dsaavedra
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2014
- Messages
- 635
- Reaction score
- 122
I'm a new brewer (started in December after Christmas), and so far I have brewed 4 batches. My first was a honey brown ale extract kit from Jaspers, my second was an Irish stout extract kit from Brewer's Best, my third was a Newcastle clone from Midwest, and my fourth was an all grain SMaSH recipe I came up with using Munton's pale ale malt and Cascade hops.
So far I haven't brewed a batch that I really truly liked. They have all been drinkable (with the exception of the SMaSH, I don't know what I did wrong but I really have to choke that one down, I don't think I used enough hops in it or something), but I haven't brewed one where I was like "damn this is good, this is something I would order at a bar".
On the bright side, I think I have figured out why all of my beers have been not to my satisfaction. All of my extract brews have been partial boils, and because of this, the hop utilization suffered greatly. Each of these brews had the same characteristic off flavor that didn't quite seem to match up with any of the well documented off flavors. I think it was just overly malty with not enough hops to balance it. The SMaSH was my first attempt at all grain (BIAB) and also my first attempt at creating a recipe, so no surprise there that it turned out ****ty. However, lessons have been learned, I recently upgraded my setup so I can do full boils and I think my next brews (two extract IPA kits, after that I may give BIAB another shot, but with a trusted recipe) will greatly benefit from this.
TLDR: This whole post was my backstory but my question is this, how long did it take you to brew a batch that you really truly enjoyed, and what did it take to get you there?
So far I haven't brewed a batch that I really truly liked. They have all been drinkable (with the exception of the SMaSH, I don't know what I did wrong but I really have to choke that one down, I don't think I used enough hops in it or something), but I haven't brewed one where I was like "damn this is good, this is something I would order at a bar".
On the bright side, I think I have figured out why all of my beers have been not to my satisfaction. All of my extract brews have been partial boils, and because of this, the hop utilization suffered greatly. Each of these brews had the same characteristic off flavor that didn't quite seem to match up with any of the well documented off flavors. I think it was just overly malty with not enough hops to balance it. The SMaSH was my first attempt at all grain (BIAB) and also my first attempt at creating a recipe, so no surprise there that it turned out ****ty. However, lessons have been learned, I recently upgraded my setup so I can do full boils and I think my next brews (two extract IPA kits, after that I may give BIAB another shot, but with a trusted recipe) will greatly benefit from this.
TLDR: This whole post was my backstory but my question is this, how long did it take you to brew a batch that you really truly enjoyed, and what did it take to get you there?