Chas has decided to make a nice pale ale. While I do all sorts of weird stuff with hops in my Australian Pale Ale series, Chas has taken a practicable approach. First, start with some basic malt and what should work for hops. Second, fix anything that’s wrong. Third, enjoy your tasty home brew. Smart.
Basic Pale Ale 1 ready for tasting
The first beer in this journey is the Basic Pale Ale (take 1). It’s an all grain small 4 litre batch. And it turned out quite well.
Once opening up a bottle, there’s a stone fruit aroma like peach or nectarine. Yeasty hints as well. I quite like the smell of this beer. Sort of tropical.
Onto the tasting. First thing that hits is the smooth and creamy feeling. There’s a lightness and delicate fruit flavour up front. Then there’s a slow build up of intensity in flavour, but not a whole lot. Some pine flavour comes out after it warms slightly and grapefruit flavours. Bit of a stewed fruit flavour at the end and slight dry bitterness. Finishes off with some more dryness.
I like the body here. Everything is held together well. No noticeable drop away of substance. The body is on the lighter side but still keeps it all together. Not sure on the alcohol here as a gravity readings weren’t possible. If it’s not too strong it would be good as a session beer.
Only downside is that the sort of stewed fruit and grapefruit flavour doesn’t quite hit the mark. Can’t quite put my finger on it. The reason could be due to not enough malt, not enough body, too much hops, or simply it’s not to my taste.
Food matching, not sure. Basic home cooked meal seams to work well, steamed veggies and pan fried chicken/fish. Things that aren’t too strong.
This is quite a good beer. I could easily knock back a few of theses one after another. I’m sure after a few adjustments this will be a solid beer for all occasions.
-Mikey
We make home brew 