Pale Ale: Double Hoppy

I always said I didn’t like hoppy beers. Boy was I wrong.

You also said you didn’t like pale ales. :) Hoppy is not the same as bitter. This was an aromatic, floral pale ale… easily the best beer we’ve brewed to date.

Firsts for this beer include using liquid yeast (er, successfully, which means with a starter), whole hops (which I hear are in some ways inferior to pellets, but are way easier to filter out), and adding some of the extract at knockout. This was an all extract brew, and was the fastest beer we’ve made.

Yes, all extract. And seriously, it’s fabulous. Still, I’ve since done my first partial mash (oatmeal stout!), and loved, loved, loved it. Unless it sucks, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to non-grain brewing.

C was going a bit crazy, and Chris had this brilliant idea for a job for him. Using the tongs to remove the labels from the malt syrup cans in hot water. He loved it.

Tong tongue.

sigh

Waffles are a great brew-day meal because it doesn’t take up stove space, or even much counter space. And they are just as good eaten hot, warmish, or cool — in case someone gets really wrapped up in the brewing and can’t stop to eat right away.

My little chef!

Kind of embarassing fact: he cracks eggs better than I do.

Chris was trying to capture the color of the wort: definitely the lightest beer we’ve brewed so far.

Johannes had one of those sticker books from moo.

Johannes had a picture of C picking his nose in his sticker book.

I think I was laughing at the nose-picking picture. I remember when Johannes took it, too; C insisted that Johannes take the picture with him picking his nose.