Three floyd's alpha king ale clone...

I had this beer tonight and enjoyed it. Anyone have an opinion on these two recipes I found? One is from brew your own. The odd thing is that they have such radically different amounts of grain. Which should I go with? The one with the larger grain bill limits me to 5 gallons.

BYO Alpha King Clone
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 8.79 gal
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 8.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 69.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 54.19 %
4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 39.41 %
1.9 oz Caramunich III (Weyermann) (71.0 SRM) Grain 1.18 %
1.6 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) Grain 0.99 %
1.6 oz Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM) Grain 0.99 %
1.6 oz Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 0.99 %
1.6 oz Melanoidin (Weyermann) (30.0 SRM) Grain 0.99 %
1.6 oz Special B (135.0 SRM) Grain 0.99 %
0.5 oz Wheat - Soft Red, Flaked (Briess) (1.6 SRM) Grain 0.30 %
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)Hops -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Magnum [13.50 %] (60 min) Hops 30.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
0.58 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.00 %] (60 min) Hops 31.2 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (1 min) Hops 8.2 IBU
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [Starter 2000 Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 10.15 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 3.17 gal of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 1.78 gal of water at 198.5 F 168.0 F



Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1056
Yeast Starter: Activator Pack
Batch Size (Gallons): 5 gallon
Original Gravity: 1.074
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 66
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 9.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days 68 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days 68 degrees

Ingredients:
10.0 lbs Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
3.4 lbs American 2-row
1.5 oz Munich TYPE II
3.0 oz Crystal Malt 60°L
1.5 oz Cara 8 - Caramel Malt
2.0 oz Munich Malt
1.5 oz Melanoidin Malt
0.5 oz Wheat Flaked
0.5 oz Magnum (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
0.75 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 75.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.6%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.2 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale



Mash In 150.0 °F 60 min
Mash Out Target: 168.0 °F 10 min
Batch Sparge 168° 10 min
Total Runoff: 6 gal



This IPA finished first in class a the 2007 Schooner Home Brew Competition

Need some help deciding. Seems like these cannot be remotely the same given the different sizes of the grain bill. Might make the bigger one. Looks interesting.

I think I read the grain bill wrong on the second recipe. Thought it called for over 20lbs. Better learn to read.

I just brewed this Alpha clone tonight. I can't remember which website I got it from But the guy that runs it brews a TON of clones and he does them well. Out of all the clones he has ever done, he said that the Alpha King Clone is the closest match to any craft brewery he has ever cloned before. Sounds Nice to me! I had to make a few substitutions so unfortunately, it probably won't turn out the same. I'll let you know how this one turns out though. Here's the recipe:

ALPHA KING CLONE
-----------------------------------

Grains:********** 1 lb Simpsons Medium Crystal* 60 L
*********************.5 lb Digeman's Caramunich
*
Malt Extract:***6 lbs Pale LME
************************** 1.66* lbs* Light Muntons DME
*
Hops:*************1 oz Columbus* 15.5 %AA*** 60 min
*********************** .5 oz Warrior* (??* AA% -recipe says s/b 17%)* 30 min* (ordered Warrior and Centennial from More Beer).
*********************** 1 oz Centennial* 8.4 AA %** 5 min
*********************** .5 oz Warrior*** dry hop
*********************** .5 oz Centennial* dry hop*
Yeast:*** Wyeast 1056 American Ale.** 2 pint starter made 31 hours prior.

My LHBS didnt have Crystal 60L so I used 1/4 lbs. of Crystal 80L Instead. They didnt have the caramunich either. I used .5 lbs. of Dingemans Cara 20 malt (Lovibond 20). Lastly, I used Safale us-05 instead of the Wyeast 1056.

I still think it will come out as a drinkable beer.

I really think you should try the above recipe. From what I have read, it is pretty spot on and delicious!

Dgonza9 I know this is old but I was wondering how this turned out. Which ended up being better/closer to the real thing?

I thought it was pretty darn close. Give her a go. It was a good beer. Started me on an ipa binge. Cheers.

Sorry, you had 2 recipes in your original post. Did you try them both? Did you do the extract that eon posted? Which recipe would you recommend?

I brewd the BYO version about two months ago and it is currently bottle aging. I have sampled one at week two of conditioning and I have to say it's a prtty freaking awesome APA.

I tried the second one that I posted.

Cool thanks for the advise!

Sipping on a glass of Alpha King right now and I think I get a lot of Centennial coming through in the flavor...I'm no expert though

Brewed the extract version of this today. The brew day went well with no issues... until I learned I had a massive brain fart and used half a pound of Carapils instead of the half a pound of Caramunich. :smack:

So the steeping grain bill ended up being 1 lb Caramel 60L and 1/2 lb Carapils.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to how this will turn out?

EDIT: Think it is worth it/possible to steep some Caramunich in as little water as possible and add to the fermenter?

I'm going to give the all grain version from Zymurgy a shot. My unfortunate grain mixup with the extract attempt turned out meh at best so I'm excited to give this one a go tomorrow morning.

Could you post an update on the all grain one please? I'm looking to do this beer in the near future and was trying to decide which recipe to go with

backsideslash said:

Could you post an update on the all grain one please? I'm looking to do this beer in the near future and was trying to decide which recipe to go with

Click to expand...

The recipe I'm trying is as follows for a 5 gallon batch. My LHBS didn't have Simpsons or Dingemans so I'm using what they had. I'm using White Labs WLP002 English Ale yeast as 3F uses an English Ale yeast as their house yeast.

Alpha King 5 Gallon Batch

10 lb 2 row
1 lb Simpson's medium crystal 50-60 L
0.5 lb Dingeman's CaraMunich
1 oz 15.5% Columbus hops 60 mins
0.5 oz 17% Warrior hops 30 mins
1 oz 10.5% Centennial hops 5 mins
0.5 oz 17% Warrior hops dry hop 1 week
0.5 oz 10.5% Centennial hops dry hop 1 week
Wyeast 1056 American ale yeast

OG 1.059
FG 1.014
IBU 69

Single infusion mash at 154 F

Brew day was a success! Hit my target gravity spot on! And now, I wait.

Awesome! I'm looking forward to hear how it turns out

Bottled this up today. I got some great attenuation; my FG was 1.011. I sampled the beer and the flavors came through pretty nicely. I'll report back when it is carbed up.

backsideslash said:

Awesome! I'm looking forward to hear how it turns out

Click to expand...

I sampled after only being bottled a week and it is tasting great so far. I'll update as it matures.

brewpool said:

The recipe I'm trying is as follows for a 5 gallon batch. My LHBS didn't have Simpsons or Dingemans so I'm using what they had. I'm using White Labs WLP002 English Ale yeast as 3F uses an English Ale yeast as their house yeast.

Alpha King 5 Gallon Batch

10 lb 2 row
1 lb Simpson's medium crystal 50-60 L
0.5 lb Dingeman's CaraMunich
1 oz 15.5% Columbus hops 60 mins
0.5 oz 17% Warrior hops 30 mins
1 oz 10.5% Centennial hops 5 mins
0.5 oz 17% Warrior hops dry hop 1 week
0.5 oz 10.5% Centennial hops dry hop 1 week
Wyeast 1056 American ale yeast

OG 1.059
FG 1.014
IBU 69

Single infusion mash at 154 F

Click to expand...

Two and a half weeks after bottling and this recipe turned out fantastic! It really is very similar to the actual thing (my favorite beer). It has a great malt flavor and is balanced nicely with the hops. It fermented a bit lower than expected for me so I ended up with a higher ABV than anticipated.

Nice, I just might have to give it a try. I scored a pound of Citra hops so I'm doing a ZD clone first

backsideslash said:

Nice, I just might have to give it a try. I scored a pound of Citra hops so I'm doing a ZD clone first

Click to expand...

I just brewed my third (first all grain) version of ZD this weekend. Maybe I could open a 3F sister site in AZ