First brew in progress!

My cousin and I brewed up the inaugural beer on Saturday: an American Pale Ale. It's now been in the basement for a day and a half, and I'm excited to report that we've had bubbles in the airlock for several hours now! This is fun! We're using a Brewer's Best recipe kit, just as is for now. More experimentation later if this one works out....

I have gotten great information off the board here so far, so thanks to all of you. I think I'll go soak the labels off some bottles now.........

Excellent.

A pale ale is a great first beer: the higher hops level can mask any small imperfections--you should get a beer you'll be pleasantly surprised with.

my first beer was also a Pale Ale. although it was far from the best beer ive tasted, i can see how a pale ale would be a good variety to cover any mistakes. just bottled my 2nd batch (porter ale) and its tasting delicious! good luck have fun.

My first batch was also a Brewer's Best Pale Ale (English). I'm having trouble leaving it in the bottle for two full weeks. It tastes too good. :cross:

Yeah, it's hard to be patient at this point. I'm fully prepared for this to be a pretty crappy first-time effort, but I don't care - it's still exciting.

So while I'm waiting for the beer, I've been removing labels from bottles. I know this has been discussed before here, but just something to add: I'm trying lots of different brands of bottles (soaking them in hot water), and Goose Island are BY FAR the easiest to get off. They remove themselves after 10-20 minutes.

Now back to look at the airlock again........

the art guy said:

Goose Island are BY FAR the easiest to get off.

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Ummmmmm, Goose Island Honker's Ale....

Hey, Born - I see you're in Sycamore. Is P.J.'s Courthouse still around? Used to eat there (and drink Moosehead, as I recall) when I was a grad student in DeKalb....

the art guy said:

Hey, Born - I see you're in Sycamore. Is P.J.'s Courthouse still around? Used to eat there (and drink Moosehead, as I recall) when I was a grad student in DeKalb....

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Yep, still there. A few good beers on tap and a great menu. I go up there couple times a month. Where are you in Iowa? Check out Millstream Brewery in Amana Colonies.

Glad to hear the Courthouse is alive and well. We still pass through the area occasionally on our way to Chicago.

I'm actually in the Des Moines area, but I've had several Millstream brews before. I picked up a sampler of theirs at SuperTarget not long ago. The Schild Brau amber is always good, but I was pleasantly surprised by their wheat beer too.

the art guy said:

So while I'm waiting for the beer, I've been removing labels from bottles. I know this has been discussed before here, but just something to add: I'm trying lots of different brands of bottles (soaking them in hot water), and Goose Island are BY FAR the easiest to get off. They remove themselves after 10-20 minutes.

Now back to look at the airlock again........

Click to expand...

Goose Island rocks! :rockin:

But aren't Goose Island twist-off caps? I've read that we're not supposed to use twist-offs.

the art guy said:

I picked up a sampler of theirs at SuperTarget not long ago.

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Target sells beer?!?! out here in Southern California, they have a SMALL (and overpriced) wine selection, and that was just barely introduced into our stores maybe a year ago, at the most. AND i would expect target to be selling Miller, Bud, etc...

The regular Target stores don't sell beer. SUPERTarget does, around here anyway, as they have a full grocery. And mine has a pretty good selection: Boulevard, Goose Island, Millstream, Red Hook, etc. Not bad for a big ol' discount store.

The Goose bottles are non-twist.

oops.....my mistake. The Goose bottles ARE twist-off. Crap.

OK: time for an update. The inaugural brew of the Three Chord Brewing Company has now been bottled. I'm not sure if the yeast was as active as it should have been, as there was a small amount of bubbling for several days (but never anything really aggressive). Anyway, something must have worked, because the final gravity reading I took yesterday was dead on for my recipe.

So yesterday my cousin and I bottled it up (48 bottles), and now the wait begins.....Soon I'll be posting my first label design in the appropriate forum. The beer should be ready for tasting by Labor Day weekend!


Did I mention that this is fun?

Well, it's been in the bottles for a little over a week, and I'm getting anxious. I've been reading others' questions about tasting, and I think I may have to try one soon, though I understand that the flavor (and carbonation perhaps) will be better with a few more weeks.

In the meantime, I've been working on a label design, so head over to that forum and check out my first effort.

Try one!!! You've got 40 odd left, you might aswell taste one, even if it's a bit green, go for it! Theres nothing like tasting the fruits of your labour at each stage throughout the process! It all depends on when the suspense starts killing you enough to crack open a bottle!

Let us know how it goes

Or even better, send me one as a "live yeast sample"...


Hehe that one always crack me up

Alright....I cracked one open. And it's good! I was just hoping for "drinkable" with this first attempt, but it's actually tasty. I realize that it's going to change with a few more weeks, but most likely for the better. It's supposed to be an American pale, but at this point it's more like a brown ale, or even a bit more malty than that. The hop flavor is less than I expected it to be. Oh well, I don't care - it's drinkable and it tastes like beer! Success!!