So I bottled half the batch in dishwasher sanitized bottles and half in oven sanitized bottles. The dishwasher must have had some residual rinse aid as there were no bubbles when bottling, but the oven bottles had some. I've tried one of each after they conditioned for a little more than a couple of weeks, and they both seem to produce plenty of head. Conditioning temperature was likely around 65F which is about as warm as I could do while keeping temperature from fluctuating. Carbonation seems fine to me.
The beer tastes very hoppy compared to what the SG checks tasted like. I altered the Brewer's Best instructions with advice from Palmer's How to Brew by adding half of the finishing hops at T-30 minutes instead of toward the end, so I suppose that's why it tastes especially hoppy. The beer looks red (like a red ale ought to) and relatively clear, but I don't have a good baseline for homebrews yet.
Also, after cleaning, my PE fermenter still smells strongly of hops. Is that normal or did I do a crappy wash job? It definitely looks clean.
