Imperial Pale Ale or "Not quite a Landslide Pale Ale"

[Auzimon3]

Hi,

Im very new to home brew as my first creation is still in the fermenter.

It was called "not quite a Landslide" as my brew day was the day after the federal election.

The recipe is for "Imperial pale ale" from the "Extreme Brewing" book by Sam Caglione, with some hot tips from Palmers fantastic website.

I decided to miss the kits and go straight into an extract and specialty grains style set up. So far the results are promising, I hope to bottle on the weekend.

Most fun i have had so far as a home brewer was setting up my fermenting fridge with an STC-1000, The instructions from several places on the internet and AHB in particular were great.



Cheers Ric

 

[surly]

Welcome Ric,

Sounds like you are going in well-informed Chances are your beer will be pretty damn good!

 

[HBHB]

Excellent!

On track from the beginning. No turning back now.

Enjoy the brewing and the site, with all it has to offer.

Martin

 

[Auzimon3]

I have just finished bottling my first beer.

I had a very stressful time, especially with siphoning, even though I practised. I ended up splashing a bit of sanitiser into the bottling bucket and about a quarter pint of Ale all over the kitchen but i managed to bulk prime and fill 23 x 750 ml PET bottles with my "not quite a Landslide pale ale". It tastes fantastic even before bottle conditioning. I had a pint or so while i was bottling and I would say the @ 6% ABV I calculated was about right.

OG was 1.060
checked gravity on day 7 and got 1.014
FG today, day 14 also got 1.014

So i guess she was pretty much done last week.

Its going to be a battle to stop myself drinking it all before the 2-3 weeks of bottle conditioning the recipe suggests is up.

Cheers
Ric :chug:

 

[surly]

Waiting for your first brew to bottle condition is SO hard.
If you are anything like me you will be cracking them every few days to see how they progress.. (taste pretty shit with all that sugar unfermented).

Best advice is to make sure you have other beers conditioning while you drink this lot so you don't waste too many bottles and the current beer will distract you from the next until it is ready... nice idea anyway

 

[tcc]

I would advise you not to touch it early... but the multiple 'samples' that we all seem to indulge in for our early brews are quite educational I reckon

Personally, and I guess it depends on your climate, but your beer wont have peaked until it is in the bottle for 5-6 weeks maybe longer if it is higher in ABV

 

[yum beer]

Grab yourself 2 cartons of Coopers longies to enjoy while your next batch ferments and your first ages nicely.
You will have empties for your second batch and lets face it you are gonna save a fortune from now on in, one last big beer purchase ain't gonna hurt...cough cough splutter wheeze...
why is this slope so slippery? Someone has covered it in a sweet, malty substance.....

 

[Bribie G]

Sounds like you had an intense hour or so

Rather than bottling buckets and syphons, I have always used a bottling "cane" with the valve at the bottom that cuts the flow after every bottle, and primed the bottles. If you are going to keep using 750ml PETs a good priming method that gives you absolutely the same carbonation in each bottle is to use CSR sugar cubes. They are very cheap compared to those carb drops and easier to use than bulk priming (and even bulk priming can give you wildly varying carbonation if not mixed properly).

One cube to a PET will give you a good "standard" carbonation similar to commercial beers, I happily put them into brewing competitions.

Happy drinkin' :chug:

 

[Auzimon3]

I couldn't wait so I am drinking it. It has been interesting to see the carbonation develop. The taste is a big wallop of hoppy bitterness and a long lingering hop finish on top of about 6% ABV. Bloody good result considering how all over the place the brew day and bottling day were. I love it. I'm hooked. And even better my wife likes the beer too!

I will be kegging and force carbing the majority of my second batch. That way I can start drinking it sooner!

 

[Auzimon3]

I tried my landslide pale ale on my work mates.

They generally did not like it, Mostly due to lack of carbonation and the huge hop taste.

The one person who did like it was a home brewer of 20 years experience who said it was a solid first attempt at a pale ale.

Im going to chalk it up as a win!

 

[brianman]

Well done, agree with above comments, a bottling cane is great, i use 1/2tsp each for my stubbies, seems right. The 6% will be 6.5% adjusted for priming sugaz.

 

[slcmorro]

I tried my landslide pale ale on my work mates.

They generally did not like it, Mostly due to lack of carbonation and the huge hop taste.

Don't ever be disheartened by Joe Blow and his mates opinions. Most of them will happily drink Draught/VB/XXXX forever, blissfully ignorant to the wide world of quality beers. It's the people in my brew club and close friends with knowledge who's opinions I value most