Strathcona Pale Ale
This is the first batch I ever made. The receipe is from my local homebrew shop.
Recipe
Batch size: 5 gallons
- 7 lb pale malt extract
- 8 oz crystal malt (unfortunately, I never noted what kind of crystal...)
- 4 oz wheat malt
Hops:
- 1.5 oz Cascade/Goldings @ 60
- 1 oz Cascade/Goldings @ flameout
Yeast:
Brew Day
October 18, 2008: Smacked the yeast pack the day before, and it was nice and puffy on the day:
I did a full-volume boil.
OG was 1.056 -- just about right.
My father-in-law helped out too:
Fermentation
Not much to note, except that because I was using a pail I couldn't
see fermentation unless I peeked. And oh boy, did I peek. 
Also,
there was some kind of leak that prevented the airlock from showing
any activity, so I had to peek to figure out if it was actually
working or not. The temp was 20C whenever I checked.
Bottling
November 11, 2008: I added the sugar before taking the gravity reading; FG was 1.010, which'd put this at about 5.5% ABV. I washed the yeast and stored it for later (and as of 2010, I've still got it. I should not admit that).
Tasting
November 18, 2008: First bottle of homebrew! Nice; I was quite happy with myself and the beer. The first bottle had been in the fridge for 24 hours; the second bottle was at room temperature, and boy did it gush. First glass:
December 15, 2008: There's some kind of flavour in here that I can't identify and don't like. Plastic? Not really sure. Looking around, there seem to be a few complaints about the flavour of this strain (though some people like it a lot). Regardless, I think I'll avoid this strain in the future.
June 2009: Just opepened the last bottle. Good, but still that funny taste!