Abandoned Ale

A couple months ago a good friend of mine decided that she wanted to brew a batch of beer with us. More to the point she wanted to use us to make her own batch of brew (brew day post Celebration Ale Brew Day). We brewed, cleaned up and planned out the schedule for her to rack, keg and bottle the beer. A few weeks turned into a month and there was no word. I racked the beer and still nothing. I kegged the beer and finally I got word. My friend who was so excited to brew her own beer was no longer drinking beer because she needed to save the calories for her new found love of cheese.

For the few weeks prior to this Eryn and I joked about how we had an abandoned ale on our hands, now we truly did and it quickly became the beer’s name. The beer is an American Pale Ale mostly 2 Row with a bit of Carmel and hopped with Chinook, Cascade and Centennials. The beer pours with a rich head that recedes to a layer of lace around the edge of the glass and on top of the beer. On the nose there is a subtle hint of slightly floral hops.  When tasting it’s got a mildly bitter hop taste up front with a subtle malty finish and nice carbonation.

If this had been my beer from the start I probably would have thought about doing some dry hopping in secondary to give it a bit more hop oomph but since it wasn’t there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. All said the Abandoned Ale turned out pretty good.