Drinking my 1st homemade beer

Drank my first bottle of my first homemade batch tonight

Grommet lid, nice pop when opening like bottle of wine - actually sprayed beer vapor on my face - had to go wash could smell it on my skin...good aroma coming from bottle

First sips were great. I settled down midway thru my 32 oz bottle. Tasted a bit off on the outside of bottle - is that cleaner taste? Not bad for an IPA (brewers best india pale ale). BUT I've tried probably 30 different IPAs the last 2 years and came up with 1 I really liked - Schafly's Dry Hopped IPA. This homebrew I made actually is probably ranks #3 out of the 30 I've tried. I didn't dry hop, maybe that would help improve. Slight sweet/malt flavor aftertaste of which I don't really care for but almost all IPA's have it except Schafly hence my reason it's my favorite.

Now the question is do I get the same IPA kit and dry hop it, get the Double IPA kit, get the Double IPA kit and dry hop it, or go with a different brand / or complete 180 turnaround and work on my Shocktop Lemon Shandy clone - another great fukn beer.

This **** is awesome

Congrats! I love to hear when new brewers try their first batch of homebrew and love it. That's what sucks you into this hobby!

If this first homebrew is the 3rd best IPA you have ever had, I would say, stick with it and tweak it. See if you can make it #1 or 2 on your list!

fermentinginpa said:

if this first homebrew is the 3rd best ipa you have ever had, i would say, stick with it and tweak it. See if you can make it #1 or 2 on your list!

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+1

Congrats! It's pretty cool to produce something tasty like that!

It's awesome isn't it? That's why and how quickly it becomes an obsession.

Awesome. Now take that bottled brew and pour it in to a clean beer glass to enjoy. IMO, The glass will improve the taste.

Norie_ said:

Awesome. Now take that bottled brew and pour it in to a clean beer glass to enjoy. IMO, The glass will improve the taste.

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+1 Did you use a glass? If you don't, then you are going to kick up that yeast on the bottom everytime you take a sip and it will keep getting yeastier as you drink it.

Congrats on your first brew!

My first brew is getting to the point where it is really "drinkable". It has now been in bottles for 2 weeks.

Took my first sample of second brew (Oatmeal Stout) and it wasn't too bad. This was the first one that I experimented a bit with, and i added a pint of honey to the boil at 2 minutes. I can't really taste the honey, but it definitely has a higher alcohol content. 6.5 percent according to calculations. Hopefully it will mellow some with age.


My next brew is going to be a mock barrel aged vanilla bourbon porter, which will take a little longer to ferment. It also won't be a kit but a "DIY" partial mash brew. I'm planning to get another fermentor and some secondary carboys for brews like this.