I brewed my latest batch of beer on January 2nd.  My friend Rob came over to learn all about brewing, and I actually helped him bottle his first batch this past Sunday.  I took home a bomber bottle of his American IPA that I hope to sample in a few weeks after I give it some time to carbonate.  Anyway, back to my own batch of beer, the third Pale Ale in a row.  I’d like to think that I’m slowly perfecting the style, but the truth is that I still have some ways to go.

Things started off well with a perfect 20 minute steeping of grains at 165 degrees.  That led to the hop boil, 40 minutes with both the 1 ounce of hops from the kit, plus another ounce of cascade hops that I added in.  Unfortunately we turned our attention away from the kettle for a few minutes, and bam!  Boil over.  Not only is this messy on the stove, it also hurts the starting gravity of the batch.  The recipe said that the beginning gravity should be 1.043 to 1.045, but mine was at 1.037.  Basically this means a lower alcohol content when it is all done.  I did hit the final gravity right on the money at 1.010, so at least that part went well.  The result is only 3.5% alcohol.

After I let it sit connected to CO2 for a couple of weeks, I have had a few small samples and I’m actually happy with the way the hops came through.  However, I am not happy with the maltiness.  I’m not sure if this can also be attributed to my boil over, or maybe the fact that I bought the grains for the recipe and maybe I made a bad decision.  Perhaps the beer will grow on me, after all I do have an entire keg of it to drink now.  I’m also curious to see what other people think of it.