Little Creatures Kegs

[deebee]

I was at LC brewery on the weekend and had a look at the little 10 litre kegs they sell for $75. Ready-carbonated and with a tiny built in cylinder to maintain pouring pressure. Great looking little unit.

Has anyone tried them? Would really brighten up a warm Sunday arvo. Not necessarily great value, (about a 1.25 cartons for about 1.5 the price), but very nifty and I wonder if that keg could be re-filled?

 

[Goat]

You've got a bit of a thing for LC haven't you Deebee.....?

 

[Boots]

who doesn't !! When I went to the brewery, it was the closest thing I'll ever have to a religious experience

All that LCPA on tap .... mmmmmmmmmmm

I saw the kegs, and thought they'd be great for a barby, and here's me with no kegging setup. I think they also charged a security deposit on the "cube".

 

[GSRman]

tooheys new used to have kegs like that.. little cubey things... unfotunately i couldn't get my hands on one... they had a $20 security deposit or something.. i would have paid that easy for one

 

[deebee]

Goat,

I confess... yes, it's all true... every word you say is true...



Anybody tried these or similar mini self-contained jobbies like these?

 

[danbeer]

Sounds cool. I want one.

Do they have an eastern states (vic) distributer for them?

 

[Batz]

I want one too !!!
:chug: :chug: :chug:

 

[Goat]

I confess... yes, it's all true... every word you say is true...

...and its not a bad thing.

I was just reading your recipe for it last night actually (is there time for you to rustle one up for the upcoming Perth Brewers meet? ) have there been any further refinements, I'm keen to try brewing one

I didn't realise those kegs were selfcontained with CO2 etc - great idea for a small function/football game etc.

 

[JasonY]

Found out that these are 12.5lt and the securtiy deposit is ..... $125 so I don't think you would borrow one of these babys

 

[danbeer]

Bugger.

 

[deebee]

Is that right JasonY?! That means it's $200 for the keg and you get $125 back when you're finished! Pretty pricey! I think I may have to get one anyway and my wife's 40th coming up in January is the perfect excuse. Just have to keep it hidden from all but a select few on the night.

Goat I won't be brewing any more American Pale Ales this season. I have ingredients for two brews left - a stout and a nut brown ale to be cooked up this weekend - and that will be it for the summer. But I will still have a few bottles left by the time we get together for a brew. It's not my best (and I actually think these beers are at their best at around 8 weeks in the bottle) but I could bring one.

If you are keen to brew one of these LCPA-style beers, why not get a Deliverance SNPA copy in a bag from TWOC. It's extract and corn syrup with a muslin bag of crystal and cascade hops for steeping and a separate bag of cascade for finishing. Cook up with a mini mash, a can of LME or a kit as desired. Tweak to taste.

I just did one like that with centennial hops for bittering and finishing. Pretty good. Will stick with cascade next time or maybe some other American finishing hops.

 

[Goat]

Thanks Deebee.

I might do that - I was inspired by your notes on the blind tasting....

Is it your impression that the LCPA is a SNPA clone with the cascade aroma and flavour? If so, could one get ingredients for an SNPA and mess with the hops a little? I'm not sure why, but I'm a bit reluctant to buy a pre-packaged bags....

Are the (boiling) hops separate from the grain/ME in the package? - I'm a bit concerned that they are not refridgerated..... and was considering (in lieu of the above) doing away with the warm stuff and buying some sealed, refrigerated cascade. Have you used cascade for bittering as well - I thought LCPA used Chinook or something like that?

Sorry for all the questions... :huh:

 

[deebee]

I have heard that LCPA must surely be a SNPA copy as it is so close and nearly as nice. But we may never taste one and decide for ourselves. But if you get the SNPA bag from TWOC you can tweak the recipe to get what you want. (I removed the bag of cascade finishing hops and used centennial.)

He turns over those bags pretty quickly so I don't think they spend much time on the shelf. Could always ring and ask when he's making up a new batch.

The bags contain a package of extract/corn syrup, a separate muslin bag with cracked grains and cascade flowers, and a separate bag of cascade pellets for finishing. You come up with your own bitterness either by using a kit or boiling some hops.

The separate packaging and the cascade flowers in the muslin bag make me prefer them to grumpys masterbrews

I have also heard that LCPA use chinook and something else for bittering. And that SNPA uses perle for bittering. Probably the bittering component is less crucial than the flavour and aroma additions.

 

[jayse]

hmm my favourite subject again.
i have found the bittering hops they do play apart in the flavour and so far i have liked the us cascades the best which you can't tell the flavour from the bittering hops because its cascade all the way anyway.
anyhow with the ones with chinnook or northern brewer i have found they do cut through all the huge cascade flavour.
The last few LCPAS' i have tried i have noticed the chinnook flavour coming though very well.
Ask the TWOC bloke about the origin of his cascades too.
I would think they would be U.S but deebee metioned flowers, are these plugs or whole?
anyway if there whole they can't be from oregon.(quaratine factor)
still i have had great brews with the new zealand ones aswell.
But in the interest of lining up the ingredients with the original snpa and lcpa iam sticking to the oregon ones.
Grumpies now only really stock the hops from the right regions.
ie only fuggles from england and only hallertau from germany etc.
anyway no biggy.

i easy way to tell if they are new zealand cascade is the a.a % will be around 8-9% intead of around 5% a.a.
anyway sorry gone of the topic a little.

cheers jayse

 

[Goat]

Thanks chaps.

I didn't realise that Roy (my mate at TWOC) made up the bags for the SNPA.... I assume that means he has a recipe that he can make up fresh more or less to order.

Is there a recipe which has some sort of consensus amongst the boffins here for LCPA ?

 

[big d]

depends which way you want to go goat.from postings ive read jayses all grain ipa is pretty close to the mark.some say better.
the closest ive come was a grumpys boston cream .ive only managed to do it once in the countless trys .brewing temp maybe?
ive tweaked it that many times i still havent come as close as the first one.

cheers
big d

ps i think deebee has come close with his
dme version.correct me if im wrong deebee.
guestlurker
(simon) is close as well

 

[deebee]

Goat, did I put a recipe under that Blind Taste Test post? If so, that is a good extract version, using a grumpys boston cream masterbrew bag. It could be improved by some cascade dry-hopping.

For anything more complicated (all-grain) refer to jayse's skunk fart ale, said to be a very good drop.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Hi Goat
Like you I just dont like packaged kits, too hard to know how to tweak them.
It seems to me that LCPA has quite a complex malt profile under the hops, and I found that a partial mash version of Jayses all grain malt bill which includes some wheat gives a layered malt flavour that comes very close to LCPA. For the hops, I reckon that there is only a small amount of Chinook in LCPA. When I used all Chinook for bittering, heaps of cascade for flavour, it was a great beer, but the grapefruit flavour from the Chinook overpowered the Cascade. When I used all Cascade(US) for bittering and flavour, the result was very close to LCPA. I have one cold conditioning which is 50% Chinook, 50% Cascade for bittering, all Cascade for flavour. Havent tried it properly yet, suspect that it is still too much Chinook to match LCPA exactly, but have stopped comparing or trying as they are great beers in their own right. LCPA is starting to taste underhopped to me now and I am going for a lot more IBUs in my versions.

There are recipes all over the place in this and other forums.

My closest partial mash recipe is at
My Brewlog

 

[Goat]

Thanks Deebee and GL.

I've looked at both of those (and managed to confuse myself nicely :huh: ). I'm going to have a go at working out an extract with steeped grains from all and sundry. I might beg the indulgence of the 'shared wisdom' of AHB to review when I've done that....

 

[sinkas]

So DeeBee, or anyone else, have you tried these 12.5litre kegs?

can they be refilled?