and would be interested in where you took the growler for a tasting. I'm always looking for feedback.

joetothemo said:

You can see from the attenuation levels that they are not the same yeast. My source was LHBS, so not entirely reliable.

007 is great tho.

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Wyeast says 1098 attenuation is 73% - 75%. White Labs says that 007 is 70% - 80%. Average for 1098 is 74%. Average for 007 is 75%. And, MrMalty lists them as similar to each other. I'm not saying that they are the exact same strain but I would bet that the difference between the two would be pretty minimal. I like this recipe enough that I'll definitely brew another batch so maybe next time I'll split it in two and try both yeasts. See if there is a noticeable difference.

djfriesen said:

cracked1, what LHBS do you use? I live in Caldwell, and would be interested in where you took the growler for a tasting. I'm always looking for feedback.

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Brewers Haven in Boise has tastings every Wednesday (free even!). Sometimes they pick a few from their 500+ beers and whoever brings in homebrew can have their's added to the mix. Some Wednesdays they have brewery tastings. Brewery reps show up and they give samples of some of their beers. Usually on those nights they give out raffle prizes and for the tasting they often use glasses from that brewery which you get to keep. I've been to Sam Adams, Stone, Lagunitas, Grand Teton and miscellaneous other tastings there. The regular tastings can be hit or miss as to the crowd. The brewery tastings get PACKED real quick.

For what it's worth, Jamil and the CYBI crew used WLP002 (Wyeast 1968, aka Fuller's strain) on the Deschutes clones. It is less attenuating than some strains but it seems they mash quite low to balance it out. Example:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-deschutes-mirror-pond-pale-ale-178959/

The reference to Wyeast 1968 threw me. I was looking at that attenuation.

Lemme know how the experiment works out!