Continuing my quest to make a solid pale ale this year, today’s entry, Nudges, isn’t quite right.
The picture doesn’t show it as well as I would like, but this beer is far more orange-amber colored than it is reddish. I tried to get the photo in the light but things were still a little dark. Sorry: I’m very much an amateur when it comes to photos.
It’s so amber colored, though, because of this:
This is light malt extract (often abbreviated as LME in my recipes) and you may note that the color here is very similar to the color in the beer:
It’s got a soft nose of hops which are slightly fruity; the malt midrange is sweet, a little biscuit, maybe a touch of toffee. The finish doesn’t have a strong bitter quality; I’m starting to think I may have made an ESB instead of a pale. I am fairly certain that the C15 grains didn’t have that drastic an effect. Therefore, the Light Malt Extract seems like the most likely culprit. I should try Extra Light next time; I have feeling that will give me the results I’m looking for.
Still, Nudges is a good beer, drinkable and tasty. I learned something here and can put it to use on my next batches. A drinkable beer plus I learned something? That’s a win-win in the best sense.
Brew date: 3/12/16
Steeping grains
3 lb Munich
3 lb full pint
2 lb C 15
Fermentables: 4 lb LME
Hops
1 oz Millenium @ 60
.5 oz Galena (pellets) @ 30
.5 oz Galena & 1 oz Millenium @ 10
Yeast: Imperial Barbarian (2nd use)
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.018
Notes:
1/2 tsp Gypsum in boil
1 oz Glacier in secondary
Secondary 4/2
ABV: 6.6%
A pint for Dionysus 
Just a thought but LME stands for liquid malt extract. Are you sure you didn’t grab amber LME instead of light?
I actually don’t get the malt extract at my homebrew shop: The staff does. As far as I know, my options are: Light, Extra Light and Dark. But it sounds like a little more investigation on my part would be a good idea!