Beginner wanting to brew Epic Pale Ale with home brew kit

[Michael van Wijk]

I found the following ingredients on the Epic website: Malt - English Pale Ale, Crystal, Hops - US Cascade. Is there anyway of replicating this? What are Crystal's? What kit would be an English Pale Ale base to start with? Any other ideas or suggestions appreciated.  

[Michael]

Michael,

 

It would be difficult, to impossible to recreate Epic Pale Ale with a kit.

 

Having said this, you may be able to do something similar using extracts and hop pellets. Maybe some LME would do the job. Afterwards, you can do a partial mash with some crystal. (You can get this from Liberty brewing) Add the hops on a 60, 30, 15, 0 schedule, and if it is not close to Epic, it will still be a decent drop.

 

[Chris Banks]

I agree with what Michael says above!

Heres a copy and paste from a recipe brother Joking posted a while back!

 "Here is my Epic Clone - it's pretty close to the real thing. It's a bit more hoppy and a little bit more bitter - but that's the way I like it. If you aren't all grain - use Muntons Light Liquid Extract (3.8kg) or even better (but more expensive) 3.1kg of Light DME. Steep the specialty grains in your brew water at 78 degrees for half an hour before you add the extract.

If you want the genuine Epic flavour, you're going to have to splash out and buy Imported US Cascade... but Doreen wont mind if you use NZ grown Cascade".

Epic Clone
10-A American Pale Ale

Boil Size 27 L
Size: 22.75 L
Efficiency: 80%
Attenuation: 77.0%
Calories: 178.09 kcal per 12 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.054 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 22.15 (5.00 - 14.00)
Alcohol: 5.42% (4.50% - 6.00%)
Bitterness: 45.9 (30.00 - 45.00)

Ingredients:
4.7 kg Golden Promise Pale
.41 kg British Crystal 90 EBC
50 g Cascade (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
50 g Cascade (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
50 g Cascade (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
100 g Cascade (5.8%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1 Wyeast 1272

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 21.11 °C
Source Water: 15.56 °C
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 12.78 L; Strike: 74.53 °C; Target: 67 °C
01:03:00 Saccrification - Rest: 60 min; Final: 65.0 °C
01:04:00 Mash Out - Water: 3.71 L; Temperature: 100.0 °C; Target: 72.0 °C
02:04:00 Sparge - Sparge Volume: 21.32 L; Sparge Temperature: 75.6 °C; Runoff: 21.35 L

[Darrin Smith]

this is has different hop boil times to the one on CYBI.  this one better?

[Michael van Wijk]

Hey Darrin, what's CYBI? Did you ever find out which recipe was better?

[Michael van Wijk]

Is there any extract kit that would have Golden Promise Pale & British Crystal in it that I could use?

[Michael van Wijk]

Just been looking at this recipe and wondering why use a secondary fermenter? Does the secondary fermentation not take place in the bottles with sugar added?

[Rhyno]

I wouldn't worry about racking to a secondary yet, some say it helps to get the wort off the trub after the primary fermentation has finished (about a week give or take), Just leave it in the primary fermenter until you are ready to bottle (2-3 weeks is about right)

[Michael van Wijk]

Thanks. I see from what you've written that I'm going to have to do some serious research to find out what all these terms are, e.g. partial mash with some crystal.

[Darrin Smith]

try it with a pale ale kit and hop the shit out of it using NZ cascade.  i did the clone using both NZ and US with full mash, you prob wont get an epic clone but im sure it would be very drinkable.  let me know how it goes.  dont get to tied down with people telling you this and that to start with as cvan be confusing - just make it and drink it! :-)

[Matt Cox]

Hi Michael. Welcome to the forum. I'm a newbie on here myself, but I've been lurking for a wee while, and they all seem like a friendly bunch :)

It would be helpful if you can give us an idea of your level of experience. I'd guess you're currently brewing using kits? Have you steeping grains before?

As I understand it, the Epic Pale ale is a heavily hopped American Pale Ale, so you'll definitely need to do a boil with the pale malt extract, and drop in some Cascade hops as you go. I'd also recommend steeping some Crystal malt (maybe 250g) before the boil. As Michael said, you'll struggle to create an Epic clone, but you should be able to make a nice hoppy APA to be proud of.

[Michael van Wijk]

An Idea of my level experience... zip... I have just been given a home brew kit and know nothing. I brought a Pilsner Blonde kit and some dextrose/malt enhancer. Steeped some cascade finishing hops for 10mins and added that to the brew with some S04 yeast. Will see how that turns out. But I really want to try and clone an Epic if possible. I am literally starting from scratch. Yeah, I'd be happy to make a hoppy APA. Steeping, is that adding whatever to some boiled water and letting it stand? What would be a good base kit to start with or do I just make it from scratch? There's so much advice here just need to come to term with all the 'beer' speak.

 

My kit is just a 23L carboy with hydrometer... nothing else... pretty basic

[denimglen]

I would recommend reading a few chapters over at howtobrew.com and going extract + steeping grains.

 

But as a start you could grab a pale ale kit and a coopers lager or something, mix those up to about 23L, and dry hop with about 30g of US cascade, it won't be as hoppy but a decent start.