An observation

My most recent brew is a cream ale from NB. I do extract brews with partial boil and late additions. Hopefully I'll move to all grain this summer! Anyway, I've done pale ales and bitters in the past. So the cream ale has been in the bottle for just over 12 weeks, and I popped one open last night. There was a nice hiss as the cap bent. Then, as I poured, I was thrilled by the nice foam head, which was about an 1 1/2" tall. The color was darker than I was expecting, but was easily the lightest color of any of my brews. And it was absolutely crystal clear! No sediment or cloudiness at all. Then I took a drink. I was so disappointed. Easily the "worst" beer I've brewed. I immediately started ranting (whining?) that I now have two cases of this and I'm going to have to choke it down. I started bitching to myself (out loud of course), trying to figure out what I could have done wrong.

My wife says nothing. She turns, goes into the garage and brings in a Lite (DON'T START IN ON ME ABOUT HAVING LITE IN THE GARAGE!!!), opens it and pours it up. I took a sip. Turns out, my cream ale is absolutely fantastic! LOL! I took another drink of my brew, and I swear, I think I heard angels singing.

The moral of this story is, even most "bad" homebrew is F'n nirvana when compared to the big brewery swill. This hobby has ruined me on mass beer. And turned me on to some of the best craft brewed beers I'd never heard of.

Thanks for the site! Thanks for all the great tips everyone!

I brewed the same NB kit in all-grain last month and was very dissappointed in how dark it came out. I always heard that all-grain allows for a much lighter color than extract because there is less risk of carmelization. Mine tastes great, but the color much more amber than cream/blonde.

My 2nd all grain batch was a hefe and it turned out PERFECT color wise, but I haven't kegged it yet so I can't comment on the taste.