first brew, part 7

Amazing. I chilled and opened bottle 1 of the Flat Wan Ale. I poured a pint glass. It had a head! It had a steady upflow of tiny bubbles! It was perfectly carbonated. The flavor is, frankly, not an abomination before the beer gods. Not complex, not particularly interesting, no bitterness to speak of (given the tiny boiling hops oversight), but with mild malty and hoppy flavors and a faintly sweet, fruity finish. If I ordered it in a pub I would not be enraged. If I hadn't followed Joe's suggestion of desperation dry hopping I'm sure it would be worthless.

Gravity is about 1.018. If a pound of LME per gallon yields an original gravity of between 1.034 and 1.038 then the ABV is somewhere around 2.5 percent. That feels about right; there isn't much kick to the stuff.

Two hours after opening the two liter bottle there's still plenty of carbonation. This would be a serviceable bottle size for any sort of social occasion.

Update: Opened bottle 2 on 1/1. I think the results of the experiment are clear. Pints from this bottle had a better and much longer lasting head. Both shaken and unshaken carbonated adequately, but the shaken bottle is the definite winner. I suspect that it was probably ready before the unshaken bottle.