Newbie to the homebrewing world with more time spent lurking on this forum than I'd like to admit. Figured it's time to start posting since there's so many knowledgeable people here. I've also ripped through John Palmer's book along with a few others to gain insight before I attempted my first brews. Once I felt somewhat equipped I ordered a bunch of supplies to dive right in. There's nothing like good ol' trial and error.
I started very simple with back to back hard ciders. Never really cared for the usual Angry Orchard, Strongbow, etc. ciders. The end result of my hard ciders were surprising. The dry, wine-ish taste is much more enjoyable. Once these batches were finished and tested I started on a few beers.
1. English Brown Ale - Biggest mistake was being impatient. My hydrometer didn't arrive yet so I never took an OG reading. Had I done that I would have known I was under my target, not that ABV was a real concern for my first run. The batch finished bottle conditioning just the other day. I cracked open the first one yesterday and somehow exceeded my own expectations. The beer was so fresh, well carbonated, poured great, had a nice head, tasty and smelled really good. The brewing bug ramped up... although I already had two more batches fermenting.
2. Irish Red - This one is just about ready for bottling. Will report back once it's finished.
3. Smoked Porter - The most active fermentation died down yesterday. Swapped out the blow off for an airlock last night and will let this finish fermenting.
One of the more interesting events was how active the Irish Red's fermentation process was compared to the others. That's enough of my blabbing for now. There's a ton of recipes on here I plan to experiment with.
I started very simple with back to back hard ciders. Never really cared for the usual Angry Orchard, Strongbow, etc. ciders. The end result of my hard ciders were surprising. The dry, wine-ish taste is much more enjoyable. Once these batches were finished and tested I started on a few beers.
1. English Brown Ale - Biggest mistake was being impatient. My hydrometer didn't arrive yet so I never took an OG reading. Had I done that I would have known I was under my target, not that ABV was a real concern for my first run. The batch finished bottle conditioning just the other day. I cracked open the first one yesterday and somehow exceeded my own expectations. The beer was so fresh, well carbonated, poured great, had a nice head, tasty and smelled really good. The brewing bug ramped up... although I already had two more batches fermenting.
2. Irish Red - This one is just about ready for bottling. Will report back once it's finished.
3. Smoked Porter - The most active fermentation died down yesterday. Swapped out the blow off for an airlock last night and will let this finish fermenting.
One of the more interesting events was how active the Irish Red's fermentation process was compared to the others. That's enough of my blabbing for now. There's a ton of recipes on here I plan to experiment with.
