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