How to set up PhpRedis in Laravel 5+?

Question

Background
Attempting to use PhpRedis in Laravel 5.3 on a Mac OSX local server
running Apache 2.4.18, Php 7.0.14 and homebrew
...without requiring additional (non-official) composer libraries

Redis is installed via homebrew install redis and working
tested by redis-cli ping which gives PONG

PhpRedis installed via homebrew install php70-redis and working
tested by php -r "if (new Redis() == true){ echo \"\r\n OK \r\n\"; }" which gives OK

---

Setup
With the documentation and this SO Laravel 4 solution I do the following:

1. change (or comment & add) alias definition in app/config/app.php from
   'Redis' => 'Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis'
   to
   'LRedis' => 'Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis'
2. add client definition to the redis database definition in config/database.php
   'client' => 'phpredis',
3. run composer dump-autoload and php artisan optimize

4. use that renamed alias in an example route code:

   Route::get('redistesturl', function () { $app = LRedis::connection(); $app->set("name", "Bob Cool"); print_r($app->get("name")); });

---

Errors

FatalThrowableError in Database.php line 62:
Class 'Predis\Client' not found

Also tested calling redis within route as per SO answer mentioned above :

$redis = Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis::connection();

...but get same error

If I try to access LRedis class from within a controller like this:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

class MyController extends Controller
{
    public function redistest(){
        $redis = LRedis::connection();
        $redis->set('name', 'Bob Cool');
        return $redis->get('name');
    }
}

I get the following error:

FatalThrowableError in Preferences.php line 15:
Class 'App\Http\Controllers\LRedis' not found

---

Notes
Tested Predis and got it working fine by only adding the official predis library as specified in the docs.

I can get PhpRedis to work fine on my system (with the same route & controller examples) if I use an additional library like this one by following this Laracast ...however this question is specifically:

"How to set up PhpRedis in Laravel 5+ without additional composer libraries?"

Answer 1

FatalThrowableError in Preferences.php line 15:
Class 'App\Http\Controllers\LRedis' not found

You have not include namespace for LRedis class

<?php
use LRedis