OK, so the week after brewing the IPA and porter, I brewed my pale ale and a dry stout.

My pale ale recipe changes a little bit every time I brew it, but modern incarnations have been pretty close to the recipe I published as Patrick Henry Pale Ale in the March-April 2006 issue of BYO. For this round of brewing, I decided not to make any tweaks and brew it exactly as it appeared in the magazine. The brew day was very straightforward — it was the third 5-gallon (19-L) batch of moderate-strength ale I'd made in two weeks, so everything went according to plan. (Man, I love it when that happens.)

A couple days after that, I brewed my favorite dry stout recipe. This is, essentially, the Murphy's Stout clone that appears in the 150 Classic Clone Recipes book that we put out last year. Again, I stuck pretty close to what I had published because I planned on bringing a couple beers from this round of brewing with me to the NHC (National Homebrew Conference, this year in Denver). So, I wanted to brew "production" batches of beer, not experiments.

After brewing three batches of beer in a row without any problems, I was feeling pretty confident that everything would turn out fine with the stout. Brewday went according to plan until it came time to rack the chilled wort over to the fermenter. Somehow, I was three quarts over my target volume. Now, this isn't exactly the end of the world, but I was a little curious how I ended up being over volume when my last three batches had been right on. I may try to "kick save" this beer by adding some specially-engineered "kräusen" beer when I rack it to secondary. If I make the "k-beer" a little darker and a little heavier, it should balance out the slightly diluted dry stout I now have. Or maybe I'll just keg it and drink it as is. (How bad could it be?)

So, right now I have the IPA, porter and pale ale kegged and carbonated in my fridge. (The dry stout is still in the fermenter and the Vienna lagers are still lagering. )

The porter turned out great. It has a nice roast-y, chocolate-y nose to it and is nicely balanced overall — a very drinkable beer. I really think I got the water chemistry right on this one as it is not overly acidic — as some dark beers can be — nor overly flabby, which can happen if too much chalk is added to the brewing liquor. Although I briefly thought of keeping this beer all to myself, I decided it that I'll be bringing it to the NHC for club night (look for it at the Austin ZEALOTS booth, if you are going to be attending).

My pale ale also turned out great, a very quaffable brew. It has a nice hop flavor and aroma, but there's just enough malt to balance it out. And, it has just the right amount of "zing" to it, for my tastes at least. I'll also be bringing this to club night at NHC (although I also thought of squirreling this one away for my private consumption).

I was a little less happy about how my IPA turned out. There's nothing really wrong with it — it's hoppy with solid malt backbone — it just seems a little "flabby" to me. I am going to bring this with me to the NHC and decide on club night whether to serve it. Maybe it will "condition up" nicely within the next few days.

I haven't dry hopped either the pale ale or the IPA and I may not have time before I hit the road for Denver. Neither one really "needs" it, but if I have time tomorrow, I might throw some hops in both kegs.