I should have waited, but I opened a bottle of the American Pale Ale I brewed 3 weeks ago. I should have waited for it to carbonate a little more in the bottle.
Now I think that I made a flat beer. It’s bubbles and makes a nice head but it’s not aggressively carbonated.
Now I worry. Now I think I did something wrong.
Nah. Just passing thoughts. I won’t know for sure until this Friday night.
On the plus side, the hoppiness is there. There seems to be no off flavors. I can’t detect any of the sweetness from the honey malt, but again…it’s a first tasting that was tasted too early.
I’m still sipping it. It’s still pretty good. 🙂
Ryan
I wouldn’t despair so soon… I made an EPA last fall that had a pretty low terminal gravity, and even after adding in some priming sugar, it took 2 solid months for it to become sufficiently carbonated.
I’ve been very interested in trying out that honey malt… Gambrinus (sp?) is the malter, right??? I’ve been trying to find something to use it in… I have heard that it is supposed to provide a distinct sweetness (though maybe only in higher quantities… how much did you use?) Of my upcoming brews, none seem to be a good fit for it… I want to brew an ESB (an authentic london esb shouldn’t be that sweet), a barleywine (sweetness as color should be primarily from length of boil) and porter (well… maybe that would be interesting…). Just thinking out loud 😉
Having used it, if you’d post an update with any additional thoughts on use of the honey malt, I’d be very interested to hear them!
Cheers!
John
I brewed a version of this APA last year and the honey malt was more pronounced. I used 5 oz both times. I think the hops are just covering up the subtle sweetness.
I am going to brew a honey wheat beer next. That should really showcase the malt:
https://www.brew-dudes.com/honey-wheat-ale-recipe/429
I could probably add up to 2 lbs to that recipe. We’ll see.
Yes, Gambrinus is the maltster. It’s a subtle sweetness…makes for a good quaffing beer.