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I recently made a 1 gallon batch of Brooklyn Brew Shop's Canadian Red Ale. As it was absolutely incredible, I want to make it again. I have searched everywhere for a list of ingredients but have not found anything. If anyone has an idea of what kinds of barley are used could you please share it. Anything close will also work as I realize that we may not be able to find the exact blend.

The one ingredient I know it uses is Cascade Hops

Cheers

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  • Are you looking for an all grain recipe? Extract? Partial mash? Jul 4, 2014 at 13:50
  • All grain would be best, i figure that will give my my best chance to replicate my results from last time as it too was all grain
    – DuffGuy
    Jul 4, 2014 at 14:03
  • I've never heard of Canadian Red Ale.
    – Denny Conn
    Jul 4, 2014 at 16:17
  • Could it be Alexander Keith's Amber Red Ale? beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/6994/29070 Jul 6, 2014 at 14:56
  • It was a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop - but seeing as no one has heard of it, would anyone be able to tell me if red ales have similar taste?
    – DuffGuy
    Jul 6, 2014 at 15:22

1 Answer 1

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The best description I was able to find is PDF on shop's page. Recipe is probably copyrighted, but here is excerpt that should be good enough to start (in case PDF is no longer accessible):

  • Recipe is for t 5 quarts (4.75 liters) of wort. In homebrew, we usually brew four to five times this amount, so just multiply everything by 4. Or 5.
  • Recommended mash is at 63-68°C - this means dry to semi-dry result. You know what you did, so do the same.
  • It's single hop cascade, with additions:
    • 40% for 60 minutes (at start) - bittering addition
    • 20% for 20 minutes (after 40 minutes of boil) - taste addition
    • 20% for 5 minutes (after 55 minutes) - aroma addition
  • Fermentation at 70°F (21°C). Typical for ales.
  • Honey as priming sugar - waste of perfectly good honey as far as I know.

Now what's not told is grain bill and yeast. My guess is that we are talking about American Amber / Red Ale. Let's take a look on BJCP guidelines:

Flavor: Moderate to high hop flavor from American hop varieties, which often but not always has a citrusy quality. Malt flavors are moderate to strong, and usually show an initial malty sweetness followed by a moderate caramel flavor (and sometimes other character malts in lesser amounts). Malt and hop bitterness are usually balanced and mutually supportive. (...)

Ingredients: Pale ale malt, typically American two-row. Medium to dark crystal malts. May also contain specialty grains which add additional character and uniqueness. (...)

So, the way I would go about it, would be to aim at balance between bitterness and malt character. Software like BrewTarget shows you this in a very readable form. Use pale malt and some caramel/crystal malt to achieve red colour. Aim for 5% ABV. And then just try. This "character and uniqueness" you probably liked is something nobody can help you with, as it's not a widely known beer, sorry.

As noted by Chino Brews, there might be addition of roasted barley to make it more red. 7% would give you black beer, so go for 1 to 3%. Black patent malt is another way to get there with colour. But they taste differently. If possible, try tasting both, both directly and water after an hour of extraction, and use the one that gives tastes and aromas you want in your beer. If your beer wasn't anything like either of them, then maybe it was really dark crystal instead.

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  • I know this PDF was suggested earlier in comments. I found it independently, but oh well - even if I didn't, this question is somehow answerable and guy who commented did not bother to post answer for months.
    – Mołot
    Nov 18, 2015 at 14:54

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