A very proud moment in homebrewing

for the Christmas / New Year celebration, my first batch of homebrew was ready to drink.

It was a tripel, extract w/specialty grains (and a pound each of honey and candi sugar thrown in for good measure - 9% abv)

notice i use the word "WAS" - because the family and friends loved it so much that it's all gone now... To say that it was a hit is putting it mildly. And these are some good-beer-drinkin'-folks...

i found myself thinking, "should've brewed 10 gallons instead of five..."


but HERE was my proud moment -

New Years Eve, I'm out of the tripel, so we buy some La Fin du Monde... and after a few sips, everyone agrees that they would actually rather be drinking the homebrew over the Fin...


so, with such a successful first batch, needless to say, i'm hooked.




thanks to everyone for all the help - you guys taught me how to brew (with a bit of help from Mr. Palmer) - so my success is really your success!!

Congrats!
So, I guess you don't really need me to tell you what you need to do now.

I know the feeling, and congrats, isn't it great !?
I had a bunch of family and friends over yesterday, and we sampled 23 commercial brews and a pale ale that I brewed. The number one winner for the day was Alaskan Winter Ale, but my homebrew ranked in the top 3-5, depending on who you asked. Needless to say, that put a big smile on my face.

Its fun to serve your own brew without people knowing its yours, especially when they later ask what it is so they can pick some up.

Congrats on the brew success.

That's really cool and a great feeling. What's up next?

thanks for the kind words all around. indeed, a great feeling.

Up next is an imperial wit... gonna make my own candi sugar for this one (yeah, i just couldn't justify paying that much money for a pound of ANY sugar again)...

After the imperial wit is done, i'll get started on the Bananas Foster... mmm... can't hardly wait for that one...



probably make another batch of that tripel again soon as well... swmbo keeps saying, "you need to brew that again!"

Ahhhh yes... there's nothing like a noob homebrewer popping his cherry.

Here's to the rest of your batches being as successfull as this one was.

Congrats!

Post the recipe please?

A rapidly depleted stock is the highest compliment! Congratulations!


TL

Congrats! Sounds like you did everything right and need to get to brewing again ASAP!

there's nothing like that kind of feedback - great stuff!

my friends have a big xmas eve beer tasting thing every year, and while my 2nd and 3rd brews didn't do so well, they beat a good few commercial brews. plus i wasn't there at the time to guilt them into giving me higher marks - so i'm hoping for a better show with a year of brewing experience and some good honest intimidation at xmas 2008

Mustangfreak said:

Congrats!

Post the recipe please?

Click to expand...

I agree!

Congratulations!
Most of my friends are either BMC drinkers, or women beer drinkers (Raspberry lambic, etc.) so I would like to brew something that'll impress them and that isn't strong like a stout.

pretty simple recipe:


10 lbs LME
1 pound clover honey
1 pound clear candi sugar

3/4 pound Carapils
1/4 pound torrified wheat

(might have been the other way around on the wheat and carapils... don't have my notes with me)


0.5 Chinook (60)
0.5 Chinook (30)
.75 Styrian Goldings (15)
.25 Styrian Goldings (F/O)


Wyeast 1214

Used bottled spring water from Wal-Mart

Used a starter, and this bad boy was chugging along when I checked on it 6 hours later...

pitched a bit too warm (80) - Fermented at a steady 74 degrees

Sat in primary 3 weeks, then straight to bottle.


Was worried about fusels, but not a hint came through... alcohol was very well hidden... and the Chinook provided just the right bitterness while letting the yeast shine in the flavor...