Epic Pale Ale Clone

[jacknohe]

Have wanted to do this clone for a while now as it sounded awesome, but had never tasted it. Went to NZ for xmas and managed to track it down. Lovely! Nice dry hop flavour.

I'm planning on brewing a clone this weekend. I no chill for all my brews and intend on using no chill for this clone too. I've decided to place all the whirlpool hop addition into the cube and count it as a 10min addition. This appears to bring the IBU up to the right level in Beersmith. We'll see how it works out.

Reporting in. Had a taste out of the fermenter prior to cold conditioning. Tastes right on the money to me and smells fantastic! :icon_drool2: We'll see what its like with some carbonation. Thanks a million Luke Nicholas for the tips if you're listening, you're a star!

Here's the recipe I put together from the podcast in Beersmith. I was concerned at first about the bitterness but luckily I have two bottles of Epic I smuggled from NZ to compare with. One more left for when I do the final test in a few weeks. Just a reminder, I put the whole whirlpool addition mentioned in the podcast into the cube (100g Cascade) and treated it as 15min boil for IBU calculation which worked out as approx 42 IBUs.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Epic Pale Ale
Brewer: Big O
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 31.17 L
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 19.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 16.2 IBU (+26 IBUs from cube hopping)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4400.00 gm Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcett)Grain 80.15 %
550.00 gm Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett) (29.6 EBC) Grain 10.02 %
360.00 gm Crystal Malt - Pale (Thomas Fawcett) (100.Grain 6.56 %
180.00 gm Carahell (Weyermann) (25.6 EBC) Grain 3.28 %
7.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (75 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
14.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 5.7 IBU
34.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
100.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-SteepHops -
50.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
50.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.22 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 5490.00 gm
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
80 min Mash In Add 34.25 L of water at 67.6 C 65.0 C
10 min Mash Out Add 0.00 L of water at 78.0 C 78.0 C

Notes:
------
100gm flameout addition placed in cube and treated as 15min boil addition for IBU count of +19.

 

[samhaldane]

50.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
50.00 gm Cascade [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

How did you do the two lots of dry hops?

I'm going to brew this soon, and I was thinking I'd put the first lot into primary, then rack into secondary after 4 days leaving the first lot behind, chill overnight and then throw the second lot into secondary for 7 days.

 

[jacknohe]

How did you do the two lots of dry hops?

I'm going to brew this soon, and I was thinking I'd put the first lot into primary, then rack into secondary after 4 days leaving the first lot behind, chill overnight and then throw the second lot into secondary for 7 days.

To be honest, what you suggest above is probably the best way. Except I personally don't chill until after the 7 days in the secondary to let the remainder of fermenation to complete. Quite often racking off kicks the yeast back into gear to finish off any remaining fermentables. Then chill after that.

However, in this case, I used a mini-mash bag (a mini BIAB) and placed the hops in that. After four days, pulled it out, emptied the hops and added the second lot. I was feeling a little lazy <_< and didn't rack off in this case, left it all in primary. But instead racked to a cube for chilling and added some PolyClar (my first time).

 

[speedie]

i tried a brew of this(epic) last night and thought that it wasnt as resiny as the brew that was sampled last year
i think that he(luke) may have some hopping differances
speedie

 

[theover]

How did you do the two lots of dry hops?

I'm going to brew this soon, and I was thinking I'd put the first lot into primary, then rack into secondary after 4 days leaving the first lot behind, chill overnight and then throw the second lot into secondary for 7 days.

57g Cascade dry hop dose 1 at ferment temps for 5 days
57g Cascade dry hop dose 2 at cold crash temps for 5 days

 

[speedie]

can you dudes afford all that hop that is going into your brew

 

[kenlock]

can you dudes afford all that hop that is going into your brew

Recipe uses about 1/2lb of hops, which costs about $10. That's less than the cost of one 500ml bottle or 3 pots of mega at a pub. The question is really "can you dudes not afford to use all that hop into your brew"!

 

[goomboogo]

can you dudes afford all that hop that is going into your brew

I took out a second mortgage to cover the cost.

 

[mschippr]

Hi jacknohe, did you do a rest like it mentioned in the podcast or is it not really necessary?

 

[jacknohe]

Hi jacknohe, did you do a rest like it mentioned in the podcast or is it not really necessary?

Oops, sorry. Missed this post. I didn't bother with any rests.

Also, an update on this. Did a three way blind testing of my clone vs my last Epic stubbie I brought back with me from NZ. My tester (thanks Pete) had to keep his eyes closed since my chill haze would have been a give away. But he picked mine as being the real thing.

To be fair, mine was a lot fresher than the Epic stubby which would be at least 3-4 months old. And perhaps just a little more flavour. Had party on the weekend and even the regular mega swill drinkers thought it was christmas and damn near cleaned me out coming back for refills. Luckily I saved a couple of bottles.

 

[davo4772]

Ok, have brewed this one from the recipe here

It finished at 1010 so was a bit worried it will be too dry but having gone back through this thread that 1011 is about where it should finish.

As usual I was limited in obtaining the exact malts used but was able to get Simpsons GP, Global and JW crystal malts.
I bought a bottle of the original to compare. The colour is close, mine is more red.

The hop profile was close, the dry hopping in mine was more intense but should settle with time.

I didn't nail that lovely sweet caramel flavour in EPA, perhaps because I didn't use English crystal malts.

All in all happy with the result.

 

[Truman42]

Planning on brewing this on the weekend using Golden promise, light crystal and Carapils and pitching US05 as they dont have liquid yeasts at KK. (19litre batch)

Ive come up short on my hop bill by 15grams and was going to sub 15 grams of Amarillo instead.

But Im not sure if I should sub the bittering addition for the Amarillo, or the aroma or dry hop additions. (Without effecting the overall flavour profile)

Heres my hop additions

Cascade
5.8g 7 mins
11.5g 30 mins
28g 10 mins
35g flameout wait 15 mins
35g at whirlpool for 20 mins

Dry hop day 4 50 grams

Dry hop when cold conditioning 50 gams 7 days

Appreciate some advice on where best the Amarillo would slot in here?

 

[bum]

(Without effecting the overall flavour profile)

Witchcraft?

 

[Charst]

Planning on brewing this on the weekend using Golden promise, light crystal and Carapils and pitching US05 as they dont have liquid yeasts at KK. (19litre batch)

Ive come up short on my hop bill by 15grams and was going to sub 15 grams of Amarillo instead.

But Im not sure if I should sub the bittering addition for the Amarillo, or the aroma or dry hop additions. (Without effecting the overall flavour profile)

Heres my hop additions

Cascade
5.8g 7 mins
11.5g 30 mins
28g 10 mins
35g flameout wait 15 mins
35g at whirlpool for 20 mins

Dry hop day 4 50 grams

Dry hop when cold conditioning 50 gams 7 days

Appreciate some advice on where best the Amarillo would slot in here?

If your more concerned with maintaining a cascade only flavour then its an obvious sub to the bittering, but I have no experience bittering with amarillo and how it preforms as a bittering hop. if you listen to the Can you brew it episode all the people on it cant believe the Epic pale ale is cascade only. So I wouldn't shit yourself about it they are similar flavours and will mix well together. Bittering or the 30 if your worried.

 

[Truman42]

@Bum... No they had none of that at KK either..

@Charst......thanks mate, Im not sure about Amarillo as a bittering hop either hence the question. Ive listened to the podcast and was reluctant to use anything but Amarillo, but if its ok as a bittering addition will use it at the 75 and 30 min

 

[sponge]

Do you have any centennial instead?

Could always use some of the instead of the cascade bittering addition as they're both quite similar.


EDIT: not that it really matters, since itll turn out delicious either way. I was just thinking for a more cascade-y flavour...

 

[Truman42]

Do you have any centennial instead?

Could always use some of the instead of the cascade bittering addition as they're both quite similar.


EDIT: not that it really matters, since itll turn out delicious either way. I was just thinking for a more cascade-y flavour...

No I dont, but have Citra. Will that do?

 

[sponge]

Either amarillo or citra would work IMO.

Throw it in at 30 and it wont change things too much. especially with them both being higher in AA% than the cascade, you wont need to use as much anyways to get the desired IBU's, thus not changing the flavour as much.

The late additions and dry hopping will be the real flavour punch in this brew



Sponge

 

[Truman42]

Either amarillo or citra would work IMO.

Throw it in at 30 and it wont change things too much. especially with them both being higher in AA% than the cascade, you wont need to use as much anyways to get the desired IBU's, thus not changing the flavour as much.

The late additions and dry hopping will be the real flavour punch in this brew



Sponge

Cheers Sponge, will give that a crack. Will be my first keg brew so looking forward to it. (Just gotta get my upside down fire extinguisher mounted properly... )

 

[Muscovy_333]

Cheers Sponge, will give that a crack. Will be my first keg brew so looking forward to it. (Just gotta get my upside down fire extinguisher mounted properly... )

Truman,
I have some Centenial if you need some