Tasting Day: Palest Pale Ale #1

Recipe and Brewday here.

Last week, after a few errands in the hot Bangalore sun, I came home to a nice cool bottle of my Palest Pale Ale.

When I poured it out, I instantly realized that this is a blonde ale and that I should have named my recipe as a blonde ale. Those who plan to brew this beer, take note: call it a blonde ale.

This is one half of the Palest Pale Ale, the other half being an attempt to clone DogFish Head’s Midas Touch which I will review shortly. This was dry hopped with a bit of Goldings. I used only a bit of hops as I didn’t want it to be an overly hoppy session ale. And therefore, it has a moderate hop note on the nose.

It pours a very faint yellow, but in a full glass it rounds off to a perfect blonde shade and I think I achieved my target of brewing an ale that’s lighter in color that the Kingfisher Premium.

Carbonation was on the lower side and the half inch thick head dies down to a few millimetres in a few minutes.

As I sipped the ale, I inhaled and the hop aroma and the beer made for a very relaxing drink. The beer has a very low bitterness that is balanced by a certain sweetness that is evident from the first sip. There isn’t much body to the beer, and in a way that makes it very sessionable. It isn’t fussy, there’s not a lot about this beer that you can write about and it most definitely makes you want to have another one.

All in all, this is a midly hoppy and very easy drinking session ale.