Tropical Pale Ale : Six String Brewing

[Luxo_Aussie]

G'day All,

Whilst travelling around NSW a few months ago, I was very impressed with a Tropical Pale Ale by Six String Brewing based on the central coast. The balance spoke to me most of all - something you could enjoy all day long with passion fruit / pineapple flavours. I'm keen to replicate it, but all I can find is a an ABV (4.2%) and IBU's (15) - Does anyone know what defines a Tropical Pale Ale? I'm guessing hops would be Citra / Galaxy & the malt bill should be simple based on the recipes seen elsewhere but does anyone else have any experience brewing this style? This sort of style is completely unheard of here in Europe, I'm sure it would be appreciated when summer rolls along!

Cheers & Thanks!

 

[DJR]

haven't had it but....

tropical pale is usually something along the lines of an XPA or hazy pale ale, like a neipa without as many oats but pushed down to sub 4.5% ish, not really covered too much by the style guidelines nowadays except for the ones that Brewers Association makes:

https://www.brewersassociation.org/edu/brewers-association-beer-style-guidelines/#223

I've made something like a 40% wheat/60% pale malt, mashed normally at 67c, save all the hops for whirlpool and dry hop only with only a small amount from any boil hops, that should get you in the ballpark. Mosaic / Citra / Galaxy/ Vic Secret are the go-to hops, a Citra or Mosaic dominant blend works well. Use a yeast that has good biotransformation properties like bry-97, s-33, k-97, wlp066, wlp095 / london ale III etc.


hope that helps... you could also hit up six string and ask em, i'm pretty sure they started out as HBers themselves

 

[Dan Pratt]

From memeory the previous head brewer who designed this beer, used El Dorado and Amarillo late and dry hop.

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

Thanks for the feedback - It should be enough info to work out a recipe. I've contacted Six String as well, maybe they'll give some ballpark guidelines for the beer.

Either way I'll post the recipe here in a couple of weeks and then plan a follow-up attempt a few months after the first is bottles to refine the style.

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

G'day All - planning this one for next week. Went with a Galaxy/El Dorado combination in the end, could only manage late additions to keep the IBU's below 20 with the high AA% on each of them.

Tropical Pale Ale | Clone Beer (34 A) | Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 25.00 L | Boil Time: 30 min | Original Gravity: 1.041
Bitterness: 18.9 IBUs | Color: 10.6 EBC
Step Mash : 15@52 | 25@62 | 25@66 | 15@71 | 10@77

Ingredients
3.000 kg Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (5.0 EBC)
0.400 kg Oats, Flaked (Brewferm) (2.0 EBC)
0.400 kg Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (7.5 EBC)
0.175 kg Cara-120 (Brewferm) (120.0 EBC)
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124 ml]
10.00 g El Dorado [11.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min
10.00 g Galaxy [13.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
10.00 g El Dorado [11.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
10.00 g Galaxy [13.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
15.00 g El Dorado [11.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min, 90.0 C
15.00 g Galaxy [13.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min, 90.0 C
15.00 g El Dorado [11.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
15.00 g Galaxy [13.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days

Dry hopping is about 1g/L, sounds about right? Hopefully it should get the balance right to make it fruity/tropical whilst also keeping it quaffable.

 

[kierent]

Hi Luxo. Reviving an old thread, but wondered how this turned out? I've just done a tropical but it seems a bit too malty for the low IBUs so I think I may have over-complicated the grain bill. I also dry hopped more like 3g/L but I quite like that in my tropicals and hazys.

Keen to give this one of yours a go if it went ok though?
Cheers

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

Hi Luxo. Reviving an old thread, but wondered how this turned out? I've just done a tropical but it seems a bit too malty for the low IBUs so I think I may have over-complicated the grain bill. I also dry hopped more like 3g/L but I quite like that in my tropicals and hazys.

Keen to give this one of yours a go if it went ok though?
Cheers

G'day - Yes it turned out quite well but since this I've changed up most of my Pale Ales and bitter with Magnum at 60 & just go heavy at flameout & dry hop rather than 10min/5min additions. Could have even gone for 12-15 IBU's instead of 19 as in this recipe.

I've been using Weyermann Premium Pils and keeping it simple with some wheat to be a light base for light pacific/tropical pale ales too - suits the hoppiness better than Maris Otter but that's probably a marginal difference. Best of Luck, great style!