i brewed my first batch of home brew with a brewers best India pale kit. i love good beer so i thought i would start with this even though i have done a TON of reading and research. i decided to follow the instructions EXACTLY even though some of the things they do in the instructions seemed to be contrary to what i have been reading. experimenting on my first batch didn't seem to be a good idea. anyway, everything went according to the instructions with the exception of my OG and FG. my OG was a little high (1072) and my FG was also a little high (1019). i checked the FG 3 days in a row and it was stable. i bottled the beer with the priming sugar and put in a cool (66 ave deg) dark closet and began the wait. for a new brewer, the wait was killing me. i had intended to leave it alone for 4 weeks but curiosity got the best of me after 3 weeks. i put a bottle in the fridge after 3 weeks and opened it the next night. the carbonation was fantastic, the color was beautiful but maybe just a little darker than the instructions showed, the head was robust and stayed with the beer most of the time i drank it. i thought the taste was great so im pretty happy. i do have a couple of questions though. the after taste is more bitter than i am accustom to with an India pale ale. i know the IBU rating was suppose to be in the 45 range according to the instructions which should be bitter. is this what REAL India pale ale tastes like and im just accustom to mass produced beer or did i do something wrong. the other question i have is that it has a little chill haze although the beer is really clear otherwise.
thanks for any comments and remember, go easy on the new guyhttps://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/buck.gif
thanks for any comments and remember, go easy on the new guyhttps://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/buck.gif