Revisiting My Classics

I decided to go back and sample some of my very first beers, ones that I brewed back in late 2006, when I first joined this forum. I think some will be awful, but some will be awesome, and I just want to put up some reviews for the heck of it.

Awesome. I just brewed my 8th batch, and have made sure to keep at least one bottle from each previous batch for a retrospective tasting in the future. I'm excited to read your reviews.

I wish I still had some of my first beers. About 6 months ago I found one that was probably about 10 years old. An extra pale ale that was definitely not "fresh", but still quite drinkable.

#001 Ascension Ale (mild)
Brewed: 10-07-06
Bottled: 10-18-06

Big pfft when I opened the bottle, pours a very clear pale amber with a solid, rocky head that refuses to go away.

Smells sweet, malty, no real hops, perhaps some sourness in the aroma.

Easy drinking, moderately malty, basic hop content that seems to have hung in there over the years. The flavor is actually still very similar to what it was like when I first had it, and I was transported back in time, which was cool. About as simple as a beer can be; nothing wrong with it.

Very light-bodied, and just disappears without a trace after swallowing.

Overall, nothing great, but very drinkable for my first brew ever. I call it a success.

#002 Black Helicopter Porter
Brewed: 10-21-06
Bottled: 11-01-06

Pours very dark, rich brown, with a thin little line of fizzy beige foam on the top. The head is lingering though.

The aroma is really soft, sweet, almost port-like. Definitely some wine character to it.

Flavor is also soft and sweet (and sour) up front, immediately shoved aside by a nice roast component. I'm a bit surprised at how robust this one tastes. There is definitely a lot of chocolate kicking around in there, which was the intent, since I used cocoa during the brew session. The finish is roasty too, but with more coffee in it, and that coffee rides into the aftertaste, although a touch of sourness comes back there as well.

It's funny how different this is from the first beer. A lot more body, and a lot creamier. Porters are one of my all-time favorite styles, and this really came out as a solid representative of the type. I remember really liking this a lot more than the first batch, and I still do.

damn! the longest i kept bottles was my last RIS. i had two.. for 6 mos and 12 mos. well i drank one since there was two left. then i gave my neighbor the last one. i gotta start using my newly aquired grolsch bottles to "archive" batches.

#003 Donner & Blitzkrieg (Christmas Ale)
Brewed: 11-04-06
Bottled: 11-15-06

Pours a nice mahogany, very bubbly, another thin beige head, but this one actually dissipates pretty quickly, like a soda would.

Extremely spicy, just like I remember it. Cinnamon, clove, cardamon, nutmeg, and ginger, all fighting for my attention. I can't get any actual beer smells beyond all the spice I added.

Tastes exactly like it smells: potpourri. I definitely went a little overboard on some of the spices on this first go 'round, and I still have yet to quite master the difficult art of properly spicing my Christmas ale, although my 2009 batch was definitely the best yet. This one is pretty clumsily executed, relatively speaking, but I knew at the time I was being pretty bold in my style choice.

Slightly soft, again, tending to a heavier mouthfeel, with low to medium carbonation. Clears off the palate just fine.

Overall, this beer was interesting, but not great. It's the first of my old beers that I really don't feel like finishing. But it's an evolving experiment, and it is fun to keep working at the recipe.

#004 Nuclear Winter Stout (Oatmeal Stout)

Brewed: 11-18-06
Bottled: 12-03-06

Pours very opaque and black. Solid thick tan head of foam, only about half an inch tall, but slowly compressing rather than fading away.

Nice aroma, but hard to place what exactly I'm smelling. I think it's like a caramel, chocolate kinda thing, but there's perhaps an earthy hop component as well.

Roasty and grainy flavors dominating this one, with nice mild bitterness throughout. A touch of sourness in the finish, but the roastiness comes back in the aftertaste.

A rich, creamy texture makes this a pleasure to quaff. I credit that to the oatmeal, which I've used every time I make a stout. It's almost like having a nitrogen tap in the bottle.

Overall, this probably the best of the old beers I've tried so far. Tasting how well it stood up over the years encourages me to make this recipe again. I did get a lot of compliments at the time, and revisiting it, I can appreciate why. It's the most legit of my early brews, and probably a good one to stop on for the night.

#005 Ascension Ale 2.0 (Belgian Dubbel)

Brewed: 12-06-06
Bottled: 12-18-06

Poured into a Belgian goblet, it's a ruddy maroon with a thin ring of bubbles that disappeared immediately.

Sweet, malty, and very fruity nose.

Taste in line with the aroma. Sweet and malty, very little bitterness, no hop character. There is a yeasty component which isn't unpleasant, and a tiny hint of sourness woven throughout, as with the others.

With relatively light carbonation, this is a bit syrupy. Still, it doesn't linger in a sticky way, and is pretty clean for an old Belgian.

I'm digging it quite a bit. It has improved with age, but some of the original issues are still present. I remember this fermented at a pretty high temp, around 76ºF, so the esters are fairly dominant. I named this one Ascension Ale 2.0 because it was the recipe I originally intended to make, but goofed up, with my first brew.

Still, I can't complain too much, as I'm now four for five on old school beers still tasting good after all these years.

#006 Black Helicopter Porter

Brewed: 12-27-06
Bottled: 01-17-07

This was my second attempt at a porter. I remember that I beefed up the recipe to make it heartier. I think the batch got infected way back when, so I'm concerned about how it will taste.

It pours quite black, almost opaque, smells more like a stout than the original. Some bubbles, but no head to speak of.

Smells rich, sweet, chocolatey, almost cloying.

Incredibly sour, although the roast and chocolate make a brief appearance before vanishing again. It's just awful. Definitely infected and nasty now.

Uh, seemed like an okay body to it, average to low carbonation. Couldn't really check that out too much since it was basically undrinkable.

I dumped it after the first two or three sips.

Oh well. I knew this one was probably bad, so no big loss.

Great thread. It reminds me of a column in Zymurgy by Charlie Papazian several years back where he revisited some of the original GABF winners goign back some 25 years. Evidently he kept good notes from the original tastings so he could compare them then and now.

how many bottles and size did you save of these for 3 years??

#007 Razz Buried (Belgian Oatmeal Half-Wit with Raspberries)

Brewed: 01-03-07
Bottled: 02-05-07

Poured clear and bubbly, amber but also pinkish. A thin head of pink beige foam that is slowly curling away.

Catching some berries mixed in with the light sugary aroma.

The taste is very sweet and fruity, but not malty. I added lactose to this beer, and I believe the attenuation was good before that, so there's not much else to get in the way of the raspberry flavor.

Nice, light and slightly creamy, but not sticky. Goes down smooth.

I wanted something like Lindeman's Framboise, and although this wasn't that at all, it was still very good. This is a great summer beer. Too bad it's still winter.

I saved two 12oz bottles of each of my first twenty batches or so. After that, I started kegging, so my reserves are a little less consistent after that.

ahhh. i often say "tomorrow i'll bottle a 6er before it's gone." and rarely do. i also noticed at batch 7, you went from ~10 days boil to bottle to a month... i was getting sorta nervous there. you have inspired me to be more critical of my fermented beverages in my logs (ie. write down more than a one sentance drivel at keg death).

#008 Blonde Bombshell

Brewed: 01-22-07
Bottled: 02-06-07

Pours standard amber, a decent, foamy beige head that's maybe one finger tall, but thick and persistent.

This smells great, malty, but not sweet or heavy like the last few have been. It smells the most like a standard microbrew of any I've tried so far.

This starts with a tang, but is sweet, and there is a significant honey flavor that is pretty nice. I used honey, honey malt, and the White Labs Burton Ale in this, because I really wanted to make the honey flavor pop, and it does now. It has aged amazingly well, because I remember it was really odd tasting back when, and actually not very drinkable. Most the funk has mellowed out and disappeared, and what remains is pretty great.

The body on this is right in the middle, with moderate carbonation.

It's going down pretty easy, and is probably the most improved of the batches, since most of the others have either been still good, or have gone to crap. This makes me more interested in trying to do this recipe again, since it seems to have eventually mellowed. I think a little tweaking of the ingredients and brewing could fix this right up.

mordantly said:

ahhh. i often say "tomorrow i'll bottle a 6er before it's gone." and rarely do. i also noticed at batch 7, you went from ~10 days boil to bottle to a month... i was getting sorta nervous there. you have inspired me to be more critical of my fermented beverages in my logs (ie. write down more than a one sentance drivel at keg death).

Click to expand...

Yeah, hehe, I was pretty impatient in those early days. Lately, I've gone to the other extreme, generally leaving beer in primary for a month on average. My notes on beer tasting were pretty detailed early on as well, but they thinned out as I went along, since I started doing repeats and such. I'm kind of in a state of renewal lately, since I'm trying a bunch of new ideas again.

#009 Big Brother Brown

Brewed: 02-06-07
Bottled: 02-26-07

Pours a dark brown with a very effervescent light brown head that quickly compresses down to half its original height.

The smell isn't too encouraging. I'm getting a lot of sourness. This was my first attempt to brew a peanut butter beer, and when I first made it, the aroma was awesomely peanut buttery. That's all gone now.

Wow, another AWFUL one. Totally sour. For an instant I can catch the peanut butter taste, but no, this is just crap. Down the drain it goes!

Again, couldn't really think about mouthfeel etc, but it seems decently carbonated.

Undrinkable! So long, bro.

#010 Imperious IPA

Brewed: 02-06-07
Bottled: 03-10-07

Pours a thick, opaque amber, with a thin off-white head that melts away in about ten seconds.

Smells like honey and malt, which isn't good for an IIPA. Of course, after three years, I'd expect pretty much all of the hops flavor to have disappeared. I think I do catch some pine in there still, however.

Very sweet, initially. I remember the FG was relatively high on this one. The sweetness fades, and things get a bit funky. I was trying to clone DFH90 with this, by continuously adding hops every five minutes, but I didn't properly maintain a full boil, so I think I got a lot more hop and a lot less bitterness than I wanted. I pretty sure I could knock this out of the park if I tried it again, which I plan to do soon. It's very piney, but there's no good citrus or any other really desirable hop flavors.

It's low carbonation and kinda syrupy. I'm not diggin it.

This was a pretty bold brew attempt, and when it was brand spanking new, it was very nice, but it when downhill within a month or two, and it's lousy now. Another dumper.

#011 Apple Jackhammer

Brewed: 02-19-07
Bottled: 03-13-07

Pours a cloudy amber with a massive two finger, puffy white head that doesn't dissipate at all, but rather solidifies. I attribute the cloudiness to the natural apple juice I used in this recipe. This was my attempt at an Ephemere clone.

Smells like butterscotch. I know this is considered an off-flavor, but at the time, the butterscotch and apple flavors went together really well, and gave this an extremely unique flavor. Now I can't smell the apple though, so I'm not sure what's going on in there.

Well, I can taste the apple right up front, but the butterscotch is REALLY strong now, and pretty much dominates everything through the middle, finish, and aftertaste. Seems like a lot of these end up with one flavor totally dominating as the years go by.

Good light body with strong carbonation, this clears right through the palate without difficulty.

Decently drinkable, as a novelty, but I may not finish the glass.

This is a great idea I plan on doing this as well I want to keep and label at least one bottle per batch.....

#012 Illuminati IPA

Brewed: 02-26-07
Bottled: 03-27-07

Another cloudy pale amber, with another big puffy head, a solid finger and a half, and unwilling to go away.

I remember this one was very piney, and it still is. I don't really care for pine so much, but at the time, I wasn't 100% sure which hops to use. I like the citrusy and dank hop flavors more.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the taste. It's mellow and malty, but still kinda hoppy, and not as overwhelmingly piney as it was, which is odd because the smell is still there. Pretty decent bitterness in the middle and finish, and some nice earthy hops show up in the aftertaste. Not bad at all. I actually wasn't too happy with this at the time, but it's hanging in there. I know the actual brewing went better than with the IIPA I'd made a few weeks before, as far as getting a proper boil, and that is clearly paying off even now.

Great body, not too heavy, lots of carbonation to wash it all away. Pretty on target for what you'd want from an IPA.

This is actually really good. I was on an IPA bonanza at the time, but I've seen gotten kinda burned out on the style. This is really pleasant and encourages me to give it another shot. Whew! Another good one. I was in a slump there.

#015 Red Helicopter Porter

Brewed: 04-07-07
Bottled: 05-07-07

Pours deep brown, with a hint of red around the edges. No head at all, just a swirl of bubbles as I top it off.

I added cherries to this beer, but you wouldn't know it from the smell, which is mostly unremarkable, just some vague hints of chocolate and maybe maybe a slight berry note.

Very chocolatey, slightly roasty up front. You can taste the cherry a moment in the middle, but it fades into a mildly sour and bitter finish. The aftertaste goes back to the traditional coffee chocolate porter flavors, and I can smell a little cherry again.

The carbonation is very light, but this isn't flat. It moves on by without too much trouble, and there's no stickiness or anything else unpleasant.

It's not perfect, but it's still pretty good. I remember using cherries in secondary was a NIGHTMARE with this batch, as I was unable to rack the last gallon or so for bottling, since the cherries were floating all throughout the beer. With my raspberry beer, I used both actual raspberries and extract, which gave me color, fermentables, AND flavor. I was a bit disappointed by this because the cherry wasn't as strong as I wanted, but it was fine as a regular porter, and it's still mostly okay now.

#016 Ascension Ale (amber)

Brewed: 05-07-07
Bottled: 05-17-07

Dark amber, but pretty clear, with a small thick layer of foam that gently settles into itself without going away.

Fruity malt aroma. Nothing outstanding here though.

Honey and malt, some sourness yet again, only a little bitterness. I wanted to make an easy drinking amber ale, because people seemed to really like this beer the first time I made it, but I found it rather boring personally. Still do.

A little subpar on the carbonation, this is more creamy than bubbly.

Eh, it's okay, but not exciting. Hasn't gone bad, but it's not delicious. I think I'm getting fatigued from trying so many different beers in one night.

#017 Nuclear Summer Stout (Oatmeal Wheat Stout)

Brewed: 05-14-07
Bottled: 06-06-07

Very dark brown, but not black like a normal stout. Pretty bubbly, with a soda-like head that thickens and shrinks slowly.

Nice light roast in the aroma. Catching some dark fruit in there as well.

Very very roasty and bitter, wow. Some sweet maltiness shows up on the second pull from the glass, but the finish is all roast and coffee. The bitterness and malt keep fighting back and forth, in waves. It seems like they take turns on every other drink. If I stop drinking for a minute, which is hard because this is pretty awesome, I get a dank hoppy aftertaste.

This is interesting, because it's well carbonated, but also a bit creamy from the oat and wheat components. There's a bit of residual stickiness, but nothing unpleasant.

This was probably the best version of this stout recipe I've made. I've done the exact same thing without wheat, and it's good, but this is better, and not because of the wheat. I think I just crafted it better. It's held up amazingly well, and there are no noticeable flaws to speak of. It's going down smooth and easy.

#018 Blue Buried (Belgian Oatmeal Half-Wit with Blueberries)

Brewed: 05-21-07
Bottled: 06-28-07

Pours a nice purplish red with minimal foam, maybe half a centimeter. It's very persistent, however.

Oh yeah, lots of berries in there. I used both fruit and extract again, and it came out nice. Can't smell a whole lot beside that, maybe some malt.

Very sweet, thanks to the lactose, and lots of blueberry. A little sourness and bitterness on the end, but not too bad.

This batch was a little messed up, as I didn't fully mix in the priming sugar. Some bottles were totally flat, and some were super foamy. Only a handful were perfect. This one is a little towards the flat side, but still has some carbonation. I would guess the extra couple years in a bottle helped.

Pretty good, but not the best version of this beer. I like it better with raspberries, overall. Still, this is plenty drinkable.

#019 Genocider

"Brewed": 06-10-07
Bottled: 08-19-07

Pours pretty bubbly, clear and yellow, no head at all.

Smells like apples, big surprise, with some tangy.

Fairly dry, tart, and sour, with lots of apple flavor, and some residual sweetness.

Nice bubbly bite to it, and it seems not as sticky as it was originally. I tend to notice a stick build up after drinking an entire bottle, however.

It's okay, but not great. I'm not a huge cider fan, and I only made this because it's so dang easy.

#020 Razz Buried (second attempt)

Brewed: 06-11-07
Bottled: 08-19-07

Pours a nice pinkish ruby color, good foamy head that collapses fairly quickly.

Good, solid, fruity malty aroma.

Sweet and delicious, lots of raspberry, no hops or bitterness, and yeah some malt, maybe a little spice.

Great body, a little creamy but well carbonated.

I freakin' guzzled this one in like five minutes. Awesome. I drank it so fast, in fact, that I had to write this review from memory rather than as I went.

Hrm... debating going for just ONE MORE beer tonight...

Great thread, love reading it.

I had a question about your apple jackhammer, how did you add the apple flavor and how much did you add? I'm trying to do an apple wheat and can't decide how much to add. Thanks

I love this thread! It makes me realize that I should be taking better notes on my beer. Right now I could tell you the style and probably an approximate number for the ABV and IBUs but that's it. When it was brewed/bottled? Uhh...

KUbrew said:

Great thread, love reading it.

I had a question about your apple jackhammer, how did you add the apple flavor and how much did you add? I'm trying to do an apple wheat and can't decide how much to add. Thanks

Click to expand...

For that beer, I ended up make about 4.5 gallons of beer, and then I added 1 gallon of unfiltered apple juice. When it was fresh, it was pretty good, but definitely got weirder as it aged.

bknifefight said:

I love this thread! It makes me realize that I should be taking better notes on my beer. Right now I could tell you the style and probably an approximate number for the ABV and IBUs but that's it. When it was brewed/bottled? Uhh...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I have everything logged in Beer Smith. I was thinking about going back and editing all these posts with the predicted ABV, SRM, and IBU, but I might be too lazy to do that. We'll see.

#021 Propaganda Pale

Brewed: 10-10-07
Bottled: 11-12-07

Pours a light amber, very slightly cloudy, with a decent fluffy beige head, about one finger tall, that is settling pretty slowly.

Still some decent hop aroma in this one. I'm getting pine yet again. I should review these recipes and figure out which hop is doing that. Some malty sweetness hiding there as well.

Sweet front, transitioning into malt for just a second before the hops kick in. I'm getting more citrus and sourness in the actual taste though. Some honey on the finish, while the aftertaste has some lingering bitterness with a little resin mixed in.

Pretty well carbonated, perhaps a little low, but the beer itself is light and dry enough that it's not a big problem. I'd probably like it a little bubblier though.

It's going down pretty smooth, even though pales are not my favorite style. You may have guessed this when you noticed that it took until my 21st batch to brew one! Still, nothing TOO wrong with it, but I'd like to try it with different hops next time.

#022 Donner & Blitzkrieg 2007 (Christmas Ale)

Brewed: 11-19-07
Bottled: 12-20-07

Preface: This is the worst batch of beer I've ever made. I screwed it up by using way too much molasses to prime during bottling. It was an experiment gone horribly wrong.

Pours very bubbly, brown, with a very light beige head that slowly grows as the beer sits on the counter.

Spices, maybe hops, and a strong bitter molasses aroma.

Ugh. Lots of spice in the first instant, wiped away by pure nasty bitter molasses foulness, which grows throughout and into the finish and aftertaste. You can't really taste anything else, except some vague sweetness here and there.

Very carbonated, bubbly, actually not too sticky or anything.

Undrinkable. It's a joke that I pull out a bottle of this every few months, hoping it may have magically improved, but it's been terrible since I first bottled it. Dumper.

#023 Black Helicopter Porter

Brewed:11-29-07
Bottled:12-20-07

This was a very good version of this recipe. So good, in fact, that I drank it all without paying attention to how many bottles I had left, until it was too late to save any.

#024 Bridal Cider

"Brewed": 03-08-08
Bottled: 03-12-08

I made ten gallons of this for my wedding, using a different brand of apple juice from the first time. It was fine, but I gave away tons of it and didn't save any because I still had some from the previous batch of cider.

#025 White Wedding

Brewed: 03-12-08
Bottled: 04-18-08

Pours a cloudy, dark orange, with a yellowish, almost orange puffy head about two fingers tall, which collapses at a nice moderate rate that makes me think it will last throughout the beer.

Smells a little malty, but lots of spice, phenols, no hops, not really sweet either.

Biting bitterness in front, swishing through to some maltiness, with a sweet and spicy finish, some bitterness in the aftertaste.

Well carbonated, nice slightly above average body, a little residue afterwards, but not extreme. Not really dry like a wit normally is, but very pleasant.

Extremely drinkable. I brewed this for my wedding to go with the cider, and people raved about it; although it's not my personal favorite, it's going down smooth and easy. Er, it went down smooth and easy. I finished the beer before I finished the review, which doesn't usually happen. I suppose that speaks well for the taste.

Batch 26 was my first kegged batch, and after that I started kegging a ton, because it's so damn easy. 27, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, and 38 were also kegged, so I have a much sparser collection of bottles from here onward. I do still have bottles for 28, 31, 32, 33, and 35, but they're all from the last year or so, which kinda defeats the purpose of going way back.

This was really fun to do, and I hope maybe some other people decide to do their own revisiting threads, if they have some old bottles saved up. I think I'll do another retrospective a few years from now, once the current bottles age some more, and I get some more batches bottled up.

I'm definitely doing this from now on

Thanks for sharing notes on your first 25 batches