Bottling Day for our APA!

Its always a happy day at the Bloomington Beer Blog when we finally bottle one of our precious creations. Yesterday it was our American Pale Ale that got the royal treatment. We were going for a Three Floyd's homage with this brew, and we're not too far off if our pre-bottle sample is correct.

We love Three Floyd's Brewing company at the Bloomington Beer Blog. I can't tell you how many evenings we've spent sipping on a finely chilled Gumballhead at one of our favorite bars. Its a great beer because it has such a strong hop body that even the worst maintained kegging system does nothing to compromise its flavor. Its become our beer of choice when going out for that very reason. Anyone who has yet to try this delicious brew should immediately rectify this grave injustice.

For our homage, we went a little on the lighter side of Gumballhead. We love mega hopped beer, but sometimes you want something that you can sip all night without feeling like you're in "Clash of the Titans". We still gave it a complete hop profile, its a APA after all, with a more than generous dry hop period to boot. A beer equivalent of the velvet hand/mailed fist metaphor.

Our initial tasting was mostly positive. It was super smooth, with a very nice hoppy aftertaste that came on really gently and subtly until it enveloped our pallets. We've got a little bit of work to do on the overall body, as its a little on the imperceptible side. Hopefully this will fill out with a generous amount of carbonation from the bottling process.

We've got about 2 weeks before we can give you the final word on our latest creation. We'll be bottling the Meade and Barley Wine in the near future as well, not to mention our Indian Pale Ale. I guess we've got quite a roster lined up in the next few weeks. We've also started on the slow and danger-laden path to all grain brewing, so there should be plenty of adventures to share on that subject. Until next time, stay thirsty and celebrate the beautiful summer with a great American Pale Ale.

-The Bloomington Beer Blog.