I lied about my first beer

[the75]

It sucked bunghole. At first, my excitement erroneously coerced me to post on here about how my first attempt at brewing beer was a resounding success. This was prior to carbonation & I figured much more was to come. I was wrong. My beer sucked. How do I know this? Thankfully because my second beer was MUCH better...not awesome...but much better. The good news is that I know what I did wrong & I'm learning already. Major mistakes: I left the lid on through the boil (trying to fight evaporation). I also fermented at 80 degrees for 24 hours & even a long ferment couldn't tame those off flavors.
I received some feedback about my beer from a judge & all I can say, is it was VERY forgiving considering the harsh flavors. Here is a snippet:
" Not enough hop aroma for this class. Good color & taste. Consider other class or dry hopping. Noticeable chill haze."

I share this with all the noobs because even though my first beer was not a success like I expected it to be, I followed up with a beer that I am at least willing to let my friends try & not shutter at their reaction. Brewing is pretty cool, even when you screw up. A screw up isn't a big deal, as long as you learn from your mistakes & do not replicate them. Good luck gents! Now it's on to a few more batches with a few more tweeks.

 

[ludomonster]

I have a Cream Ale that fermented warm and it has a ton of cider flavor so I know how that goes. I don't really worry about chill haze. I have to chill my beers to below 40 because they go in the same place as my food. Plus, a lot of the beers that I buy have similar haziness from chilling to the same temperature. Probably the only Improvements I could make would be to keg it off the lees.

If you're getting a cold break and using whirlfloc, try to keep most of the break material from going into the fermenter.

I also have a Engilish Pale Ale that came out too bitter for the style. It's a fine tasting beer, but not one that I can have one after the other. So, I have about 3 cases of beer left that I'm slowly chipping away at.

 

[HopKeller]

Same here, 75. I was so elated that I had actually made beer that I convinced myself it was better than it actually was, and it was actually awful. Have brewed about 10 batches over the past year and each one better than the last. Am very close to brewing beers that are on par with what I can find in the bottle shop.

 

[bankeny]

Sounds familiar to my first brewing experience. High yeast pitching temp led to one funky tasting Belgium Wit!

 

[iambeer]

1st Beer: Mr Beer. Sucked (however, I drank it all)
2nd Beer: Dubbel; syrupy (will never use lme again)... haven't tasted carbed yet but I don't have high hopes
3rd Beer: Mild; weirdly delicate and thin. This is the best one I have tasted so far and it's only just fine.
4th Mild retry; I added way too much (at least 2x) hops. A good beer for sobering up.
5th Dubbel re-try; taste sample was better ... aging.
6th Fruit Beer... conditioning, not the highest hopes but they made it to bottle safe and sound!
7th Pale Ale first attempt... so far so good ..fermenting
8th Mild re-try; on deck
9th Witbier first attempt; on deck

I have only brewed one OK beer since I started months ago. But having written all that down and remembering it all, I realize that I am having a lot of fun brewing and tasting what I have brewed.

Buying beer at the store or pub (for drinking) helped (helps) to keep morale up while waiting between brews and samplings. Having drank high quality commercial beer before a backdrop of the home brewing hobby, I am now much more aware of the different tastes that come together in a beer, not only in taste but also in being able to name them.

 

[shawnbou]

Yep, sounds familiar. I think most of us have gone through this, so we feel your pain!

The awesome thing about being a new homebrewer and continuing to learn is that, at least for the first dozen batches or so, they keep getting better. So every beer you make is the best one you've ever made. :fro:

 

[SledgeH]

I fermented a cream ale at way too warm of a temp. It had some amazingly strong aftertastes. Nearly undrinkable. It was my third try at brewing. Thankfully I had a belgian that i made the batch prior that tasted great. It too was at the same high temp, but the esters that strain kicked out went with the style. The best thing about the whole deal was since i had other beer to drink the Cream ale just sat in the basement forgotten. Fast foward 2.5 months and it tastes so much better. It's actually likable. Time can heal a great deal with beer. That and brewing darker styles to begin with. They hide a lot more flaws.

 

[grem135]

My first an English brown is confusing me, tasted harsh as can be at OG, better at FG/bottling and at 3 weeks in bottle was fantastic. But I seem to get some bottles that have a strong bite to them at first drink but finish well and others that are nice and smooth, great initial taste,mouthfeel and finish.
Second was a BB Witbier were I had to convert the grains. I had some trouble keeping temps stable (had to brew outside this time due to SWMBO not liking the smell) Son likes it but says to much carbonation. I'm kinda on the fence with it and hoping it will smooth out with age.
I'm waiting for a little cooler weather (and a day off) for my next brew. any ideas? I'm not a hophead.

 

[Homercidal]

Sounds like par for the course to me. There will be other things to think about and things to adjust your brewing process even as you get more batches under your belt. The big thing is to identify the few big common ones right away and then tweak for the details later.

 

[jbaysurfer]

I have dumped many batches of beer. I know this breaks Revvy's "never dump your beer" rule, but I got into this to enjoy GREAT beer, not force down mediocre or worse swill.

I realize costwise that not everyone has the luxury of dumping beer that doesn't turn out to their liking, and may even bristle at the thought, but I do, and after I brewed my first truly GREAT beer, it made me much more likely to dump mediocre batches.

In the end though, after I went to AG, and took our the the various issues I had with steeping grains, maillard reactions, and stuck fermentations, my beer got much much better and I learned that as long as I mash it and ferment it at the right temperature for the right amount of time (of course I'm completely ommitting the boil steps, and other important factors like pitching a proper amount of yeast, which, IMHO are formulaic and not hard to get right) and have a prerequisite level of sanitation, the beer makes itself.

 

[CBXBob]

Lucky for me, my first attempt was a Blonde Ale I bought with my Homebrew Heaven Beginners kit. I turned out fantastic! I liked it, my friends and neighbors liked it. I was jazzed, I made beer Second kit was undrinkable (a Wheat Beer), I tried everything to make it drinkable, added lemon juice, hot sauce, 50/50 BMC. I finally accepted defeat and poured 4 3/4 gallons into a gopher hole (I hate gophers). A year (almost) later, have had good, decent, and pretty damn good! I haven't done the same beer twice yet, but I am (with HBT's help) learning lots, getting better in my methods, and am still enjoying this low cost o) hobby/addiction.

 

[KISS Brew]

My first batch was pretty bad, mainly because I followed all the directions on the Cooper's can and fermented it super warm. The best descriptor for it was "medicinal".

My beer improved wildly once I found HBT

 

[Arbor413]

Yep, my first was garbage too. I got the kit from a local HBS that is known for poor ingredients (didn't know at the time), I scorched the extract, and thought B-Brite was a sanitizer! Tastes ok until the finish, then it's the definition of "extract twang." On my 5 batch now, found a great HBS, and have spent a lot of time researching and reading and going over my process. It's all good, we're making beer!