Alexander Keith's IPA Clone

I would really love if someone had a recipe for a clone of Alexander Keith's IPA My Canadian friends should be familiar with this Nova Scotian jewel. It's very, very nice!

Me too! Anyone?

I'm from Canada, and I gotta say...this beer sucks. There is no hop flavour at all. Its not even an IPA.... If you are going to brew it, I would just do a basic low gravity pale ale recipe with very low hop additions...blech...

I'm with Boris. That beer is just a standard macro brew. If you want IPA, go for any of the many recipes on here. If you want a light ale, again, recipes on here. There are many other better standard ales to clone and sample. I believe Labatt just decided to move production of Kieths IPA to the London ON plant. Not pertinent but good trivia.

Hey

in 2005 when he posted that keiths was actualy pretty good (hard to beleive i know)

it was an IPA back then instead of the watery pale ale sin that it is today.

If you are looking for a clone of what it used to be try a IPA with not a lot of hops but say 60-70IBU's worth (i honestly cant remember how hoppy it was just remember it not being bad before)

If you want something close to it now........budweiser with an ale yeast with slightly more hop?

Cheers

Yuck.

Head to the IPA forum here, and pick a recipe. Or if you're not a hophead, check out the American Ale forum for more great recipes.

Alexander Keiths is hardly an IPA.

iamatuna said:

Hey

in 2005 when he posted that keiths was actualy pretty good (hard to beleive i know)

it was an IPA back then instead of the watery pale ale sin that it is today.

If you are looking for a clone of what it used to be try a IPA with not a lot of hops but say 60-70IBU's worth (i honestly cant remember how hoppy it was just remember it not being bad before)

If you want something close to it now........budweiser with an ale yeast with slightly more hop?

Cheers

Click to expand...

I think your tastes may have just grown.

Here is the quote from a review of the beer back in 1998 (the first review on Beer Advocate):

"Corn flavours are dominant, with thin hop bitterness. Leaves your mouth sharp, and a bit dry, afterwards.

Not sure how true to the IPA style this is, but it is a nice light ale with an 5% abv."

BorisLobb said:

I'm from Canada, and I gotta say...this beer sucks. There is no hop flavour at all. Its not even an IPA.... If you are going to brew it, I would just do a basic low gravity pale ale recipe with very low hop additions...blech...

Click to expand...

haha. was about to say. keiths clone: few pounds of corn, couple pounds of sugar, wave a few hop cones over the boil kettle and you've pretty much got it.

interesting article (keiths ipa was, in fact, one time a true ipa): scroll down the page a bit:

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=5235&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Fellow Brewer,

If I were to taste this beer in the context of the wonderful craft beers and the hops we love I would be insulted that a mass produced beer would use the label IPA. However this beer has been around for longer than any of us have been brewing beer (1820?). This beer competes with many mass produced beers and in my opinion is pretty good compared to Coors, Bud, Miller etc. by the way I like Molsen X too.

I would suggest that the labels on mass produced beers mean nothing. Can you really taste the triple hops? Moosehead is a lager and Keith's is an IPA but there is not much difference.

I enjoy my hoppy beers to much to brew a light beer like Keith's. If I were to try I would try an all grain brew with 2 row and a few ounces of 10L grain and some carapils. I'd stick to some low alpha hops and use them sparingly 2 oz of cascade, 1 oz bitter and 1 oz flavour.

PS Keith's has not significantly changed it's taste in over 30 years. Personal experience.

Keith's has 200 years of brewing behind them, if they want to call it an IPA they can. Though I think it likely is a completely different ale now than what it was 100+ years ago. It seems more like a lager now. I think the Keith's 'tartan ale' is closer to what Keith's IPA is suppose to be like.

15- 8 year old thread, but I'll kick this can. I like a nice modern happy IPA like anyone. But as memory serves, IPA (India Pale Ale) was derived well over 100 years ago, and got its name because the Brits, who traded barrelled pale ales to India, and it had to be heavily bittered to withstand passage on sailing ships, and transport across a hot climate to be traded. The origional IPA's, were just British Bitters or ESBs IMO. The modern AK IPA is just another mass market beer, better than CL, Bud, Canadian etc, but still worthy of a place on the shelf. As said above, much the same as Mooshead, but still a good hot weather beer for crushing a couple.

Jettaman, I'd look at the other AK posts, as there was someone who worked the the brewery who posted a quasi recipe of the original. I modified that one, and it came out pretty good. A nice light coloured, high IBU on the bitterling end, and a very slight hop flavor on the finishing. 10 gal was gone this past spring/summer in the back yard shed in under 6 weeks.