bonzombiekitty
Well-Known Member
I just bottled my fourth beer last night, which is a hoppy rye ale (don't know what style you'd call it - I guess a pale ale with a bit of rye in it). My first three batches have been a bit underwhelming.
The first was an amber ale from a kit. Really simple recipe, basically just a few pounds of malt extract and some hops. Opened the bottles last week and it came out OK, but not overly impressive. My friends really liked it, but I thought it was unbalanced - much more bitter than I thought it would be but without a nice hoppy flavor.
Second was supposed to be an irish red. This one I used some steeping grains. It didn't come out very red, which I blame the LHBS for who convinced me to change the recipe. I tried a bottle the other day to see how it tasted so far, and it was better than the amber. The flavor profile was a bit more balanced, but still nothing to go crazy over. This one's special ingredients include a nasty piece of plastic that fell into the bottling bucket, and my arm. Will probably be better after another week in bottles.
Third is a coffee porter. It's still in bottles, but I tried it before bottling. Tasted like I was making progress, and had some higher hopes than when I tasted the previous two, but still nothing I was wow'd by.
Bottled my fourth last night. Gravity measurements seemed to hit their mark, and I gave it a taste, it tasted pretty good and I had really high hopes for it. However, I put some in a small glass and put it in the fridge for my room mate to sample when he got home to see what he had to say. When he came home and took a sip, he was really impressed. I decided to finish off the glass and hole. eee. crap. What a difference the cooler temp made. It was awesome. I could seriously drink that without the carbonation and be very happy. I cannot wait to get that stuff out of the bottles.
The first was an amber ale from a kit. Really simple recipe, basically just a few pounds of malt extract and some hops. Opened the bottles last week and it came out OK, but not overly impressive. My friends really liked it, but I thought it was unbalanced - much more bitter than I thought it would be but without a nice hoppy flavor.
Second was supposed to be an irish red. This one I used some steeping grains. It didn't come out very red, which I blame the LHBS for who convinced me to change the recipe. I tried a bottle the other day to see how it tasted so far, and it was better than the amber. The flavor profile was a bit more balanced, but still nothing to go crazy over. This one's special ingredients include a nasty piece of plastic that fell into the bottling bucket, and my arm. Will probably be better after another week in bottles.
Third is a coffee porter. It's still in bottles, but I tried it before bottling. Tasted like I was making progress, and had some higher hopes than when I tasted the previous two, but still nothing I was wow'd by.
Bottled my fourth last night. Gravity measurements seemed to hit their mark, and I gave it a taste, it tasted pretty good and I had really high hopes for it. However, I put some in a small glass and put it in the fridge for my room mate to sample when he got home to see what he had to say. When he came home and took a sip, he was really impressed. I decided to finish off the glass and hole. eee. crap. What a difference the cooler temp made. It was awesome. I could seriously drink that without the carbonation and be very happy. I cannot wait to get that stuff out of the bottles.
