RecipeDB - Little Fella's Pale Ale

[argon]

Yeah totally, I'm looking forward to it.

Only problem is I screwed up the 'french press' addition. Basically I think it was meant to be like 50g of hops. So I bought a french press, put the hops in, poured boiling water in and then the boiling water was only really enough to hydrate the hop pellets. So I put more in, but anyway it ended up being the case that even after pressing only a small amount of hop tea came out :-( I was gunna boil the kettle again but thought that may cause other problems. Hopefully the dry hopping does enough, I reckon it will.

yeah pellets are a PITA for french pressing... i too learnt the hard way... my preference now is to do a mini boil around 3L or so of some 1040 wort. Add the hops to the boil then dump the lot in with the rest of the cube.

 

[MarkBastard]

yeah pellets are a PITA for french pressing... i too learnt the hard way... my preference now is to do a mini boil around 3L or so of some 1040 wort. Add the hops to the boil then dump the lot in with the rest of the cube.

At pitching time? not a bad idea. Thought about boiling some of the cube wort?

 

[felten]

no harm tipping the whole thing in

 

[argon]

At pitching time? not a bad idea. Thought about boiling some of the cube wort?

yep at pitching... i just cool the unopened cube in the fridge overnight before pitching the mini-boil. This brings it in about the right temp for pitching ale yeast.

I NC in 17L cubes so to get 20L into fermenter i top up with 3L water... but if i want super late hop profile... i do a 3L mini-wort boiled for 10min with late hop additions.

I used an excel water temp calculator to work out that 17L of 4C plus 3L of 93C equals 20L of 18C.
I use 93C cause the boil loses a few degrees pretty quickly as it comes off the boil. Otherwise adding the hot min-wort to the fermenter with the cube will bring it in to about 29C = BAD

I figure this is ultra fast chilling and captures a good deal of flavour and aroma from the additions i made in the miniboil.

I'll probably be doing another one this weekend for my cubed Black IPA.

I don't like opening the cube unitll the very last moment i have to... so for me i don't want to re-boil some of it... should work though

 

[argon]

no harm tipping the whole thing in

sorry as above... you don't want to be doing this as temps will be too high for pitching

 

[felten]

If you do it at pitching, you're probably right.

 

[dashiznit]

Forgot to get back to this thread and let everyone know how it tasted.

I had trouble side by side with a store bought one tasting the difference and a few of my mates who do kits couldn't believe that it was homebrew.

I had to show them how i did it. I think i may have converted a few of them too.

I think i only have about 3 bottles left now. It's amazing how quick i drank this batch compared to the kits and bits. It was just too nice. Better than most of the beers i can buy in the shops.

I really like cascade and might put down another one soon and just use all cascade, just for an experiment.

 

[Acasta]

This is my fav recipe to date.
I think the French press is not a bad idea, when what i did was just draw some wort off into a pot and do a mini boil. then quick cool and add before pitching.
Its more work, but i think it works better.

 

[MarkBastard]

Mine is tasting great, probably the best beer I've ever made, but I reckon it's a little different to the commercial version. Makes me think the commercial one has a lot less Chinook than I thought it did.

I reckon with Galaxy being Australian they use more of that now, as well as Tasmanian Cascade which no doubt has a different flavour too.

I prefer my version to LCPA and that's a big call cause I love LCPA. That said it's not a fair test unless I'm comparing something on tap at the Little Creatures brewery to mine I reckon. Something fresh and not bottled.

Still, I can only get the bottled version readily here and I like my home brew version better. Can't complain about that.

The keg hopping puts this one over the finish line.

 

[argon]

snip... And for the hop interested - just to clarify - yes, there is variation from year to year with all hops, and every year we have to tweak. The blend for the past couple of years has been pretty similar with a dose of EKG for a portion of the kettle hop (along with Cascade), and Cascade and Galaxy for the hopback (we haven't used Chinook for a couple of years now).

Cheers!

Alex

That sucks... no more chinook in the LCPA :angry:

 

[ramu_gupta]

Have to agree...One of the best beers I've made... didn't last long at all and too many of my mates were drinking it.
Must do another ASAP.
Great work Argon.

 

[dashiznit]

Finished my batch a few weeks ago and wouldn't mind trying the galaxy version. Has anyone done it? And does it taste like the current LCPA? Or do you think it's just worth doing the "original" recipe with chinook?

 

[Phoney]

Ive done a side-by-side.

Close, but no cigar. The real McCoy tastes slightly sharper, less malty and has a bit more aroma, but both were equally as enjoyable. That was the opinion of about 4 of my mates & yours truly.
.

 

[argon]

Just saw this now... No I haven't done a galaxy version... Not really on the cards to be honest. I really like chinook and would be totally different without it. Galaxy gives a totally different profile to what I think Lcpa should be. But by all means give it a crack and let us know how it goes.

@phoneyhuh... Did you mean the recipe in the db vs real lcpa or the galaxy version vs chinook?

The point of the recipe is not really to clone the beer as it is now but to clone the beer as it used to be. From what I remember this one gets pretty close.. But really happy to receive feedback. Always room for improvement.
Cheers.
A

 

[Phoney]

@phoneyhuh... Did you mean the recipe in the db vs real lcpa or the galaxy version vs chinook?

The one in the db vs the real deal. (I cant really remember what the old real one was like)

Next time I will try the version with the late galaxy & see how it compares, i'll also chill it properly rather than dick around with a french press & a cube.... But dont get me wrong, im not at all disappointed with what ive got!

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Lecterfan]

My version of your DB recipe has come out great...only 2 weeks in the bottle so I'm expecting some of the "aggressiveness" of the chinook to calm down after another 4 weeks or so. Even still i drank a long neck of it and then 3 pints of the current commercial version and was surprised how bland it was by comparison. The nose/aroma of mine was HEAPS better...just need to wait for some of the chinookiness (what a great word) to calm down.

Cheers.

Chinookiness - a word my g/f is going to have to learn. An adjective as in "turn up the chinookiness" of that motherf*cker (when drinking a beer).

 

[argon]

Chinookness... Love it!!! Just Kegged a black ipa with late chinook and had to stop myself from drumming straight from the fermenter... mmm sooo good.

Also, interesting phoneyhuh's note on the aroma difference between the real lcpa and his brew. Probably no chill like you said. Might get a chiller one day myself... Be nice to note if there really is a big difference.

 

[Filby]

Gday all!

I did this recipe as my first AG and just wanted to ask about the bitterness. Mines i just 2 days out of the fermenter but the bitterness is kicking my arse. Its pretty intense and you can still feel it on the tongue after about 10mins. Is this normal and will the aging sort it out?


Cheers

Fil

 

[argon]

Firstly, good one on your first AG. :icon_cheers:

This beer is supposed to be quite bitter and hop forward, but never over the top and blowing your head off. However, I reckon the bitterness will probably calm after a couple of weeks, but hard to tell without tasting it.

A little more info on what you ended up doing might help out with some diagnosis.
What was the final recipe you used?
What were your critical numbers? ie volumes, gravities, hop AA%
What was your chilling method?
Are you kegging or bottling?
Did you fine and/or filter?

 

[MarkBastard]

Gday all!

I did this recipe as my first AG and just wanted to ask about the bitterness. Mines i just 2 days out of the fermenter but the bitterness is kicking my arse. Its pretty intense and you can still feel it on the tongue after about 10mins. Is this normal and will the aging sort it out?


Cheers

Fil

Pour a glass, cover the top with glad wrap then leave it in the fridge for an hour (so it goes more flat).

Does it still taste too bitter?

Because it could be a carbonation + bitterness issue. I've overcarbed beers before and thought they were too bitter but it was just the carbonation.