2nd Batch Ever!! In the fermenter...

Just boiled up my 2nd batch Thursday evening. It is currently burbling happily away in my "brew closet" (or, closet, as we say here in the Midwest).

Brewer's Best American Amber

1 lb. Crushed Crystal 80L Malt (steeped approx. 25 min. at 150-165 degrees, I also managed to spill a good handful of this all over my counter-top pouring it into the grain bag. Oopsie #1)
3.3 lb. Amber LME
2.5 lb. Amber DME
1.25 oz. Brewers Gold Bittering Hops (Alpha Acid 9.7%) (approx. 60 mins.)
0.5 oz Williamette Aroma Hops (Alpha Acid 4.9%) (approx. 5 mins.)
1 sachet Nottingham Brewing Yeast

OG 1.050

Let me just say that the Brewer's Best kit was leaps and bounds better than the True Brew (German Style Light) kit that I used for my first batch. The Brewer's Best directions were much clearer about when and how ingredients should be added, provided space to record the date and time that I started the boil, added the bittering hops, added the aroma hops, and terminated the boil.

The True Brew instructions were AWFUL!!! They came off as... "Yeah, dude... so, put the stuff in now if you want. Add in some yeast when it gets cooled down to... uh... some temperature." (Dramatization.... True Brew kits do not really say that).

I do think that I made a bit of a screw-up at the end. The instructions say, pretty clearly, not to pour the trub into the fermenter and I had a strainer sanitized and standing by.... but then completely space it and poured it all in, trub and all. It ws gettin close to midnight at that point and.... I can offer no reasonable excuses.

Long story even longer, my American Amber is belching along and is giving off a rather strong hops smell. It's not so much unpleasent as it is.... pervasive. Here's hoping that the hops smell doesn't get into all of the SWMBO's clothing that hangs just above. Is this normal... abnormal... alarming... terrifying?

signed, Concerned for my Young Beer in IL

Hi - always good to see another Illinoisian

Don't worry about the trub, it's not a big deal, better to leave it behind but there are plenty of us who have just poured it in and made good beer.

Some of the odors given off by fermenting beer can be . . . interesting. A hops aroma is pretty good, given the options! I don't know what to say about your SWMBOs clothes, sounds like you may be in dangerous territory

Cheers!

Not as concerned about the SWMBO's clothes.... she can be replaced. The beer, however.....

Good Call on the she can be replaced...........Just tell her it is a nice new perfume you wanted her to wear but didn't know how to say it so you put it on the clothes a little....

Actually, I may end up having to keep her around for a while. We were at a restaurant called "Old Chicago" this weekend and ordered two "trips" (4 4oz. samplers of different brews from the 110 they had available). One of the samplers on the Import "trip" was Guiness Stout. She had one sip, I had one sip, and then my little 4'10", "Little Orphin Annie"-lookin' redhead wife pounded the rest of that glass in one gulp. I was impressed and a little terrified.

So, I guess I'm adding some darker beers to my brewing line-up.

Truly, I was hoping to get some comments about the recipe itself. Has anyone made this one befoe and what sorts of result did they have? When I tasted the wort after I took the the OG reading I got nothing but a "punch in the face" of hops. I'm really, REALLY hoping that mellows out some because I am not all that fond of heavily hopped beer.

Bad experience.... belches that tasted like carrot greens. Not looking forward to 48+ bottles of that if it can be helped.