It Is Complete: Pioneer Pale Ale

The first batch of home brewed beer is complete! It has been dubbed "Pioneer Pale Ale." Realistically, it may not deserve that name - it's not quite like any other pale ale I've ever had. First off, it would be a bit of a stretch to declare it pale:

Pictured: five weeks of waiting.

Though Abel and I had gone to our local home brew shop looking to make a pale ale, things ended up being a bit strange. We were coerced by the store-owners to not follow the recipe we had (which they didn't even actually look at) and instead follow their guidelines. Considering that we had never brewed before, we did as we were told. So, we had pure malt extract, a separate canister of hopped malt extract, hops, and yeast. They gave us a flyer about how to add everything.

The result was a pale ale that lacks two of the defining characteristics of the class: color and hoppiness. It's more of a dark, deep caramel color. And though it has a bitter aspect to it, it doesn't have the floral hop character that I look for in pale ales. This might be because of the type of hops we used, or it might be a result of the pre-hopped extract we based the beer on. Our remarkably hard water here in Houston could impact it as well. It poured with an okay amount of head, but this subsided pretty quickly. Water hardness could factor in here, too. Head loss can also come from alcohol content. I didn't calculate the ABV of this beer, but I'm guessing that it's in the 5-6% range.

Mind you, the beer isn't bad. It's certainly tasty, and I'm enjoying each bottle more than the last as it continues to age and mellow out a bit. Abel has said it reminds him of an ESB (Extra Special/Strong Bitter), and I can see where he's coming from. In spite of their name, ESBs aren't terribly bitter or hoppy. They have a bit more malt character to them, and they're generally very balanced beers. Our brew definitely has a nice balance to it.

For our next beer, we're thinking of doing something that will fit in with the time of year when we finally drink it - late fall to early winter. Stout is seeming like a good possibility.