Alpha Pale Ale Clone

[jkmeldrum]

Hi guys!

I've been working on an Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale clone for a few brews. It's mainly trial and error .. my last brew is beautiful and I have no complaints with it, although it's probably a bit more hop driven (due to late cascade additions) whereas the actual Alpha Pale Ale has a slightly more malty flavour and with the latest bottle that I tried - it had a slight amount of bitterness that tasted like it was from a darker malt perhaps like a roasted flavour.

Batch size (fermenter): 23.00L
Boil size: 30.60L
Bottling volume: 23.00L
Estimated OG: 1.051
Estimated Color: 19.29 EBC
Estimated IBU: 30.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00%
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

4.5kg Bairds Maris Otter
0.45kg Bairds Torrified Wheat
0.40kg Bairds Medium Crystal (140 EBC)

Single infusion light body mash

10g Pride of Ringwood pellets (10.0%) @ 60min
15g Amarillo pellets (8.20%) @ 20min
15g Cascade pellets (5.5%) @ 15min
15g Amarillo pellets (8.20%) @ 10min
32g Cascade pellets (5.5%) @ 5min
28g Cascade (dry flowers) (7.6%) @ 1min and allowed to soak for 10mins

.5 Irish Moss tablet at 10 mins

I had a look at the website today and it said they used a small amount of Dark Crystal, which I might try next time instead of the medium crystal.

Any suggestions about how much and also if you think I might be able to improve on this recipe any way?

Cheers

Molly

 

[eamonnfoley]

Havent had Alpha since the days it was on tap (pre fat yak days). But I reckon it was dry hopped - very resiny hop aroma.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Looks pretty good, i like the look of the recipe as well. nice one

I dont mind Alpha, its my run of the mill go to when i am in the vicinity of a Dans, which is not that often.
The only thing drinkable for me locally is LCPA and that starts to wear a bit thin sometimes, maybe i should try and brew my own more often.....

 

[jimmysuperlative]

Thanks for the post Molly. I've been thinking about doing it myself for a while now.
You got the colour nailed down!

Cheers!

 

[QldKev]

I love the Alpha Ale. I would have at least 1g/L dry hop Cascade in there.
My personal preference would be drop/lower that amount of wheat and get some Munich in there. You will need to drop a bit of the crystal to balance the color.


Also you are the first other brewer I have even seen use POR in this style of ale. I do it in my MIDAPA which is similar to this style and love the POR in it.


QldKev

 

[jkmeldrum]

Thanks for the post Molly. I've been thinking about doing it myself for a while now.
You got the colour nailed down!

Cheers!

Thanks mate, yeah colour pretty spot on, original is just a tad clearer, but mine keeps a much better head, due to torrified wheat addition. Been putting it in every brew since I started to use it and always guarantees me beautiful head retention.....I'm not sure if I actually need that much but it seems to work. Think that the next time I brew this one, I might try it without the medium crystal and substitute some dark crystal and see how that goes to up the maltiness a bit. Have also thought about some melanoidin malt. Anyone know much about that?

 

[jkmeldrum]

I love the Alpha Ale. I would have at least 1g/L dry hop Cascade in there.
My personal preference would be drop/lower that amount of wheat and get some Munich in there. You will need to drop a bit of the crystal to balance the color.


Also you are the first other brewer I have even seen use POR in this style of ale. I do it in my MIDAPA which is similar to this style and love the POR in it.


QldKev

Thanks QldKev

I'm trying some Munich in another brew today, funny you should mention that. The other brew is 4.8kg of Maris Otter, .4 of Weyermann Munich I and .4 Torrified Wheat. It won't be an Alpha clone, hopefully just a nice pale ale with just Galaxy hops.

But I agree with you the POR for bittering does work for me too.

So what do you think for my next Alpha attempt? Maybe drop the Torrified wheat to .25 and drop the medium crystal all together and perhaps bring in .4 of Munich and maybe .15 of dark crystal. Then maybe some dry hopping of Cascade?

Cheers

Molly

 

[Budron]

What yeast are you pairing with this clone?

 

[jkmeldrum]

What yeast are you pairing with this clone?

I just keep it fairly simple with Safale US-05

 

[Budron]

Thanks.

I'm looking at maybe trying this one out for my first BIAB in a few weeks time.

 

[unco_tomato]

What yeast are you pairing with this clone?

I've heard it is Wyeast #1056 at 16C that they use at the brewery.

Sorry for the thread necro, but I plan on brewing a clone for this soon and found this thread

 

[Malted]

But I reckon it was dry hopped - very resiny hop aroma.

I agree. From what I have tasted, I'd throw a few pine cones into it....
h34r:

 

[OzPaleAle]

Here is some vague additional info from the link below fro Matilda Bay Brewery.

http://www.goodbeerweek.com.au/events/view/100


The Basic Recipe

Pale and Crystal malts
American Cascade and Amarillo hops - early, late & dry-hopped
Ale yeast
Melbourne Water
50ish IBU with some perceived bitterness from late-hopping
5.2% ABV

 

[tiprya]

They recently had a 'clone' competition for the Alpha in Melbourne - did anyone on here enter and get feedback?

It is a fantastic beer - I wish they didn't price it so highly.

 

[Logman]

On the Matilda Bay site it says it has a bit of POR in it. I did a batch with a small amount of Super Pride in it about 1 month ago as well as Cascade and Amarillo - hasn't made it's way into the kegerator yet though.

Not selling it at Dan's any more - I often picked up a couple of these when there.

 

[Helles]

Doing the brewery tour at Matilda Bay in 2 weeks
Plenty of questions to ask for Alpha / Fat Yak recipes

 

[OzPaleAle]

Doing the brewery tour at Matilda Bay in 2 weeks
Plenty of questions to ask for Alpha / Fat Yak recipes

The food there is just as good as the beer, I got a number of the vouchers, been twice so far.
Enjoy!

 

[KingKong]

Doing the brewery tour at Matilda Bay in 2 weeks
Plenty of questions to ask for Alpha / Fat Yak recipes

Document and let us all know! I am yet to find a decent fatyak recipe clone.

 

[kierent]

keen to hear what you find in the brewery tour too!