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Hear hear. One of the great reasons to live in the northwest, deschutes, rouge and a number of other rockin beers on tap a lot of places.
 
Haven't seen it yet in my area. I love their BBPorter tho.

But, I thought Pliny the Elder was the WBB. Maybe the WAS is important?? :D

Perhaps that's the difference between a blind taste test and a biased ranking heavily based on hype?

Not hating on Pliny, nor have I had anything from Deschutes outside of Black Butte which I got on a swap (and loved), but I'm just saying.

Recalling the blind tasting of various Belgians that's been floating around that ranked Westy 12 relatively low among the rest.
 
If anyone who doesn't get a chance to grab Deschutes brew often I'd go straight for the Obsidian Stout the first chance you get. I love stouts and have tasted a ton of them, Obsidian is amazing. You can actually taste the layers unfolding in every sip. Once you get past the coffee and chocolates expected in a stout you get on to the herbal, evergreen, and slight citrus from the hops... I need to get to the store!
 
If anyone who doesn't get a chance to grab Deschutes brew often I'd go straight for the Obsidian Stout the first chance you get. I love stouts and have tasted a ton of them, Obsidian is amazing. You can actually taste the layers unfolding in every sip. Once you get past the coffee and chocolates expected in a stout you get on to the herbal, evergreen, and slight citrus from the hops... I need to get to the store!

^true

the clone from CYBI is spot on. I've brewed it back to back already. Put in on Nitro this time - VERY nice.
 
Qhrumphf said:
Perhaps that's the difference between a blind taste test and a biased ranking heavily based on hype?

Can I get a AMEN?!?!

Pliny is fine... but there is much more I'd rather drink :)
 
Can I get a AMEN?!?!

Pliny is fine... but there is much more I'd rather drink :)

You can... Amen! Pliny is a good IPA but I'd take a Manny's Pale Ale over it any day of the week. If you ever get to Seattle GO TO GEORGETOWN BREWERY. Amazing beers, I just wish they'd bottle em.
 
Question- does anyone have any other Deschutes recommendations? I'll be visiting my folks in Idaho next week, and plan on stocking up on PNW stuff I can't normally get here (Deschutes, Ninkasi, that kind of stuff) while I'm there. Black Butte is in my list, the Abyss or Obsidian if I can find them. Just don't know exactly what their distribution is (I know their stuff is available in Idaho, just don't know if all of their stuff is), or when their windows are.
 
In my opinion every one of the Deschutes beers is excellent. Get whatever you can and I believe you will enjoy it. I have found them on sale at Albertsons supermarkets in Coeur d'Alene, so you might check the store where you are.
 
RobertRGeorge said:
In my opinion every one of the Deschutes beers is excellent. Get whatever you can and I believe you will enjoy it. I have found them on sale at Albertsons supermarkets in Coeur d'Alene, so you might check the store where you are.

All things Deschutes is fantastic. Mirror Pond Pale Ale has yet to be mentioned... soooo good
 
Y'all are right on with the Obsidian Stout. That was a fantastic beer. Brought a bottle of Black Butte XXIV back with me that I think I'll hold on to for a little while. Had Mirror Pond while I was out that way. That one was great too.
 
I had Black Butte Porter. I was not impressed, nothing against the beer, just it had been hyped up to me by the staff and by a buddy and it didn't live up to the hype. Favorite Deschutes beer I had last summer was Chainbreaker IPA. I can say Mirror Pond was a close second. Normally I like porters and stouts to which is interesting.
 
If I read correctly, the CYBI clone recipe is for the Obsidian Stout and not the Red Chair. Last spring (when I still lived in Arizona and could get Red Chair (wish I could find it in Michigan)), I did some searching for a Red Chair clone recipe. I found a few attempts, but didn't see much follow up in terms of how close of a clone the recipes turned out to be.

I did frankenstein together a version of a recipe, but haven't gotten around to trying it out yet. Mostly because I'm not sure how good of a clone it would be.

Has anybody made an attempt to clone Red Chair they deemed successful?
 
I must say I dislike the idea of "clone" because I would rather use the beer as an inspiration to make something that is not commercially available. I did make a beer "inspired" by Red Chair though. The basic idea is a Northwest Pale Ale that is amber with a hint of red. It has an aromatic citrus/tropical fruit burst of hop aroma and flavor, but is not a full-on hop assault like the overwrought IPAs coming out of Washington and Oregon. It uses 11 malts in total, with the red coming from melanoidin and 120L. It has medium body. "Edges out, layers in" I take to be a skiing metaphor referring to nice turns, and a smooth ride. That suggests fruity with a malty finish. This gave me the idea of using an American crystal blend, a touch of chocolate wheat, a dab of HB black, some cara aroma, melanoidin and carapils. For fun I put in some Belgian dark aroma sugar and Belgian dark Candi to bring up the OG.


I wet hopped with fresh Willamette, Fuggle and will dry hop with Simcoe and Citra. I used SD Superyeast but I am sure any nicely attenuative yeast will do.

Go for it.
 
I must say I dislike the idea of "clone" because I would rather use the beer as an inspiration to make something that is not commercially available. I did make a beer "inspired" by Red Chair though. The basic idea is a Northwest Pale Ale that is amber with a hint of red. It has an aromatic citrus/tropical fruit burst of hop aroma and flavor, but is not a full-on hop assault like the overwrought IPAs coming out of Washington and Oregon. It uses 11 malts in total, with the red coming from melanoidin and 120L. It has medium body. "Edges out, layers in" I take to be a skiing metaphor referring to nice turns, and a smooth ride. That suggests fruity with a malty finish. This gave me the idea of using an American crystal blend, a touch of chocolate wheat, a dab of HB black, some cara aroma, melanoidin and carapils. For fun I put in some Belgian dark aroma sugar and Belgian dark Candi to bring up the OG.


I wet hopped with fresh Willamette, Fuggle and will dry hop with Simcoe and Citra. I used SD Superyeast but I am sure any nicely attenuative yeast will do.

Go for it.

I like the idea of original beer better, but a clone is good to see if you can do it. If you can't it might point out some of your strengths and weaknesses to work on or perfect.
 
Hey RobertRGeorge, would you mind sharing that recipe? I've only been brewing since January, and there are some grains you mentioned that I'm not familiar with. It might be nice to have a tested recipe to try them out in. Also, what is "Belgian dark aroma sugar"? Is it a typo and you meant aromatic malt? Or is my knowledge of Belgian sugars sorely lacking?

Of course, if it is an AG recipe, I'd have to adjust. I've done 1 AG BIAB batch, but was pretty much maxed out at a little over 7 lbs. of grain. I can definitely do a partial mash, though.

I'm still interested in a good clone recipe, but I can also appreciate the inspiration for wanting to do an original recipe.
 
You all are making us Southeastern brewers drool....and cry :(

I moved from Kansas City to Seattle 6 years ago. Within that 6 years my beer mind has been blown. Surely there are some great breweries in the south. What are some good bottles to seek out if we're down there?
 
Sure, I will share the recipe, but here's the thing about "a clone is good to see if you can do it." What I try to do is imagine in my mind what I want the beer to be, and see if I can do it. The Durden Park Beer Club talks about this in their book about old British beers too. They spend a lot of time extracting information about formulating old beers down to home brew proportions, and find it annoying that they could have bought a similar beer. I didn't get the idea from them but I can see where they are coming from.

Anyway, here it is, and I stress that this is not a Red Chair clone:

23L Northwest Pale Ale

2270 g Breiss extra light DME
250 g American crystal blend (my own concoction, roughly equal parts of 10 20 40 60 80 120L)
15 g chocolate wheat
7.5 g Hugh Baird Black Patent (I'd like to try Breiss Black Prinz)
75 g each cara aroma, cara pils, melanoidin
95 g Brewers Garden Belgian Extra Dark Aroma Sugar
150 g Belgian Dark Candi Sugar (believe it was Crosby and Baker)
80 g Nugget, Willamette, Fuggle B.C. homegrown wet hop blend continuously added over 1 hour boil (about a 1.3 grams a minute or whatever you can manage)
50 g Fuggle B.C. homegrown continuously added during last 20 minutes

WLP 090 San Diego Superyeast
13 Plato

I intend to add something in the neighborhood of 15 g Simcoe two weeks before bottling and 15 g Citra 1 week before bottling. But I will taste it first to make sure what I think it needs.

Good luck!
 
Belgian Extra Dark Aroma Sugar: Not a typo. I picked it up on a whim from the LHBS. It does have some aromatics of caramel and treacle. It is very dark. It's a Brewer's Garden product; the same company that sells little packets of herbs and salts.
 
RobertRGeorge said:
Belgian Extra Dark Aroma Sugar: Not a typo. I picked it up on a whim from the LHBS. It does have some aromatics of caramel and treacle. It is very dark. It's a Brewer's Garden product; the same company that sells little packets of herbs and salts.

Ah, cool. I'll have to see if I can find that.
 
Has anybody made an attempt to clone Red Chair they deemed successful?

Here was my attempt:

10lbs 2 row
1lb Munich
1lb Pislner
1lb Crystal 60L
0.5lb Carapils
0.5lb Carastan

Mash @ 152*F

1.5oz Centennial (9.1%AA) @ 60
1.5oz Centennial (9.1%AA) @ 15
2oz Cascade @ 0

OG 1.060
FG 1.012

WLP005

My tasting notes:
Need to mash a bit higher.
Need to ferment higher (I fermented at 62*F) to get some esters.
Mouthfeel and bitterness was dead on, as was color.
Mine verison had a little more aroma and not as much hop flavor as Red Chair
 
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