My first American Pale Ale

[joejoe]

I am enjoying my first bottle of American Pale Ale I brewed from an extract kit. It actually tastes remarkeably good. It was in primary for 8 days, secondary for 7 days and in the bottles for 7 days. I know that a minimum of 2 weeks for bottling is best but I couldn't wait! The first pour gave me a 2 inch head but seemed to dissipate after 5 minutes. Carbonation is very good to the end. Is this normal or will the head get better after more bottle conditioning.

I am proud to say that I am now a member of the homebrew community as my first batch is done. I actually have two other batches in secondary and another in primary.

I will post my results (good or bad) as they come of age if anyone cares to hear.

Off to the fridge for another!

Thanks for listening.

[toneyc]

Woohoo! Ain't it great! I've been homebrewing now for about 18 months and haven't looked back. Every now and then I'll go buy a 6-pack of something, mainly things I've read about here on this board, just to make sure I'm not straying too far from the "norm", but man, it sure is nice to enjoy your own home brewed beer, isn't it? Ok, so that was one heck of a run on sentence, but I'm enjoying my first lager. By all means, keep us posted on your progress!

I can't answer your question about head development in bottles, because I only bottled my first three batches and went headlong into kegging. I did have a few bottles left over from those early batches that seemed to have less head the longer they sat and I'm not sure if that was from my inexperience with the bottle capper or if they actually do leak over time.

:) Toney.

[tjthresh]

I also have just finishing up my first APA! I did mine similar you your's joejoe (8 day primary, 7 day secondary, and so far seven in bottles). I cracked open the first bottle this past Friday. Other than a little bit of a harsh finish, I have no compaints. The APA is my third batch (Amber, Porter), and so far so good.

I don't buy may commercial beers anymore either. I bought the book North American Clone Beers. I will go buy the commercial beer to if the recipe is something that I'm interested in.

I'm looking for a good Hoegarden clone for my next batch. I thinking I need to go to a 10 gallon batch so it lasts through the summer. If you have a recipe, please share.

[paul84043]

I had the same experience with the head on my Amber Ale, it's only been in the bottle for a week and a half, but I couldn't wait either!
It foamed up very nicely at first, but dissapated in five minutes or so, it also didn't stick to the glass, so I wonder if I had some detergent residue on it still...

So far my homebrews have been better than the store bought. I compared my black and tan to Mississippi Mud and it had alot more flavor, even while still very young, actually my Amber Ale has more flavor that the Mud as well. The B&T is supposed to be comparable to the Mud, but has a flavor closer to Petes Wicked Ale.
It's good to try to different commercial beers to keep a good baseline.
My wife wants a lighter beer, so were doing a Corona clone now(seems a bit futile doesn't it?) So I'm not as excited about this batch. I want to do a porter or stout when I get my cold fermentation stull all tweaked in.

[Richard English]

Remember, your homebrew will not have the chemical heading compound that the fizz-beer manufacturers use. Light beers will therefore lose their head relatively quickly.

Heavier beers, having more dissolved solids, will retain their heads longer.

Draught beer, in the UK, has very little head except that which is formed by the action of the beer hitting the glass. This effect is enhanced in some areas (and pubs) by a "sparkler" that increases the squirting action (a bit like putting your thumb over the spout of your kitchen tap [faucet]). This is becoming more common here since it allows unscrupulous publicans to serve short measure by giving an inch of foam instead of a full pint of beer.

Beer served in the most traditional manner - straight from the cask - has almost no head at all.

Deep foaming heads, like crystal clarity and heavy carbonation have all been used by the chemical-beer manufacturers to make their products look good and thus to disguise their complete lack of character.