Little Creatures

[paul]

Does anyone know if this brew has been changed overthe last few years? It sure as hell aint as good as it used to be.

 

[datman510]

which one? the bright ale is great, the pales all good.... i dont think they have from my own tasting investigations

 

[Tony]

Ahh Haaaaaaaaaaaaa

Another beliver!

Amem.

LCPA.......... IMO has gone from a beer with some malt depth and colour to an incipid thin harshly hopped glass of .......... i wont say any more

 

[paul]

Cheers Tony, I used to buy slabs of it a few years ago and stopped when we had kids. Ive bought a few singles over the last few months and it tastes like watery and overhopped.

 

[Screwtop]

Well now, it might be rough, but by god it's cheap. er to produce I mean. I've got to say that I've noticed a diff too. Thankfully with craftbrews one can at least notice a difference unlike the little "savings" made by LN etc to increase profits. Going from very little colour, flavour and aroma to less is much less noticeable :lol:

 

[buttersd70]

Thank god. Thanks Tony, I thought I was the only one.....with so many "American" style fans on the forum, I thought I was a bit of a leper thinking that there wasn't enough of a malt backbone to correctly balance this beer......

Still MILES ahead of megaswill, though.

 

[Brewer_010]

Sure it's not your changed tastes and / or perceptions h34r: ?

I have had the odd one/threeover the past few months and, while I don't think it's WOW as when I first tried it years ago, it still has "it" IMHO

Maybe many people are hopping or even making their own beers so well that LCPA pales in comparison and is starting to taste ordinary?

Just a thought...

 

[buttersd70]

Sure it's not your changed tastes and / or perception

In my particular case, no. The reason being, I only tried it for the first time recently. Then again a few weeks later. So I don't have "years ago" tastes getting in the way.

Don't get me wrong....I think it's a fine beer. I just think it's not to my style, and is a bit over rated.

LCPA has a lot, lot, lot (worth mentioning 3 times) more hop flavour than my beer. But I prefer mine. Because it's to my taste, and is balanced with the neither the hop nor the malt dominating. Not to everyones taste, for sure. But it is to mine. It's a very decisive and personal thing, isn't it?.

 

[kram]

Do people check the dates on bottles? It's become a habit of mine these days. It does have a bit of an influence...

 

[Millet Man]

Do people check the dates on bottles? It's become a habit of mine these days. It does have a bit of an influence...

SWMBO bought home a bottle of LCPA a week or so ago, she'd had one a couple of weeks earlier and liked it, and I had a sniff expecting hoppy goodness - not there - and then a taste and bugger me if it wasn't skunked (in a brown bottle). Was like Euro lager in a green bottle.

Checked the best before date and it was around May next year so reasonably fresh.

Maybe there's some poor handling happening as well.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[Tony]

Thank god. Thanks Tony, I thought I was the only one.....with so many "American" style fans on the forum, I thought I was a bit of a leper thinking that there wasn't enough of a malt backbone to correctly balance this beer......

Still MILES ahead of megaswill, though.

Na mate im the APA Nazi on here! I have been brewing them on ocasion though. They arent shit...... i just think its a typically american style..... over the top and out of ballance. Not that thats a bad thing in small amounts! I do like it now and then.

Keg after keg........... no thanks. 2 glasses of pinoclean does me

Sure it's not your changed tastes and / or perceptions h34r: ?

I have had the odd one/threeover the past few months and, while I don't think it's WOW as when I first tried it years ago, it still has "it" IMHO

Maybe many people are hopping or even making their own beers so well that LCPA pales in comparison and is starting to taste ordinary?

Just a thought...

No i have no problems with any other beer i have tried in my drinking life tasting different.

JS amber ale still tastes the same. Tooheys new still tastes the same.

One thing i can do is remember what a beer tasted like a long time ago. Its how i memorise what differences different ingredients make to the beers i brew and then use this to re-formulate and ballance the recipes!

I remember drinking LCPA and it was a darker colour and mlatier. It had a rounder body but the same hop flavour it has now. The rounder body held up the hops but the last couple i have tried have been like a pale thin watery lager with high bitterness. This makes the hops harsh and stick out like a sore thumb.

cheers

Edit: used bys were 6 months awar or around that........ but they were not old bottles.

 

[Muggus]

I too have noticed this, and actually have proof!

My girlfriend bought a case of pints bottles of years back and hadn't finish it off. Anyway I'd bought a sixer of the most recent stuff a while back and she mentioned "I still have some pints that I bought aged ago in the fridge".
So I sat down with this pint bottle of LCPA, past its BB date, thinking to myself "Oh yeah, this is great"
By the time I was done with that bad boy, my 6 pack of fresh stubbies was ready, and I got stuck into them and it occured to me "Somethings different here...". It someone seemed less 'fresh' than the older beer, something about the malt backbone being a bit less apparent, and the hops seeming less intense.
I've always wondered if it has something to do with seasonal variations on hops and malt?
Having said that, it's not bad at all!
It use to be well above the other Aussie-made APA crowd, now is probably battling for number 1 spot, as far as big-name commercial brewers go. Though my number 1 has officially now changed to Lobethal Bierhaus APA!

 

[Screwtop]

Well thankfully we can brew your LCBA Tony, it's tasting shit hot in the fermenter.

 

[Tony]

:lol:

Edit: Will someone kindly email a link to this to LC brewing!

Maybe they need to read it!

Last time i posted about a comercial lot like this i got a nasty PM from them (coopers)

Waiting for the message

cheers

 

[pbrosnan]

I think LCPA is a fine beer. But Alpha Ale is better, the reason being that AA is probably hoppier but has more malt body, my guess is more crystal. But then AA is twice the price of LCPA. If I was into American style ales (which I am) then I'd be trying to make something like AA (which I am).

 

[Muggus]

Actually...now that I think of it, ever since they've changed bottles from the standard brown 330ml stubbie to the LC brown 330ml stubbie with the Cherub on the side, the beer seemed to have changed as well.

 

[Brewer_010]

Think a trip to a bottlo is on the cards and refresh my memory...

 

[kram]

SWMBO bought home a bottle of LCPA a week or so ago, she'd had one a couple of weeks earlier and liked it, and I had a sniff expecting hoppy goodness - not there - and then a taste and bugger me if it wasn't skunked (in a brown bottle). Was like Euro lager in a green bottle.

Checked the best before date and it was around May next year so reasonably fresh.

Maybe there's some poor handling happening as well.

Cheers, Andrew.

That's interesting. I haven't had one since february and it was fresh as and I was very pleased with the hop flavour and aroma. I had the opposite experience to Tony though, it felt like the bitterness was alot lower than the few I tried in Melbourne 2 years back.

Then again, any commercial style resembling APA that i've tried has been different on each occasion. Who knows, I guess you're lucky if you get a good one?

 

[wyatt_girth]

Is this only recently that this has become noticable? I tried LCPA for the first time back in March this year to see why my neighbour loves it so much and to my untrained senses it was a bit too hoppy for me and also a little heavier (denser, maltier, you know what I'm tryin to say?) than I was used to at this stage of my beer initiation. However I recently decided to give it another go and grabbed a stub on the way home bout two weeks ago and it was a whole different experience. I enjoyed it as I found it to be thinner in body and not quite as hoppy (again, this is my uneducated beer tasting). While my drinking preferences have changed a little since my first attempt I am still no hophead by any stretch of the term so it would suggest to me that this beer is different in the short time to when I resampled. I may be way off the mark, as I usually am, but it was a different beer to what I remembered.
I recommended to my brother in Tamworth to also grab a stub and he called me up in disgust and described his to me as vegemite and water. Somehow I don't think he got the best example on offer and this was enough to put him off trying it again.

All this being said and done - I have a LCPA kit and bits fermenting right now

 

[kevin_smevin]

I think LCPA is a fine beer. But Alpha Ale is better, the reason being that AA is probably hoppier but has more malt body, my guess is more crystal. But then AA is twice the price of LCPA. If I was into American style ales (which I am) then I'd be trying to make something like AA (which I am).

Alpha ale too isnt the beer it used to be. It came out about 4 or 5 years ago as a seasonal beer and was much better. Last time a tried alpha it was way to grassy and not nearly citrusy enough for my liking. Also not as bitter as it used to be. Id guess theyre using alot of chinook or similar really late but not enough earlier on. Just a thought