Buffalo Wild Wings Redhook Game Changer Clone

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
J

Jpierce3

Active Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2014
Messages
35
Reaction score
1
First off I am fairly new to home brewing. I have done only extract kits, about 3 5 gallon and 3 1 gallon. With that said I am looking for a clone recipe for the Redhook Game Changer From Buffalo Wild Wings. I Love this beer and would love to make my own. Has anyone made a clone or something close to this? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Cheers
 
Unfortunately, Red Hook's website doesn't give much information about this beer other than "a sessionable ale with rich color to distinguish it as craft, just enough hops to cut the spiciness of wings, and the right amount of malt to cool the burn", 4.6% ABV, 25 IBUs. No mention of grains/hops. If you can e-mail them and find out what their grain bill looks like and what varities of hops are used, then it becomes a lot easier to put together a clone recipe.

EDIT: Found another quote, still not much to go on:
"Redhook Game Changer is a pale ale with a rich amber color. The flavor profile appeals to a broad audience, from light domestic beer drinkers to craft beer drinkers. It is perfectly balanced with a blend of caramel malts and American-grown hops"
 
Interesting....I would not have thought the brewery would divulge that info. Heck it's worth a try. Thanks!
 
barhopping247 said:
Interesting....I would not have thought the brewery would divulge that info. Heck it's worth a try. Thanks!
Click to expand...


Some are more willing to provide the info than others. I e-mailed Bell's a few months ago to ask about how to use yeast harvested from their bottles and they were happy to answer pretty much any questions I had.

At the very least, they could tell you the grain and hop bills. It's not too terribly difficult to figure out a decent clone based on that info. If they give you more, like IBU, SRM, gravities, etc. then you can make an even better clone based on that.

Good luck!
 
I put together a recipie from various sources and it is not only damn close but DAMN GOOD:

Redhook ESB (V1) clone

Measured OG: 1.062
Bitterness: 25 IBU (Calculated)
Color: 13 SRM
Predicted ABV: 5%

Ingredients
9.875 lbs. domestic 2 row pale malt
1.125 lbs. Caramunic malt (60* L)
0.4 lbs. Carapils malt

10.5 g. Nugget (13.5% alpha acid) @ 60 min.
0.5 oz. Tettnang (3.8% alpha acid) @ 15 min.
0.5 oz. Willamette (5.3% alpha acid) @ 15 min.
1.5 oz. Tettnang (3.8% alpha acid); steep 5 min. post boil
1.5 oz. Willamette (5.3% alpha acid) ; steep 5 min. post boil

0.5 tsp. yeast nutrient @15 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 15 min.

SafAle US-04 (Properly Rehydrated)

Directions
Mash at 154 degrees for 60 minutes. Sparge with 175F water to create enough wort to reach 5.5 gallons after the boil. Boil and add hops according to the schedule above. Chill to 70 - 72 degrees and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 60 degrees for two weeks. (above 65,
it does get the typical English esters.)
Add 0.75 cup corn sugar for carbonation and condition for three weeks at 75 degrees.

So according to my notes:

OG = 1.061 @ 69*
FG = 1.016 @ 62*
yealding and ABV of 4.7%

SafAle US-04 is not as attunutive (wait... is that a word? I just had one of these...) as most yeasts I use so I did miss my expected ABV.

I am so happy with the result I don't think there will be a V2 of this recipie.
BTW I tend to use what ever high alpha hops I have on hand for the bittering hop and calculate the bitterness so I hit my marks. Meaning Nugget is not necessary. This was my first recipie where most of my hops were late additions/steeped and the result is OUTSTANDING!. Lots of great flavor and aroma, very close to the commercial version.

Enjoy!
 
Yea no response from red hook as well. Thanks for the recipe and responses
 
I'll give this recipe a try this weekend and let you know how close it comes to the Game Changer. Thank you all for the replies! AND the recipe!!
 
Got a response from red hook. Said there meeting with the brewing team to see what they can/willing to share.
 
There ya go



Thanks for your inquiry Jason. No plans at the moment to bring Gamechanger outside of BWW. Audible is probably our closest beer to Gamechanger that we package.

Here is what Gamechanger looks like here at the brewery.

Pale 2-Row, Great Western







85.7%
C-60, Great Western



4.8%
C-10, Briess



9.5%

You may need to use more or less c-60 to get the right color, this is what works for us.

We use a single infusion at 67C for 30 minutes.
OG – 11.0P
Alchemy Hop Blend for 5 BU (I’d use something like Magnum)
Cascade Hops in the Whirlpool for around 20BU

Yeast is 1056

Hope this helps and glad you appreciate the beer.
 
Bad ass! I love Redhook, and reading an email like this from them just reinforces that opinion.
 
Let me know if you try either of these barhopping. Sorry for delayed response in the beginning. The microphone was on but my speakers were not lol
 
Jpierce3 said:
There ya go



Thanks for your inquiry Jason. No plans at the moment to bring Gamechanger outside of BWW. Audible is probably our closest beer to Gamechanger that we package.

Here is what Gamechanger looks like here at the brewery.

Pale 2-Row, Great Western







85.7%
C-60, Great Western



4.8%
C-10, Briess



9.5%

You may need to use more or less c-60 to get the right color, this is what works for us.

We use a single infusion at 67C for 30 minutes.
OG – 11.0P
Alchemy Hop Blend for 5 BU (I’d use something like Magnum)
Cascade Hops in the Whirlpool for around 20BU

Yeast is 1056

Hope this helps and glad you appreciate the beer.
Click to expand...












Guys I have kinda gathered a little more information and thanks to BeerSmith and Brewers Friend I put together a 5 gallon recipe. The only issues that stand out, is the color and the almost no hops in the boil. Please if you see something I have done wrong please correct me. I am going to brew this and test it out. Here you go :

OG: 1.046 (Closest I could get to 1.043 and get the ABV close)
FG: 1.011

ABV: 4.52%
IBU: 25.05
SRM 7.37 (much more orange then it needs to be)

Fermentables :

124oz (7.75lbs) American Pale 2 Row 84.4% Changed qty to 9.5lbs on LHBS recommendation
9oz American Crystal 60 6.1%
14oz American Crystal 10 9.5%

Mashed at 152.6F for 30 minutes

Typical Boil 60 Minutes

2 hop add ins

Magnum .5oz added at 55 minutes
Cascade 1oz added during Whirlpool for 25 minutes

Thats basically it. Am i missing something from the instructions that the brewery gave? This will be the first brew that only had a small amount of hop added during the boil. Also any ideas on why the color looks like a shock top? I would assume that you add more C60 like they said, but that screws up the grain % quite a bit. I am above on the C60, but was not sure about going higher to match the color. thoughts and ideas are welcomed.
 
Wouldn't 1/2 an ounce of Magnum boiled for 55 minutes give you more than 5 IBUs? Did you mean 5 minutes instead of 55?
 
ahh. I get it.....sorry for the confusion. I took the recipe as I posted to my local HBS and had them crunch some numbers and their only concern was that the grain bill volume looked a little low. so they increased my Pale 2 row base grain to 9.5lbs. That in turn was going to improve my BIAB effeciency for my target OG and help with the color.. made sense to me.. brewed last night and OG was 1.049. so little higher, I am sure because of the extra grain. ABV went up to over 5% also. not exactly an exact clone, but hopefully close. The color was much more red then Brewers friend let on that it would be.
 
Sorry Pierce...I've been beyond busy...hopefully get around to trying this out this weekend....will keep you posted!


Jpierce3 said:
Let me know if you try either of these barhopping. Sorry for delayed response in the beginning. The microphone was on but my speakers were not lol
Click to expand...
 
Beer turned out spot on!

Only thing I would change, is that I think I will extend the mash time to the full 60 minutes.

Its perfect. Very very good beer.
 
20 IBU's in the whirlpool? They must use a huge amount of hops to get that. How did you get 20 IBU's from 1 ounce of Cascade? You can leave an ounce in there for several hours and not come close to 20 IBU's.
 
Did you happen to save this in beersmith? Any chance you would like to share the file?


21jason21 said:
Guys I have kinda gathered a little more information and thanks to BeerSmith and Brewers Friend I put together a 5 gallon recipe. The only issues that stand out, is the color and the almost no hops in the boil. Please if you see something I have done wrong please correct me. I am going to brew this and test it out. Here you go :

OG: 1.046 (Closest I could get to 1.043 and get the ABV close)
FG: 1.011

ABV: 4.52%
IBU: 25.05
SRM 7.37 (much more orange then it needs to be)

Fermentables :

124oz (7.75lbs) American Pale 2 Row 84.4% Changed qty to 9.5lbs on LHBS recommendation
9oz American Crystal 60 6.1%
14oz American Crystal 10 9.5%

Mashed at 152.6F for 30 minutes

Typical Boil 60 Minutes

2 hop add ins

Magnum .5oz added at 55 minutes
Cascade 1oz added during Whirlpool for 25 minutes

Thats basically it. Am i missing something from the instructions that the brewery gave? This will be the first brew that only had a small amount of hop added during the boil. Also any ideas on why the color looks like a shock top? I would assume that you add more C60 like they said, but that screws up the grain % quite a bit. I am above on the C60, but was not sure about going higher to match the color. thoughts and ideas are welcomed.
Click to expand...
 
Yes I used only 1 oz the first time I brewed it and it turned out great, could have been hoppier to closer match the original. So this time I used 4oz or 5.5 cascade in the whirlpool and it's still in the fermenter. The recipe turned out very very good. I would highly recommend it. Along with the 4oz hops I increased the mash time to 60 minutes. So we will see..... It smells and tastes great. It will be be out of the fermenter in a week, so couple weeks after that I will know.
 
Yes I did do a beer smith on it and I was having difficulties determining the BU without it boiling. So I asked my LHBS a recommendation. It is really good with just 1oz of cascade. But just like anything else I cannot leave well enough alone. I have been brewing for several years and to date this is the only one that I have brewed again, if that tells you something.
 
I have loaded all three recipes onto the beersmith cloud. My user name is je21. Let me know if you can't get it.

I did three recipes

The original- copied directly off the brewery. Which the ABV was low and the ibu was low and the SRM was too golden. So my LHBS made the recommendation of Clone I. I brewed Clone I and it was very good, close but not spot on like I wanted. Color was a little off. And hops were pleasant... But not like it should be. So I tweaked it again and created Clone II. Color looks much better, since I mashed for 60 instead of 30. And the hops smell great... Much stronger.... We will see, I am going to rack it out of my conical and into the keg soon. I checked and the current gravity is 1.006. Puts the ABV around 5 where it should be.
 

Similar threads

brewdon
Not sure if this “Pellicile” is healthy
Replies
5
Views
232
hottpeper13
H
brewskitom
3V eBrewing Plumbing Advice
Replies
2
Views
740
rjbergen
R
R
Question regarding lagering
Replies
10
Views
1K
Beerstein
Beerstein
J
Hey y’all from Kentucky kombucha gal
Replies
7
Views
489
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
C
Best brewing system for 5-15 gallon batches
Replies
25
Views
1K
Ninoid
Ninoid

Latest posts

Back
Top