American Pale Ale

Today was brew day for my 2nd batch.  I'm making an American Pale Ale with the goal of getting something similar to the Deschutes Brewery Mirror Pond Pale Ale.  

Shown below is my kit (and here's the link to the brewing instructions).

Changes I made:

• Reserve 1/5 of the Cascade hops for addition in the final 5 min of the boil to use them as aroma hops rather than bittering.
• Squeezed out the caramel malt bag into the wort (instructions say just let it drip dry)

And here it goes...

Fermentation Setup - Water -filled brew pot with carboy inside

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                 Day 1                                              Day 2

Day 3

Tasting

For this batch, perfect taste was achieved about 1 month after the bottling date.  Before that, carbonation was low and the flavor was too light - a little on the watery side.  The ones that I let sit for longer became darker and took on more fruity flavors with slight hints of banana and clove.  One month was the perfect time for a clean, refreshing, and fresh tasting Hefeweizen.

Moving the bottles from their conditioning location into the fridge stops the fermentation (yeast go dormant in the cold) and allows for storage at the ideal flavor without continuous change in flavor.