Second Brew: Cooper's India Pale Ale
My first attempt at home brewing was with Cooper’s Canadian Blonde. I wanted something of the neutral spectrum so when I messed a step up, I could tell how it affected the taste more clearly. In my first post about brewing I documented where I flubbed and vowed to never repeat the same mistakes I’d made in my rookie brew. Now I can safely say that I have graduated to… some other level of amateur status as a brewer!
I read a bunch of independent reviews of easily accessible brew kits and this one constantly received a high grade. It’s not hard to tell why. I’m very happy with its full-bodied taste and perfect amount of bitterness that doesn’t linger forever, so it can be drank with food without interference. Obviously I’m happy that the beer tastes good, but I’m ecstatic that it doesn’t taste like tart apples (never again will I use sucrose in my home brew) and that it is both carbonated and retains a nice, foamy head.
The only mishap I had with this batch was a couple of bottles breaking from the pressure of the capping, most likely with the bottles I’d re-reused from the last batch that had weakened somehow, but I really have no frame of reference for which bottles are which. Shannon and I are quite adept at the whole bottling process routine now, aside from my destruction of our product.
The next project will be to start an English Bitters to be ready for the NHL hockey season to start. Then maybe I’ll brave doing the rest of the process from scratch instead of purchasing a kit. We’ll see.
All sounds good to me, we need another good pub on Sherbrooke besides Honey Martin ;-)
I’ve never been there. I should check it out sometime!