Howdy, I'm wanting to do nice Pale Ale kit and am asking for a few suggestions as to which kits seem to work the best.
If someone could also explain the differences in flavours and how they're achieved in Aussie Pale Ale vs American vs English I'd be stoked. I guess I'm confused how a Coopers Pale Ale and a Little Creatures Pale Ale are considered to be in the same genre. Yesterday I tried Murray's Nirvana Pale Ale (which from what I've read is English PA in style) and loved it, I'd say it's similar to the Little Creatures.
Would appreciate some godly advice!
Thanks and rock on!
matt
THe main differences are all in the hops. Yeast plays a part too but it is the classic hop flavours that really define the differences for me. I could give a big description on malts and the style but for a kit + what you need to know are the hops and yeast...
APAs have a nice malt background, a little crystal in there and a big hop flavour from US citrusy, mostly, hops like Cascade, Chinook, Amarillo, Simcoe and so on...
To do a nice kit look around at the APA recipes and consider a combination of hops like that. Do a small boil with a little of the kit and some hops for 10 minutes for some good flavour, then dry hop as well. You want a nice big hop flavour and aroma. Safale S-05 dried yeast or 1056 liquid are good choices. A neutral yeast that lets the hops drive through.
EPAs use English hops, no surpise there, Goldings, Fuggles, First Gold, Bramling Cross, Challenger etc.
Similar hopping, perhaps a little less than an APA but still a nice good hop hit.
I love First Gold myself but any are good...
Use an english ale yeast like s-04 or Windsor or your favourite liquid, or again you could use s-05.
Nirvana uses NZ hops, as Murrays do in all their beers, but I'm not certain which...
Coopers and little creatures are kind of in the same genre, but again, it is all about the hops. Little Creatures use a classic US hop combination, which is what really makes it so different to Coopers, amongst other things. It really is a broad style though. You can get a lot of variation amongst APAs just from the myriad of hop combinations before you even get to different malts and yeasts...