F1-04-01-21: MO Mentum extra pale ale

Label Inspiration: Dedicated to my best friend for her birthday. I combined several pics to create this one...I really loved the ribbon and how it flowed to give the silhouette motion. 

 My first beer with my new equipment. A new era. I am hoping that I can brew much better beer...I am at a loss and very frustrated. I want to continue, but it needs to be fun.

 Northern Brewer’s Extra Pale Ale Extract Kit w/Specialty Grains

“One of our most popular kits for well over a decade, this American-style pale ale is clean, dry, and very hoppy. American hops are the driving force of this beer, featuring the unmistakable citrus (some say grapefruit) aroma of Cascade up front as well as its smooth bittering at the finish. Pale caramel malt counterpoints the hopping with a sweet grain aroma and gives this appetizing ale its medium body and deep gold color.”

KIT INCLUDES:

6 Gold malt syrup (divided)

1 lb. Belgian Cara 8 grains

3 oz. (divided) Cascade hops

Sagale US-05 Ale Yeast

5 oz. Priming Sugar

  

I ADDED:

0.5 oz Warrior hops

1 ib. Golden Light DME (Lovibond 4 Color, 8 Plato)

1 t Irish Moss

0.25 oz Falconer’s Flight hops

0.5 oz Simcoe hops

Brewed on April 18, 2015. Used my new Brewer’s Best kit to do a recipe from Northern Brewer. Followed instructions for the most part but changed up the hop additions and added a few things (see above).

I added only 1.5 oz Cascade at the beginning of the 60 minute boil and added 0.5 oz Warrior with it because I wanted it to be a little more bitter. When adding the malt syrup with 15 min left, I also added the Irish Moss to help with clarity. Around 10 minutes, I also added the DME to give my ABV a bit of a boost. At flameout, I added only 0.5 oz Cascade and added 0.25 oz or so of Falconer’s Flight. My plan is to dry hop the 0.5 oz Cascade and 0.5 oz Simcoe or maybe make it a little stronger.

May 3, 2015. Racked to secondary. I looked at a YouTube video online just to see how to do it but I already sorta knew from watching a demonstration during our beer class. The guy used the hydrometer (sanitized) directly in the primary bucket so I did as well (FG: 1.010 at 66-68 degrees). I wasn’t sure if I should bottle right now, but I felt like it since most of my Mr. Beer recipes that sat in the fermeter too long (3 weeks) just tasted nasty/yeasty/musty.

I tasted the beer. Very hoppy but not bad. Cross your fingers!

Dry hopped May 10, 2015 with 1 oz Cascade and 0.5 oz Simcoe. Due to increasing temps outside, I had to put the AC on. I set up a swamp cooler but I’m still having trouble switching out the ice bottles in time. Temps were between 68-70 for days but the past 2 days they’ve been more like 70-72, which doesn’t bode well in terms of the finished product and fusels.

Bottled MO Mentum on May 17, 2015. The process was very laborious. I managed to get 40 beers out of it, which was a little less than I thought I’d get. I tasted the beer as I bottled it and I must say it was very drinkable and very bitter. It tasted a little bit like a MO. Maybe it’ll clear up and smooth out over the next few weeks.

Started cold conditioning on June 05, 2015.

June 6^th and 7^th. Tried a few each night to see how it was doing. Still to early to tell, but I like the tatse. No aroma whatsoever, though. If there IS an aroma, it smells like homebrew and not bought hoppy pale ale. Disappointed in the roma. Body is light to medium. Definitely needs more body. Not as skunky of an aftertaste like a MO but also not as good.

Color is golden with a reddish hue or bark blonde.  Still cloudy with a few chunks here and there.

I WAS psyched about this beer, but now I don’t know.

June 8, 2015. Tried one today. Tasted like  my old Mr. Beer beer but just more bitter. I am thoroughly disappointed.

June 9, 2015. Tried a few tonight. Each bottle tasted different. I’ve decided to have the last three in the fridge from the first case (well, the first 16) and I put 18 new beers in the fridge- I’l leave them there. For a while.

NOTE: I think it’s weird that each bottle is different- in boy, carbonation, taste, bitterness, hoppiness etc etc.  Just when I get a good one and I think things are great, I get a bad bottle. PERHAPS it’s because I used One Step to clean the bottles. Maybe the next beer will be better because I plan on using PBW and Star San.

July 25, 2015. I have 2 left and I think I’ll close the case tonight. The first one- the homebrew flavor wasn’t really there anymore but I still smelled it a little (no hop smell). It was bitter bt not terribly bitter. The second one was pretty decent, bitte but smooth, no homebrew taste.

Overall impression: I really need to keep the pale ales in the bullpen a lot longer. It’s been two months since I bottled this and NOW I finally like it. Next time, I’ll change the hops and add a bit more for the dry hop to make it smell better. 

Overall score: 5 out of 10.