review on my first beer; a B.B. red ale

Bottled the red ale a week ago, and planned to open one a week for three weeks to see how it carbonates. Brewday went very well. Transferred this to a secondary so I could put a stuck oatmeal stout on the red ale's yeast cake.

SG and FG hit dead middle of Brewer's Best instruction sheet. It was in secondary for three weeks. Put a bottle in the fridge earlier in the day before opening.

Beer opens with a nice hiss of CO2. Nothing outrageous, but distinct. I pour beer carefully to not stir up yeast on bottom (a 1/16" layer). Very little head other than a ring around edge of glass. I see some slight effervescing coming up sides of my Sam Adams glass. Ale is definitely hazy, with an apple cider color and clarity.

Beer has a bit of an apple aroma to it. The first taste tastes like a cider that is starting to vinegar up a little. It is dry finishing. A fair amount of alcohol taste is present. This is pretty much as it tasted from the hydrometer samples and the little left in the bottling bucket that I drank.

The beer isn't what I would call bad, but in it's current state not something I would intentionally purchase. Looking forward to seeing what occurs by next Sunday.

Do any glaring mistakes look obvious from my review?

sounds fine to me. just needs to condition longer

The glaring mistake I see is that you did not wait long enough.

Give it at least 3 weeks in the bottle and report back. 4 is better.

My first brew was a BB red ale. I made quite a few noob mistakes but the biggest one was pitching the yeast at higher than ideal temperatures. The beer never tasted right. It always had a fruity/banana flavor. I think it can be a good beer if done right.

beergolf said:

The glaring mistake I see is that you did not wait long enough.

Give it at least 3 weeks in the bottle and report back. 4 is better.

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I know it would take 3-4 weeks; wanted to see carbonation progression and see if flavors change. I will continue this thread next week with any changes. No one seems to think the apple taste is an issue, so that is a relief.

Keep on sampling on your schedule to see how it changes and don't get too carried away with the drinking. It will get better with time. I'd probably expect it to peak at 6 to 8 weeks after bottling.

I stay pretty stocked in the beer fridge already, so I have a few to get me through.

By documenting my way through, it will give a better idea than just,"I think it was like this, but now it's much better." And maybe help other new guys as well as myself to see that patience pays off.

I would follow the advice in the previous posts and wait a few weeks. This was actually the first batch I brewed. I bottled after two weeks of fermentation and let the bottles sit at room temperature for one week before trying one. It tasted like half of a Killians topped off with water. I was very disappointed to say the least. I had a couple of bottles one week later during the super bowl and it was decent. I waited one more week and every beer since then has been delicious.

You'll read brewers on here saying that they wait six or eight weeks after bottling. That might be extreme but there is a point to be made about being patient and letting the beer do its work in the bottle.

Please give an update and let everyone know how it turned out.
D

we always (always! we've only been brewing since 08.2010) have the BB red ale in the keezer. seems to appeal to our BMC drinking friends and also to those that like a little more flavor.

primary for a week+ a few days and then secondary for 2 weeks. 4th batch kegged a few weeks ago and our "red dirt ale" is always ready!!

Okay, 16 days in the bottle. Let this one sit in the fridge for two days and shared it with my wife and a friend. Cider smell still very apparent. Flavor has smoothed with less dryness on the finish. Still some alcohol bite, but less than the one week beer. Both my wife and friend liked it. I feel it was still very green. Carbonation not much better than at one week.
Glad to see some improvement, and looking forward to next few weeks to see if it continues.

Sounds like you're experiencing, first hand, what others have mentioned. I'm a big, big, big fan of people experiencing things first hand. It'll force you to understand how the brewing timeline goes. I'd encourage you to do the same thing with several different styles because the timeline changes for each one. I'm anxious to see what you think when you get to weeks 4,5 and 6.

This is more so for my wife than myself. I read alot on this so expected to wait. My wife doesn't read this site, and doesn't listen to any one that does.
So learning first hand is the best way to make the point of patience.

well, cidery flavors usually mean acetalaldedye production from stressed yeasts, that didn't get cleaned up after primary by the yeast.

it could be green beer, but if it doesn't fade at all the lesson to take home is to treat your yeast like a spoiled newborn baby. Nothing is too good for yeast health.

Aeration, yeast nutrient, optimal pitch rates, and either making a starter for liquid strains or hydrating dry yeasts before pitching will all help. And temperature control.

Thought I'd chime in here - I also made a BB Red Ale kit as my first beer and left it around 3 weeks in primary. It went into bottles a week ago and I tried my first after a week. I was planning to drink one at 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and see how it improves. Great minds, huh?

My notes on tasting the first one were "Surprisingly not terrible! Carbonation was good, head was not so great (small and disappeared quickly). Color was deep amber, hints of red. Definitely drinkable and tastes like beer. Won't win any contests tho... seems a bit "green." Will try another in a week. Feel much better about this process. No rings, no gushing, 99% no contam. Yay!"

So it looks we are about at the same place/similar thoughts. I didn't detect any cider notes/color but it was fermenting in the basement with an ambient of 62-64 deg F so I don't think the fermentation temp got very high. I'll be following your progress...

Glad to have you in the same boat Wingy. We aren't too far away. I'm just 8 miles across the state line right on the turnpike. Feel free to add your tasting notes along side mine.

Had my three week beer. The head and carbonation was improved. A solid 3/4" that slowly faded and left nice lacing on the glass. Small streams of bubbles continued throughout drinking. Very hazy, but did not use anything to help with that. Cidery flavor is still there, but I don't think that bothers me as much as the dry finish and mouthfeel. My wife said she thought it was continuing to improve. I put one more in the fridge so I could try one with a week solid in the fridge.

Still not worried since several mentioned these can take up to 6-8 weeks to hit their stride. I will continue with this weekly until they level out for good or bad.

Week four:
Cider has lessened, and some hoppiness is now apparent. This beer had very little head. The dryness was also less, but where I thought the apple was hiding the maltiness, it didn't seem to be very pronounced. This is a beer that a couple occasional craft beer drinkers have sampled this week and said they liked.
It's better, but more room for improvement. The cidery notes fading is one big plus.

Interesting that the head seems to have diminished... More particulate matter will drop to the bottom as the beer sits longer. The particulate matter privdes nucleation sites for the CO2 to come out of solution faster that results in a bigger fizz and a quick forming, quickly dissapating head. As the particulate falls out, the bubbles get smaller resulting in a slower build-up of head and it being longer-lasting. The fizz will seem to last longer too.

I brewed this in the beginning of February as my first extract brew. I let it go a month in primary and bottled with the priming sugar in the kit. After two weeks in the bottle, it was still green but it had some flavor. Another two weeks and it was actually quite good. Not complex by any means but well balanced and flavorful. All of my friends liked it, even the BMC drinkers. Needless to say its all but gone at this point. I have a bomber stashed away to try in a another month or so and see if its still improving.

Let this one go for a few more weeks and it'll be better. Just get another batch going because once its ready it wont be around long...

I think this is an awesome exercise and a great learning tool for other beginners that are looking to see just what happens in the bottle over the whole period of conditioning. I have done the same thing with multiple brews, but I have never documented it as scrupulously as you have. I hope the beer turns out exactly as you wanted it in the end. Cheers!

Is cider flavor a bad thing?

What I mean is does it taste bad or just different then what you expected?

ongreystreet said:

Is cider flavor a bad thing?

What I mean is does it taste bad or just different then what you expected?

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Well, it may be something that does or doesn't taste good to you but still not be appropriate for the beer style. If the style doesn't matter, then the cider taste shouldn't either (assuming it tastes good). If the style DOES matter, and there's a taste that was unintentional and inappropriate, then the brewer should be trying to figure out what went wrong.

Weeks five and six:
Have had a few more of these beers in non-review type settings. Though the beer hasn't made much of a change, something interesting I found. I had an Old Speckled Hen the other day and noticed much of the same characteristics. Not as much cidery, but I could taste it in a more muted state. The dryness was very similar. I had my wife take a drink without knowing what it was, and she assumed it was the red ale.

I guess the biggest thing I realized is it is beer. To some people, good beer. To me and a couple others; meh, take it or leave it. The minor mistakes I made in brewing this I hopefully correct and continue to improve. The oatmeal stout made about the same time is awesome and everyone loves, even with fighting a final gravity issue. I have a couple more extract kits to make, then I am going to try a couple BIAB attempts. But so far, this has been a very pleasurable new endeavor!

Interesting results, thanks for the update!

It goes without saying, but we are our own harshest critics. I have a friend who has made some really great homebrews and has never had more than a "meh" reaction to any of them. I tried one of his stouts the other day and it was one of the better ones I had ever tasted - the roasted, chocolatey flavors were explosive and it had this slightly sweet and spicy finish. I loved it, he thought it was infected.