Pale Ale Review

Recipe:
9 lbs Pale 2-row
10.6 oz Crystal 40L
10.6 oz Munich
1.6 oz Crystal 60L

0.5 oz Chinook at 60 min
1 oz Cascade at 20 min
1.5 oz Chinook + 1 oz Cascade at 2 min

Dry Hop: 1 oz Chinook

Yeast: WY1272 American Ale II
OG: 1054
FG: 1011
Alochol= 5.6%

This was an attempt to make a little more malty pale ale the Panda Watch Pale Ale. I thought by substituting Munich malt for Carapils, it would lend more malt flavor to the beer without changing the body very much. The result wasn't very good. Compared to the last pale ale (Panda Watch), this one just seems a lot more "blah." It doesnt have the crispness of the previous version, it's not as "bright," and overall it's a little underwhelming.

Appearance: As you can see in the picture, it's still really hazy and kind of a dull copper color. I am starting to think that my aluminum kettle is too thin and is resulting in some caramelization/color change during the boil. It has a reasonable head on the pour that dissipates into a thin layer.

Aroma: The aroma is probably a little more malty this time around. The Chinook hops are providing more of a dark, resinous aroma (as opposed to floral/citrus from other hops) that I like, but there isn't enough of it.

Taste: Again, a little underwhelming, but some malt sweetness upfront and a touch of bitterness. The finish is pretty smooth, which makes it easy to drink.

Overall: not something I would brew again. I think a lot of my problems with hoppy beers are that I don't add enough hops. Seems simple to add a lot of hops to hoppy beers, but before I had a job we couldn't spend $40-50 on a beer. Hops are expensive when you only buy 1 oz at a time, so we used less than we probably should. There's a total of 5 oz in the beer, and it probably should be closer to 8, with all of the additional hops at the end of the boil/dry hop. The malt bill isn't great either. If I were to use Munich again, it should probably be closer to 2 lbs (not around a half a pound).

Overall, it's back to the drawing board for our pale ale. The Panda Watch was good, but I think it could be better. I'm going to start buying hops in bulk this year and I think that will really make a difference. At $1/oz it will satisfy my need to make inexpensive beers, but I can use twice the hops and still spend less overall than previously. I found a great blog (Bertusbrewing.com) by a homebrewer who brews mainly IPAs. I'm going to try a couple of his recipes (and use the same amount of hops) and see where we stand after that. I'm also going to use some of the recipes in the IPA book Elise got me and hopefully, in the next few months we'll have some proper IPAs and Pale Ales on tap.

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