Little Creatures Clone Recipe

[Coodgee]

HI guys, I am looking to brew a little creatures style ale. can anyone recommend a kit-based recipe?

I am prepared to use a liquid yeast and steep grain and hops.

any help appreciated!

 

[Wort Pig]

Coodgee,

If you are loooking for something Little Creaturesesque, why not check out some of the squillions of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale recipes on the web. I can vouch that any of those will give you that huge smack of cascades your looking for, and more.

Cheers,

Pig

 

[Coodgee]

thanks for the tip pig. so it's the cascade hosp that give it that fruity flavour eh?

 

[Batz]

Cascade yes
See my PM to you

Batz

 

[Jino]

How did you go with this?

I've just put down a LC clone. I used a Thomas Coopers Heritage Lager with 30g of Cascade and 15g of Chinook and a kg of powdered malt. Hoping that should taste ok.

 

[Snow]

Coodgee,

do a search on this site for Little Creatures, LCPA, Skunk Fart Pale Ale and SFPA and you will have about 2 years worth of reading on it. Jayse pioneered his version of Little creatures and called it skunk fart and it has been refined many times by members of the forum.

Cheers - Snow.

 

[kook]

Sorry, I know this is a little bit off topic, but I though people may be interested.

Last night I did a side-by-side tasting of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and Little Creatures Pale Ale. Heres the results:

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (68/100)
Aroma: 7/10, Flavour 7/10, Appearance 3/5, Palate 3/5, Overall 14/20.
Pours gold, edging on copper with a short lasted small white head. Medium grapefruit citrus aroma. Mild malt flavours in start with a slightly metallic bitter finish. Medium bodied at start with a refreshing crisp finish. Ok, but the metallic tang is a bit offputting.

Little Creatures Pale Ale (78/100)
Aroma: 8/10, Flavour 8/10, Appearance 3/5, Palate 3/5, Overall 17/20.
Golden with a medium sized lasting white head. Big citrus (lemon and grapefruit) aroma with some light toffee notes. Sweet biscuity malt start with a clean bitter finish. Lingering citrus and lychee flavours. Smooth bodied medium mouthfeel. Refreshing.

Overall I found the SNPA slightly darker in colour, also didnt hold its head as well. The LCPA had a much better hop aroma, and much cleaner flavour. LCPA also had more malts there to balance out the cascade flavours, and didnt have the metallic tang that SNPA had.

 

[Weizguy]

Kook,
Can You let us know if the bottles both had a "Best Before" date on them and what they were?
Sounds to me that the SNPA was a bit old, at a guess, from your description.
Not that I expected it be better than an Aussie beer, anyway. OI OI OI!
Seth

 

[Jazman]

i have had a fresg snpa before and lcpa side by side i thought the snpa had more aroma but u can taste the bittering hops a bit inthe snpa but they are both good beers and very close to each other

 

[christ]

had a LC pale ale tonight for the first time and i must say that i'm very impressed. best smelling beer ever. just makes my mouth water. i'm pretty sure i could taste some grapefruit but i'm not really a beer expert; it just tasted awesome

 

[kook]

Kook,
Can You let us know if the bottles both had a "Best Before" date on them and what they were?
Sounds to me that the SNPA was a bit old, at a guess, from your description.
Not that I expected it be better than an Aussie beer, anyway. OI OI OI!
Seth

Sorry Seth,

The bottles are in a bin at a mates house.

They were both supermarket-bought (Waitrose), however I know there is a fast turnover there as both seem to regularly sell out. I'll be going there today for food shopping, so I'll have a look at the bottles on the shelf today and note down the dates.

I've tried SNPA several times and found the same thing, I wanted to confirm it with a side-by-side tasting though.

Jazman, you're right, the differences were quite subtle, but the metallic edge to the hop bitterness in the SNPA was what put me off it.

 

[kook]

I had a look at the bottles on the shelf when I was shopping earlier. Theres a chance that there are different batches on the shelves (I bought the bottles last Sunday), but i doubt they'd be drastically different.

Best Before on the SNPA was 14/10/05.

Best Before on the LCPA was 20/9/05.

 

[Trent]

I havent actually tried the 2 beers side by side, but I think that i will make sure I do next chance I get. From memory I prefer the SNPA, although LCPA is a damn good drop, and I think that I used to pick up a 12 pack of SNPA for about $15 ($AUS20 odd), so the SNPA is a bit better value, though to be fair, its probably about double the price of regular beer there, so on par with LCPA. I havent had the luxury of LCPA on tap, so I cannot say if it better in the bottle or on tap, but I think that SNPA is better on tap. I saw on beeradvocate.com that they rated LCPA as a 4.28 out of 5, and SNPA a 4.27 out of 5. Sounds like we may have the worlds best commercial APA right here in our own backyard, and that can only be a good thing. Just thought I'd chuck in my 2c worth cause I am usually just learning all the time, rather than being able to put forth a (knowledgable) opinion!
Cheers
Trent

 

[kook]

I've had LCPA in bottles, keg and at the brewery tap. Naturally with any APA, the fresher it is the hoppier it tastes. I rate LCPA 4.2 (84/100) from the brewery, yet only 3.9 (78/100) in the bottles I get over here.

It'll be interesting to try SNPA at the brewery taproom next year, to see how I find it

As with any rating though, its up to individuals tastes.

PS - That rating on beer advocate of 4.27 is for SN Harvest Ale not SN Pale Ale Pale Ale is at 4.10.

 

[NRB]

I used to really enjoy LCPA, but a 6 pack I bought a couple of days ago is just too damn hoppy. It leaves a harsh aftertaste. Don't get me wrong, I love cascade hops, but either this batch is way overdone in the hop department, or the ones I used to drink were underhopped compared to how it is today. My last taste of LCPA prior to this 6'er was a couple of years ago and were always delicious.

 

[Tim]

NRB, Ive noticed differences in the aroma hop levels in LCPA as well. However on tap it always seems consistant.

 

[jgriffin]

NRB - i do find that LCPA can be a bit variable in their hops. One 6pack i bought was so grassy i could have fed it to cows, i just left it for a couple of months and it was great.

 

[Bazza]

Hi there

I've been a member for a little while but just reading/keeping my trap shut...soaking it in.

I recently brewed an APA (ESB Fresh wort with a 1oz plug cascade tea into keg at end of fermentation) with harvested yeast from a LCPA bottle or three. The slurry was really loose, and the FG went far below what I expected, OG=1042 FG=1002. I was sort of expecting a FG of ~1010.

Has anyone used the yeast from this beer before and what were the results like? I'm a little concerned that the yeast were too active in lowering the FG.

Cheers
Bazza.

 

[Aaron]

Has anyone used the yeast from this beer before and what were the results like? I'm a little concerned that the yeast were too active in lowering the FG.

[post="64973"][/post]​

I haven't used it. However, I have read they don't use their primary fermentation yeast in bottle conditioning. They remove the primary yeast after primary fermentation then put another yeast into the bottle for bottle conditioning.

So using the yeast you can culture from the bottle is probably not going to help to achieve the same flavour. There are plenty of good American Pale Ale recipes around though. The Skunkfart Pale Ale seems a popular choice. You should be able to find the thread for that one which has been going for a couple of years now.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Here is the original post from someone who sounds like they are actually from Little Creatures confirming that it is indeed a lager yeast used for bottling.

http://www.grumpys.com.au/read.php3?id=18600