larryhytail
New Member
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- Sep 9, 2012
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Did my first ever brewing. Used a Caribou Slobber extract kit from NB.
I think brew day was successful. The NB kit came with a nice video and I read up on various things here and in other internet locations before having a go. I may have pitched a bit warm, and did manage a boil over on my first hop addition to give me some extra clean up, but all in all, it went well.
I used a primary for three weeks, no secondary and bottled with the proscribed amount of priming sugar.
As I am new to this, I decided that I would sample the flat beer at week 0 (bottling day) and then open a beer each week and sample. I expect the brew to "peak" at about 4 weeks of bottle conditioning, but I plan to keep a bunch bottle conditioning so I can see how the samples progress over about a 8 - 10 week period.
At week 0, the warm, flat beer definitely didn't satisfy my taste buds, but there weren't any horrible flavors either. Just flat, warm and uninteresting. Maybe a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Smells like beer.
At week 1 (today), I pulled a random bottle. To my pleasant surprise, I popped the top and got a health hiss as gas escaped. I poured the light brown brew and got a head on the pour which dissipated quickly with no lacing. This brew was also warm. I tasted it and was disappointed. I didn't taste much flavor at all. It was almost like carbonated, alcoholic water. No bad flavors, but a strong lack of good ones too. Smells like beer.
As info, I did not buy a hygrometer yet - but I will for Brew #2, so I can't give OG and FG.
Questions:
1) If, indeed, the beer ends up mostly tasteless, what are the most possible things that I could have done wrong? I added all ingredients as specified. After the boil over I may have done a much more "mild" boil out of fear, not a hearty rolling boil. Could that effect things? I have a bigger pot coming for Brew #2.
2) Should I be cooling my beers before each taste test? Would that be better? I don't know why I didn't think of doing that today (???). Do you usually do your sampling warm or cold?
Thanks!
I think brew day was successful. The NB kit came with a nice video and I read up on various things here and in other internet locations before having a go. I may have pitched a bit warm, and did manage a boil over on my first hop addition to give me some extra clean up, but all in all, it went well.
I used a primary for three weeks, no secondary and bottled with the proscribed amount of priming sugar.
As I am new to this, I decided that I would sample the flat beer at week 0 (bottling day) and then open a beer each week and sample. I expect the brew to "peak" at about 4 weeks of bottle conditioning, but I plan to keep a bunch bottle conditioning so I can see how the samples progress over about a 8 - 10 week period.
At week 0, the warm, flat beer definitely didn't satisfy my taste buds, but there weren't any horrible flavors either. Just flat, warm and uninteresting. Maybe a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Smells like beer.
At week 1 (today), I pulled a random bottle. To my pleasant surprise, I popped the top and got a health hiss as gas escaped. I poured the light brown brew and got a head on the pour which dissipated quickly with no lacing. This brew was also warm. I tasted it and was disappointed. I didn't taste much flavor at all. It was almost like carbonated, alcoholic water. No bad flavors, but a strong lack of good ones too. Smells like beer.
As info, I did not buy a hygrometer yet - but I will for Brew #2, so I can't give OG and FG.
Questions:
1) If, indeed, the beer ends up mostly tasteless, what are the most possible things that I could have done wrong? I added all ingredients as specified. After the boil over I may have done a much more "mild" boil out of fear, not a hearty rolling boil. Could that effect things? I have a bigger pot coming for Brew #2.
2) Should I be cooling my beers before each taste test? Would that be better? I don't know why I didn't think of doing that today (???). Do you usually do your sampling warm or cold?
Thanks!