Next!

The Pale Ale is complete and bottled. I got it down to a SG of 1.014. I would've liked for it to have pushed 1.012, and gotten a bit more dry, but it will do just fine. I had a small bit left over to have a taste, and I was pleasantly surprised. There's quite a bit of hop flavor to it, although I don't think it will be unbalanced once it's conditioned for a bit.

Now that the IPA is done (for the most part) conditioning, it does taste a bit better. There is more hop flavor than there was 2 weeks ago, but it's still not quite enough. I'm going to stick to adding a lot more late additions to the next IPA to make sure it has the correct flavor I want.

The Witbier turned out really nice. Apart from just a small bit of extract twang, it tastes exactly like it should, and I think it may be the first beer I made to style that really resembles the style. That in itself makes me much prouder of that beer.

Let's Get Back into This!

Bleh, it's been a bit too long since I've written in here. Quite a bit has actually been going on that's kept me from posting. So we'll get it going.

A New Car!

The SWMBO and I recently picked up a new 2010 Honda Insight. Yep, a hybrid. I gotta say, I really enjoy driving it. It's a very interactive car. Through a dash-screen, it tells you if you are driving with a "ecological mind" or if you're using more gas than you have to. A 3-D display in the speedometer glows green if you are driving with gas-sipping practices, blue if you're a little lead-footed, and teal if somewhere in between. Plus, having a car that gets better that 50 mpg (unless you're driving in the "Blue") is definitely pretty nice. It'll only be nicer when gas prices start really creeping back up.

Now, on to the brews. The Belgian Witbier got down to a nice acceptable FG. 1.011. It was promptly bottled and is now aging along with the IPA. Speaking of the IPA, I'm learning more and more about making better beers. A lot of the learning process is making mistakes and figuring out what you've done, and what you need to do to correct it. I did an early tasting of the IPA after 1.5 weeks of aging, and although "green" I learned a bit.

The main point I used is that I need to use a lot more finishing hops if I'm going to want the flavor and aroma I want from my hoppy beers. My IPA really didn't have much flavor in the way of hops other than bitteness. ; It was pretty dissappointing. Including dry-hopping, I used 4 oz. of hops. When I plan another IPA, which may be soon, I'm easily going to double that amount. However, most of those will be late-additions.

I easily hit my targeted IBU's with my IPA. It's plenty bitter, but there wasn't much actual hop flavor. I was really looking forward to some citrus notes from the hops, but there really wasn't any. I probably didn't need any of the Summit hops I used, I just should have used a lot more from the other hops. So I took that lesson to heart and made an American Pale Ale.

The Pale Ale is a really simple quick recipe. Here it is as follows:

• 6.6 lbs. of Pale LME
• 4 oz Crystal 10L
• 4 oz Crystal 120L
• 4 oz Dextrose (to boost the final ABV)
• 1 oz Centennial at 20
• 2/3 oz Centennial at 12
• 1/3 oz Centennial at 10
• 1 oz Centennial at 7
• 1 pack of Nottingham Dry Yeast

Hopefully, with only late-additions will help this beer have the proper hop flavor that's it's supposed to have, rather than just bitterness.

We'll see...