# Looking for a recipe for little creatures pale or similar



## Pilchard (29/4/14)

I haven't even bottled my first brew but am picking up another fermenter tomorrow to get another batch going. Looking for something like LC pale, nice floral hoppy beer. At this stage I would like to use a can and hop additions so am looking for some thoughts on hop quantities, variety, yeast and can selection etc. I don't think I am advanced enough to try a full boil yet. I can temp control and cold crash if that helps.

I only have ipad so can't use many of the spread sheets I have found. Maybe there is already a recipe on here someone can point me to?

Many thanks.


----------



## manticle (29/4/14)

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/recipe/960-little-fellas-pale-ale/

Pre hopped can or are you happy doing your own bittering additions?

The above is an all grain recipe but you can sub out the grains with extracts. There are some very decent extracts available now so you can replicate pretty much every grain bit with an extract from briess or weyermann. Get those in the same proportions to the same gravity (don't have to add it all), add the hops, top up with your water volume and ferment.

I realise not all of that will be clear but hopefully it's enough to get some specific questions going and that will lead to answers.


----------



## Pilchard (29/4/14)

I was just about to post I found the recipe and wanted to know if I could just use a can and boil the hops in just water for the specific times to simulate the bittering without the wort.

The last batch, well the first in over a decade was a can with steeped hops powdered malt sugar baggy etc. I like how this one tastes light on the beer with a lot of fruit so wanted to try and get more body and bitterness and still keep that jumping Amarillo citrusy/passion fruit flavour.

Hope that makes sense

Cheers


----------



## Pilchard (29/4/14)

Exact recipe was 1kg country brewer brew booster, 1can rapid creek pale, 30 grams Amarillo steeped 30 mins and added to fermenter.


----------



## Pilchard (29/4/14)

Without sounding daft, what is the consensus on carbonating into bottles? If I could keg I would but unless someone has a way of using commercial kegs then I am only left with bottles, for ease I was going to use the tabs. If there is a better way please let me know. Brewing has come a long way in 10 years and I'm still learning, I only just worked out what a qube was, slaps the face etc.


----------



## dicko (29/4/14)

you may want to try Bulk Priming

This method lets you use bottles of different sizes while maintaining the same level of prime for each bottle


----------



## menoetes (29/4/14)

If you want something easy you can give this easy one a try;

*Lil' Critters Pale Ale*

1 can of Coopers Blonde
1kg of Dry Light Malt
250g Caramunich 1 - steeped in 2lts of 70'c water for 30 min
15g Chinook @ 10 min
15g Cascade @ 10 min
15g Cascade - Dry Hopped after 7 days
S-05 Yeast

Strain the grains, keeping the liquid and rinse them with another litre of hot tap water then strain again. Boil the hops in that saved liquid, you should have nearly 3 litres of it now. Pour in the Blonde kit and malt at the end of the boil, stir until completely dissolved, pour the lot into the fermenter and top up to 20 - 23 litres (depending on how strong you like your beer). Give it all a vigorous stir and pitch the yeast as close to 20'c if you can. Throw in your dry hops 7 days after seeing the first yeast activity and a week later you'll be good to bottle.

If you're a kit and bits brewer, this will produce something that looks similar to, and has the nice floral and resin flavors of a LCPA.


----------



## toughen (29/4/14)

Boonies LCPA clone is popular. I've got my 3rd batch fermenting at the moment 

1 tin Morgans Stockmans Draught 
1.5 kg of Morgans Extra Pale Malt Extract (Liquid) 
15g of Cascade pellets - 15min 
10g Cluster pellets - 15 min 
US05 Yeast. 
12g of Chinook Pellets (dry hopped at rack)

Don't boil the Stockmans tin, mistake I learnt as a home brew noob.

Makes consistently good kit home brew IMO 

:chug:


----------



## Pilchard (29/4/14)

Thanks for the recipes guys, got to the shop today to stock up, so will be trying both of these over the next few weeks.

Do I run a full 60min boil and add hops at 10 mins from end or just boil 10 mins?

Thanks.


----------



## menoetes (30/4/14)

No need for a 60 minute boil if you are only adding hops in the last 10 - 15 minutes sir. Just let your wort (or water) come to a roiling boil for 10 minutes before adding your hops and starting a timer for 10 minutes in the case of my recipe or 15 minutes in the case of Toughens. Then get it off the heat and cooled asap, either by putting the pot in a cold water bath or by getting it into the fermenter and topped up to volume with cool water as quick as you safely can, after dissolving the kit and malt first of course.


----------



## Yob (30/4/14)

Pilchard said:


> if I could just use a can and boil the hops in just water for the specific times to simulate the bittering without the wort.


Not really, you want to boil/steep hops with a gravity of about 1040, its reported that doing so in plain water will add a harshness that you dont get with doing the same in a 1040 gravity wort.

Never tried in plain water so have no personal observations.

:icon_cheers:


----------



## dicko (30/4/14)

In my experience I agree with Yob, a plain water boil will add a kind of grassy harshness.
Just boil the malt extract with the hops and then add the tin of base goo and chill quickly as menoetes and toughen described above.


----------



## Pilchard (30/4/14)

I put the little critters down today

Ran grain as per recipe but could only get a tin of morgans blonde, low carb can. By the calculator it has thrown the SG out a bit so corrected 2 points with 100g dex to 1.042 calc read 1.044 actual was under 40. Would have added more malt but didn't have it.

Or I have done something wrong with my grains. Tried to keep them as close to 70 as possible 65-75 it was hard on an electric stove with a heavy bottomed boiler. I strained through butter cloth and rinsed 2x so had a bit more liquid than 3l they nearly ran clear on the second washing.

I have learned a few things today. If I'm going to use grains I may as well do a full grain beer as it's hard to keep small amounts stable in temp, and to never use the brew shop I went to again... 

I will not update my location for a while but all I have to say is that it was disgusting, the amount of dust on the grain container lids tells me they don't sell much, woman really knew nothing and any questions I asked were not answered, she seemed to not be bothered...

I have learnt more here in a week than I think I ever knew about brewing and love this forum and the helpful people. In the future I will just go to marks or country brewer both are 40min drives with traffic but hell I'll never step foot in the other one again.


----------



## menoetes (1/5/14)

Hey Pilchard, sorry to hear about your troubles with the recipe. We've all been there with some teething problems as we try new techniques.

This may be a stupid question but where your grains cracked? Did the guy at the brew shop mill them for you? I've still been getting plenty of colour out of my Caramunich even on the 3rd rinse so I'm not sure what happened there if the grain was cracked properly. It doesn;t sound like they were or you might have got a dud batch of grain :unsure:

As for your steeping; I use an electric stove too so I understand your frustration but there are benefits too. Mine is a glass top and retains heat for some time even after being turned off, so using a heavy bottomed pot like your own, I just bring the water to 70 -75'c then add the grains, stir well and turn it off. By putting on the pot lid and leaving it on the still warm element the temp doesn't drop more than 5'c over 30 minutes which is fine for steeping small amounts of grains for kit and bits brewing. Easy as pie and if you are still worried about losing that heat, wrap the pot in a blanket (or a few towels) as insulation.

A good brew shop is also critical to the outcome of your beers  

Hope I was helpful...


----------



## BottloBill (1/5/14)

Hey Pilchard, sounds like you walked into the same shop I did when I first started out and the funny thing is I was warned before I went there. I have the three main shops that have never let me down....Marks, Digga's, Newcastle Brew Shop and of cause My online peeps...Yob, Carter and Southern highlands, all no affiliation just trusted suppliers I can rely on stress free;-)


----------



## manticle (1/5/14)

Pilchard - it is not essential to hold any set temperature when steeping grains. Different story if mashing. 65-70 is a good aim for extracting flavour quickly while avoiding harsh flavours and as practice for mashing but you can even soak them in cold water (takes a bit longer).


----------



## Nullnvoid (4/6/14)

menoetes said:


> If you want something easy you can give this easy one a try;
> 
> *Lil' Critters Pale Ale*
> 
> ...



Just put this one down today! First time using a small amount of grain! It smells delicious. Hopefully it keeps going that way!


----------



## menoetes (9/6/14)

Glad to hear it went so well Nullnvoid, once you start brewing with malt, hops and some milled grains I think you'll discover how easy it is to make some great tasting beer.

A pimped out kit and bits is tastes better than most mega swill beers IMHO. It's cheaper too and a bunch of fun


----------



## heshtek (10/6/14)

The first brew I've ever dry hopped tastes a fair bit like little creatures (well the wort did I haven't tasted the carbonated and bottled end product yet)

Ingredients

1 x Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit
1kg Brew enhancer 2
250g LDME
US05 yeast
25g Amarillo hops

I dry hopped with the Amarillo on day 10 and had the brew in the fermenter for 13 days before I bottled it.


----------



## H0U5ECAT (11/6/14)

Or the guys at ESB (The Brew SHop, Peakhurst) can set you up decently....

http://www.esbrewing.com.au/beer-making/recipes/esb-can-kit-recipes/little-creatures-pale-ale-style-recipe-pack.html

Little Creatures Pale Ale (Style Recipe Pack)
Type: Can Kit Recipe
Batch Size: 22 litres 

Ingredients

1 x Coopers Australian Pale Ale
1 x #15 Brew Booster
1 x 1kg Extra Light Malt Extract
1 x 12g Cascade finishing hop
1 x 12g Amarillo finishing hops
1 x Crystal Grain Enhancer 200g
1 x Safale US-05 yeast

Beer Profile

Estimated Original Gravity : 1.053 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.010 FG
Estimaled Alcohol by Volume: 5.5-6%
Bitterness: 22-26 IBU
Estimated Colour: 45-59 EBC

$47 + shipping isn't too bad at all.


----------



## Nullnvoid (25/7/14)

Nullnvoid said:


> Just put this one down today! First time using a small amount of grain! It smells delicious. Hopefully it keeps going that way!


Cracked this open last week. Bloody amazing! Best one so far. Man I love this hobby!

Had some good reviews at the Vic Christmas in July case swap too!

Will be making this one again!


----------



## menoetes (26/7/14)

I'm really glad to hear it came out well Nullnvoid. It's been ages since I made it but I have good memories of it too 

It's a quick and easy brew, maybe I'll need to knock it out again soon...

Did you dry hop with the chinook in the end?


----------

