Australian Pale Ale Extract & Grains Recipe

[hermanpeckel]

Folks,

After a 10 year hiatus from home brewing I have dusted off the fermenter and gotten busy. So far I've done a Coopers Vintage toucan clone that turned out great, I've got a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale extract and grain clone in the fermenter and now I'm looking for my next recipe.

While I'm a big fan of the hoppy, high alcohol APAs (Sierra Nevada Torpedo is an all time favourite), I think it's time to kick off a session beer. That is - not so hoppy and not so high in alcohol. For me, another all time favourite in this category is the Lord Nelson's Three Sheets Pale Ale. If I could make something even close to this I'd be a very happy man!!

A bit of googling got me a few facts -

Galaxy bittering hops
2/3 Cascade and 1/3 Galaxy for flavour/aroma
US-05 yeast

But as far as malts go I'm at a total loss. I'll be using extract and have just purchased 15kg of Pilsen LME from iBrew. According to some sources this is a good place to start. I've also heard some pale crystal to steep would be good.

As for the rest, I'm very much open to suggestions. Anyone got any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
HP

 

[Nizmoose]

I'd definitely recommend 200g or so of light crystal and didn't think galaxy was good for bittering?

 

[hermanpeckel]

Thanks for the response Nizmoose. Before I got your reply I ended up going with -

3kg x Pilsner LME
500g Light DME
200g Pale Crystal
US-05 Yeast
15g Galaxy @60min
15g Galaxy, 5g Amarillo @20min
15g Amarillo, 5g Galaxy @2min
Hopefully it turns out ok. Just wondering, why would galaxy be no good for bittering?

 

[menoetes]

Galaxy has a reputation for a 'rough' or 'harsh' bitterness and not being as smooth as others. I love Galaxy hops but kinda have to admit that I kinda agree. There's nothing worng with bittering with Galaxy IMHO but most other hops with a high AA% (preferably over 10% for bittering hops) might make your beer that little bit smoother.

Having said that, if you leave a galaxy bittered beer an extra 2 - 3 weeks longer in the bottle than it's 'smoother' counter-parts it'll smooth itself out fine and frankly I don't see enough of a difference to bother.

 

[hermanpeckel]

Hmmmm... leaving it in the bottle might be a challenge. Thanks for the info though. I would have thought galaxy would have made a great bittering hop @ 14% AA, but I am far from an expert. From all accounts below, this is what they actually are using (galaxy as a bittering hop). Maybe the bittering is just a very small quantity with all the late hops in this beer.

If anyone else stumbles upon this thread in pursuit of making some Three Sheets, check out these links on AHB.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/42421-2010-esb-homebrew-challenge-cup/page-6#entry684051

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/27267-three-sheets-recipe/

 

[Nizmoose]

I could be wrong and I'm far from experienced compared to many on this forum but regardless of the Alpha acid % (remembering there's much more to a hop than just this as well) some hops will have nicer bittering qualities than others, so the bittering character of galaxy is very different to that of pride of ringwood and most people seem to dislike the bittering character of galaxy, never tried it myself. Also if you're wondering about hops and their uses I recommend going to hopslist.com they have a list of any hop you can think of and they're all categorised into bittering, aroma and dual purpose

 

[hermanpeckel]

Hey Nizmoose,

Yeah, since I wrote that I too have found that to be a common belief now that I've looked into it. I've also heard that galaxy's harshness CAN dissipate after a while in the bottle, so that's what I plan to do.

On a different note, I may have new intell on the elusive Three Sheets recipe. Word on the street from a very reliable source is this -

Base malt is half pilsner, half Joe White ale. There's a small portion of pale crystal as well.
Hops is a mix of Amarillo and Cascade. Additions are bittering, flame out and dry.
Yeast WAS US-05, now it's something similar (but not safale)

I'm pretty happy that I have the recipe, but I think my next attempt is going to be their Victory Bitter.

 

[hermanpeckel]

God I'm an idiot! I just realised that the "leave it in the bottle" suggestion was yours Menoetes (it had been a while since I'd looked at this thread). Thanks for your responses.

 

[Nizmoose]

Hey Nizmoose,

Yeah, since I wrote that I too have found that to be a common belief now that I've looked into it. I've also heard that galaxy's harshness CAN dissipate after a while in the bottle, so that's what I plan to do.

On a different note, I may have new intell on the elusive Three Sheets recipe. Word on the street from a very reliable source is this -

Base malt is half pilsner, half Joe White ale. There's a small portion of pale crystal as well.
Hops is a mix of Amarillo and Cascade. Additions are bittering, flame out and dry.
Yeast WAS US-05, now it's something similar (but not safale)

I'm pretty happy that I have the recipe, but I think my next attempt is going to be their Victory Bitter.

Looks like a nice recipe Let us know how the galaxy tastes after bottled I'm about to start an Amber ale on the weekend which will feature mainly galaxy, I'm half interested to bitter with it to see what it does myself!