Odysseus
Member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2019
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 9
Homebrewing notes from my first beer (both for personal record and general critique):
I made my first beer tonight (excluding a very bad attempt when I was 13 and bought a homebrew kit at Wal-Mart around Christmas time and pitched the yeast into boiling hot wort). It was a 1 gallon grain plus DME pale ale kit I got for $15.
General notes:
As I expected, I found the whole process very fun and therapeutic, especially stirring in the hops. a lot like making bread, very fun just to get in the kitchen and mess around in a low and slow kind of way and just chill.
I was surprised by the smell of the wort. It made my whole house smell like iced tea, not what I was expecting. After I transfered it to the primary fermenter, I could smell the hops, but I was surprised by how much the whole process smelled like iced tea instead of beer.
As for the kit itself:
The directions said it should have contained 1 satchel each of el dorado hops, lemondrop hops and chinook hops. It contained 2 satchels of lemondrop and 1 chinook. No worries though - just going with the flow. Overall, it smelled very piney (I prefer grapefruit over pine). The wort tasted more like a piney low IBU IPA than what I was expecting/hoping for (I wanted more of a Bass type/British flavor). But, I suppose that's always the dilemma of brewing from a kit - you're making what someone else wants.
Next time, if I go with the kit again (likely since I'm just starting), I'll probably get my own hops and use them instead of the ones that the kit comes with.
Overall:
An excellent experience, and certainly a quality beer, even if it's not exactly my preferred flavor profile. I'm going to skip secondary/bottling and transfer it to a pitcher and drink it when it's ready. I'm certainly looking forward to having a fun night of boozing with my own brew. I didn't have any homebrew to drink during the process and since I'm on a tight budget this month (I'm a substitute teacher so I don't get paid during Christmas break) I went with Natty Light for my drinking pleasure tonight.
Note to self: less trub next time.
The wheels are already spinning for my next batch of brew...
I made my first beer tonight (excluding a very bad attempt when I was 13 and bought a homebrew kit at Wal-Mart around Christmas time and pitched the yeast into boiling hot wort). It was a 1 gallon grain plus DME pale ale kit I got for $15.
General notes:
As I expected, I found the whole process very fun and therapeutic, especially stirring in the hops. a lot like making bread, very fun just to get in the kitchen and mess around in a low and slow kind of way and just chill.
I was surprised by the smell of the wort. It made my whole house smell like iced tea, not what I was expecting. After I transfered it to the primary fermenter, I could smell the hops, but I was surprised by how much the whole process smelled like iced tea instead of beer.
As for the kit itself:
The directions said it should have contained 1 satchel each of el dorado hops, lemondrop hops and chinook hops. It contained 2 satchels of lemondrop and 1 chinook. No worries though - just going with the flow. Overall, it smelled very piney (I prefer grapefruit over pine). The wort tasted more like a piney low IBU IPA than what I was expecting/hoping for (I wanted more of a Bass type/British flavor). But, I suppose that's always the dilemma of brewing from a kit - you're making what someone else wants.
Next time, if I go with the kit again (likely since I'm just starting), I'll probably get my own hops and use them instead of the ones that the kit comes with.
Overall:
An excellent experience, and certainly a quality beer, even if it's not exactly my preferred flavor profile. I'm going to skip secondary/bottling and transfer it to a pitcher and drink it when it's ready. I'm certainly looking forward to having a fun night of boozing with my own brew. I didn't have any homebrew to drink during the process and since I'm on a tight budget this month (I'm a substitute teacher so I don't get paid during Christmas break) I went with Natty Light for my drinking pleasure tonight.
Note to self: less trub next time.
The wheels are already spinning for my next batch of brew...