Pale Ale

As most of you probably know, I am not a fan of pale ales, and I definitely don't like IPAs. I don't like the overly bitter punch of hops without any malt body to back up the hops. However, a lot of people do like them. Just go look at all the craft beers in the grocery store beer aisle. So many of them are IPAs and pale ales. A lot of my friends like them, so I decided to try my hands at making one. My goal was to make a pale ale that has a nice balance between the hops and the malt. I don't have a lot of experience with pale ales, so the guy at the local HBS took a pale ale kit and helped me customize a recipe to basically make a balanced batch of beer that I would like, but that pale ale drinkers would also like. I brewed today, and it smelled surprisingly good. It looked a little dark for a pale ale, but they all look a little darker in the bucket than they end up looking in the glass. I was also amazed at how easy this batch was to make. This may have been the easiest batch I've ever brewed.

Ingredients:

• 6.3 lbs Light Malt Extract
• 0.5 lbs Crystal Malt (40 L)
• 6 oz 2-Row Malted Barley
• 1 oz Cascade Hops
• 1 package English Ale Yeast

Instructions:

• Steep grains at 150-160F for 30-60 minutes
• Stir in extract and half of the hops. Boil for one hour.
• At 30 minutes, stir in the remainder of the hops.
• After one hour, remove from heat and cool the wort.
• Pitch the yeast.
• Ferment for 10-14 days.

OG: 1.038

Once again, I plan to keg this batch and force carbonate. If you are going to bottle, you will want to use 3/4 cup of corn sugar to 2 cups of water for the priming solution. I will let you know in a couple of weeks how it turns out.

Until Next Time,

RHSC