Alpha Pale Ale

[JSB]

HI All enjoyed a few Alpha Pales at The Archer this afternoon, and I thought seeing my next brew will be an APA why not have a crack at an Alpha Pale knock off....Here's where I finished up.....any thoughts ?

Cheers
JSB

Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 30.67 L
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 22.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 36.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.20 kg BB Ale Malt (5.9 EBC) Grain 87.39 %
0.25 kg JWM Crystal 140 (145.8 EBC) Grain 4.20 %
0.25 kg JWM Wheat Malt (3.9 EBC) Grain 4.20 %
0.20 kg Weyermann Melanoidin (70.9 EBC) Grain 3.36 %
0.05 kg Bairds Pale Chocolate Malt (500.4 EBC) Grain 0.84 %
25.00 gm CB - Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
10.00 gm CB-06 Cascade [6.70 %] (30 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
10.00 gm CB-06 Cascade [6.70 %] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
10.00 gm CB-06 Cascade [6.70 %] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
20.00 gm CB-06 Cascade [6.70 %] (5 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
20.00 gm CB-06 Cascade [6.70 %] (1 min) Hops 0.6 IBU
0.05 tsp Sodium Met (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs US-56 (Safale) Yeast-Ale

 

[Randall the Enamel Animal]

A quick question; why do homebrewers add sodium metabisulphite to their mashes? The previous brewer at my work used to do the same thing.

 

[JSB]

A quick question; why do homebrewers add sodium metabisulphite to their mashes? The previous brewer at my work used to do the same thing.

Always have done - de-chlorinates the water....in Adelaide we dont generally have water with our chlorine but chlorine with our water....

 

[Kai]

I used to because I heard it would help knock out the chlorine in the water; a useful thing when brewing with Adelaide water. And it supposedly helps protect against HSA too.

On the recipe, it looks a little maltier and darker than Alpha. Not sure what the hop bill is on the beer but the quantities look about right to me.

 

[Jye]

IMHO LCPA has nothing on Alpha pale ale h34r: I just wish it was available at more pubs

I get a big piny hit from it so I think it needs more than just cascade and that much cascade will make it too resinous. Maybe some simcoe or a little chinook at the end?

Look forward to the results.

 

[JSB]

Hi Kai,

Grabbed the colour and IBUs from the website....yeah I might knock back some of the Melanoidin....or sub for some munich II

Cheers
JSB

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

Is'nt the dominant hop in Alpha Pale Ale, super alpha? Happy to be corrected here.

Sod met is supposed to ward off the evil spirit of HSA, if you believe in spirits that is.

 

[JSB]

From the website

Alpha Pale Ale

After adding bittering hops into the kettle at the start of the boil, the alpha acids are boiled out of the hops and infused into the brew to develop the bitterness. The Cascade hops (which come from Washington State USA and are not to be confused with the Cascade Brewery in Tasmania) are added to the kettle late in the boil to develop aroma, giving the Alpha Pale Ale its intense and complex hop characters.

Working with these hops you could quite easily fall into the trap of brewing a beer that is totally dominated by a hop character.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

From the website

Alpha Pale Ale

After adding bittering hops into the kettle at the start of the boil, the alpha acids are boiled out of the hops and infused into the brew to develop the bitterness. The Cascade hops (which come from Washington State USA and are not to be confused with the Cascade Brewery in Tasmania) are added to the kettle late in the boil to develop aroma, giving the Alpha Pale Ale its intense and complex hop characters.

Working with these hops you could quite easily fall into the trap of brewing a beer that is totally dominated by a hop character.

....fairy muff, I rest my face.

 

[Kai]

I thought Alpha was a beer dominated by hop character myself. Though not too far to the point of imbalance.

 

[Guest Lurker]

....fairy muff, I rest my face.

I reckon they are telling porkies. I made a beer with late super alpha that had that distinctive resiny, piney character that alpha pale ale has. I have never achieved that sort of hop presence using cascade.

 

[enoch]

I reckon they are telling porkies. I made a beer with late super alpha that had that distinctive resiny, piney character that alpha pale ale has. I have never achieved that sort of hop presence using cascade.

The quote only says that cascade are added late in the boil. They don't say what the bittering hops are that are at the start of the boil so I guess it could be something else...

 

[sinkas]

fosters was too tight to use cascade anyway...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I might be able to find out the actual hop schedule on Alpha Pale. Its my favourite APA as well and I've been thinking about asking Brad for a hint or two on how to brew a knock off.

I'll sound him out sometime this week; and if I get a decent response, I'll pass on a clone recipe of my "own" design

Thirsty

 

[JSB]

Awesome thanks Thirsty - be good to get that piney flavour - chinook is just to harsh for my liking....that piney flavour just seems to be so prominent to be added as just a bittering additional

Waiting with anticipation

Cheers
JSB

 

[mfdes]

The Matilda Bay head brewer came to the hopsters meeting in Hobart a few months back and I asked him what hops it had. he said they use five varieties at different stages through the boil. Amarillo was one, Cascade was another, but the other three elude me.
In any case I also find it a bit imbalanced. Much prefer the Moo Brew myself.

On a different note I had a Mountain Goat Pale Ale that was so highly carbonated it oozed out of the bottle. I had to pour it into 2 glasses. Taste was OK, though it was hard to get past the pricklyness of all that CO2.
Are they like that by design or was mine a freak?

MFS

 

[cliffo]

On a different note I had a Mountain Goat Pale Ale that was so highly carbonated it oozed out of the bottle. I had to pour it into 2 glasses. Taste was OK, though it was hard to get past the pricklyness of all that CO2.
Are they like that by design or was mine a freak?

MFS

Yours was a freak - I read another post on here that mentioned there was a bad batch released.

I had a Goat PA yesterday and it was fine.
cliffo

 

[mfdes]

Good to know.
Guy at the pub must have seen some like mine before. He gave me two glasses with it, before he opened it, so he was expecting it.

MFS.

 

[Beer Krout]

Visited the Matilda Bay Garage Brewery in Dandenong, Victoria, with the Melbourne Brewers club, late last year.
That's where the Alpha Pale is currently made.
We even tried some straight from the cold conditioning vats, fantastic aroma.
It's dry hopped heavily with Amarillo and Cascade and cold conditioned for a month. Not sure about any others hop varieties.

Also, there are only two malts in it. Pale and Dark Crystal.

Just what i was told.

Cheers
BK.

 

[mfdes]

Visited the Matilda Bay Garage Brewery in Dandenong, Victoria, with the Melbourne Brewers club, late last year.
That's where the Alpha Pale is currently made.
We even tried some straight from the cold conditioning vats, fantastic aroma.
It's dry hopped heavily with Amarillo and Cascade and cold conditioned for a month. Not sure about any others hop varieties.

Also, there are only two malts in it. Pale and Dark Crystal.

Just what i was told.

Cheers
BK.

Sounds familiar. Super Alpha also rings a bell, perhaps for bittering?

MFS.