Little Creatures Pale Ale Post Buy Out

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You can say I'm nuts in this, but the LCPA I had with dates of 23 Sept & 4 Oct did taste POR'ish, while this latest batch with 1 Nov is tasting more Cascady.
 
Maybe they're fermenting warm with Danish Lager yeast...
 
Well have not had a LCPA for some time now, 6 months, making too many of my own real beers :). Managed to sample their IPA at the Fremantle brewery today and thought I would follow the theme.
Sampled a LCPA at dinner ( from bottle) and mentioned to the other half the difference now in flavour. Also bought 2 pint bottles, same again. Must admit my palate has leaned more to IPA style but thinking it now if a slightly different beer since going to a multi national.....
 
Many breweries have to change their recipe and process in accordance to the seasonal change in raw materials from year to year, to try to maintain the same flavour profile. I believe this includes Creatures.

I remember buying Amarillo three or four seasons ago, amazing. Has never been the same since.

Just like grapes will have different character from year to year, so will hops. Particularly noticeable in hop forward beers.

I still rate LC's as really good, accessible craft beer. I drop in there every time when in Freo. And I'd never turn my nose up at a LC's Pale, IPA or Rogers, unless it wasn't treated right.

Horses for courses, of course.
 
Since I'm on a tight budget, I've been drinking more LCPA of late. Have to say there is currently a noticeable difference between the Freo and Geelong bottles. The Freos are clear and taste a bit weak, while the Geelongs are the old-school cloudy and full of flavour. The dates on both are early/mid 2015. Have to say I've been opting for 4 Pines pale when I see Freo bottles in stock.
 
Sampled this last night objectively against a SNPA and 2 of my APA's. To say this beer has gone downhill is an understatement. Had zero aroma, clarity was non existent, the flavour was of rusted nails and slightly of offensive bitterness (Maybe PoR). It was absolutely shithouse and not worth the price, any price.

Am I alone in my thinking? LCPA was the beer that got me into craft beer several years ago. I remember the floral aroma, impressive malt backbone and firm biterness. Literally a life changing beer. Now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
 
Wow! Lcpa has always been my go to beer. Will have to try some again.
 
It even looks bad. Mine are the two on the left and the SNPA is on the right. If they want consumers to pay a premium for the beer, the same price as a Sierra Nevada or Ballast Point beer, it should be up to that standard.

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Has it coming from geelong or freo made a difference? I haven't purchased any for a fair while but look at the label maybe the newer geelong brewery still have some kinks to iron out...
 
Yob said:
If that's the case, it shouldn't be going to market.
Agree totally. Just searching for a reason why a once great product could go to crap.
 
Bridges said:
Has it coming from geelong or freo made a difference? I haven't purchased any for a fair while but look at the label maybe the newer geelong brewery still have some kinks to iron out...
Most of their products hitting the east coast come from the geelong brewery AFAIK.
 
It's on sale here (edit East gippsland) today 2 ctns for $58 ea, cheapest I have ever seen it. But I wasn't going to bother tasting one at $5 for a stubby but in the interests of research and all that I bought a bridge road pale ale, the lcpa and a john Boston pale ale to blind taste test tonight along with one of my apa's, course I'll pick my apa

I wondered about the water profile when I first heard they (LC's) would also be in geelong - as from memory Perth water is quite hard. It is a bit shit that breweries will also brew/bottle under licence but I would bet some don't bother altering their water profile to suit

Might be way off track just random thoughts
 
The bottle was from Geelong. The alcohol was 5.2%, I remember it being 5.7%.

It's not even me being a snob, two other people that where tasting with me agreed. In fact when breweries release beer like this they shoot themselves in the foot, if I were to recommend LCPA now, a discerning drinker will say, this tastes the same as my other beer, why would I pay more to drink it? And he would be right, there is no reason to and now the person recommending a 'craft' beer looks like a pompous dickhead.

Unfortunately this is the state of most craft beer in Australia, maybe due to excise or other reasons but having drank the beers in California, there is a big discrepancy in quality and no reason I can think for it really.
 
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