Thursday, September 15, 2011

Adventures In Homebrewing: Front Porch Pale Ale

I've got to dry-hop more often.
I'm not one to boast but my Front Porch Pale Ale ended up having a really fantastic aroma thanks to those Amarillo and Cascade hops. I was a little nervous about trying out the technique and I'm not sure why. It's really quite simple and can improve your beer by leaps and bounds. I would be very interested to know what this beer would be like if I hadn't dry-hopped, I suspect I would be much less pleased.

If I were to give this one another shot I would try to get it a bit lighter in color. Maybe doing a late addition of the DME could have helped this because it turned out a bit more burnt orange while I was expecting/hoping for something a little more golden. This however is inconsequential to the taste. It's not anything mind-blowing but it achieved what I was hoping for, a fully flavored and hoppy pale ale with a more reserved ABV. It would have been much easier to brew a balls-to-the-wall IPA but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to find the balance here. That's not to say I'm opposed to a hop-monster but every beer has it's proper time and place.

I drew up this little label which represents exactly what I wanted to get out of this beer, something you can knock a few back while you rock back. Sometimes things are that simple.

Cheers!

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