New Castle Clone

I've been reading through Beer Captured, and it has a New Castle clone. I LOVE newky so the idea of cloning it is great. The only problem I have is the description given by the authors. They claim that NC is a blended beer, being the product of a heavy beer, which is not available, and a light beer, sold as New Castle Amber.

Needless to say their recipe does NOT have you blending beers.

How can this be a faithful clone of the original if it does not have you create both beers, and then blend them? Am I getting way to caught up in things? I'm fine with making a Brown Ale, I love them, but when you're attempting to do a clone, it seems like you should try to stay as true to form as possible.

This recipe is supposed to be a very close rendition on Newcastle.
http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/Jamil/JamilsNorthernBrown.htm

I wouldn't worry about blending the beers. If it tastes close and tastes good, then that is all that matters, right?

BierMuncher has a clone in the recipe database. There was a BYO article that had you brewing two separate beers and blending (but not a 50:50 blend), BM formulated a recipe based on a combination of the two recipes.

Another thing would be getting ahold of the newcastle strain, which is apparently White Labs Manchester Ale yeast WLP038. It was a platnium strain back a few months back, but apparently Ed still has it for sale, make a starter and you should be fine: http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/product/0102135/white-labs-manchester-ale-platinum-strain-wlp038

SpanishCastleAle said:

BierMuncher has a clone in the recipe database. There was a BYO article that had you brewing two separate beers and blending (but not a 50:50 blend), BM formulated a recipe based on a combination of the two recipes.

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BMs is very close to the original in taste. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am considering it again...

There is a recipe in the BYO mag that has you brewing two beers and then blending them. I've never tried it though, too much work for Newkie.

I think that you're correct in that it won't taste quite the same, some of the aged character of the old ale won't come through.

Thanks guys, I think I'll try BMs!

Pardon my ignorance, but do people really commonly refer to this beer as "newky?" I ask because It appears twice in this thread, and I've never heard it before.

TheDutchman said:

Pardon my ignorance, but do people really commonly refer to this beer as "newky?" I ask because It appears twice in this thread, and I've never heard it before.

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I have a few friends who refer to newcastle as such, yeah.