Just tried my first brew

[BillTheSlink]

It was the Hefeweizen I bottled the first week of May from Northern Brewer. All I can say is, Baby, where have you been all my life?". I have never had this style before. I tried it on a whim. I have been accused of putting a nipple on my bottle and nursing it all night, but the whole glass lasted maybe four minutes. That kit rocks:rockin:



Taste run down: Very crisp and clean. The only thing weird was when I got to the very bottom of the glass and got a little extra yeast, but it was still all good. I couldn't taste any bubble gum, or bananas, or cloves which I had been told to look out for since my temps got so high when they ran away, but then again I smoke. I am going to take it to the home brew club for evaluation. It was rich and sweet. I loved it. I never believed I could brew something this good my first time out. It didn't have much head though even with constant bubbles. I did have it very cold.

Bill

 

[seigex]

Awesome, sounds like a good beer.

I remember that day when I tasted my first brew a couple years ago. I had a buddy come by and I carbonated my keg, but didn't have my kegerator finished yet so we used a party keg setup. Well the party keg setup (which was basically a hose with a spigot on the end) didn't work right so to fill our glasses, we would plug a hose into the keg long enough to fill our glasses and then pull it out.

It made a huge mess and my wife didn't talk to me for a couple days, but damn it was some good beer. I remember how excited I was that I got drunk off of something I made. I was able to turn water and grain into beer and got plastered.

It becomes more exciting when you start experimenting with creating your own recipes.

 

[cvstrat]

Big congrats on your first brew! I remember cracking open my first properly carbed homebrew. It was an american pale ale. God it was good. To this day every time I pour one of my own I still get this grin on my face like "look what I created!!!"

Hefeweizen is an awesome style of beer. If you drink traditional hefes you will notice banana and clove. It's kinda crazy, but good. I brewed and american wheat and it doesn't have such a pronounced banana flavor as some bavarians that I'm used to, but it's citrusy and delicious.

You should aim to carb this style pretty aggressively. It should be light, clean, bubbly, and refreshing. I haven't experienced much head retention with hefes but you should have bubbling throughout the beer. Make sure when you pour it to be gentle for the first 10 oz or so, then swirl all of goodies around the bottom of the bottle and aggressively dump that on top of your beer to create a little foam/head and to distribute all that cloudy yeasty goodness throughout the beer which will give you that classic hefe flavor.

Oh and try a Dunkel Weiss when you get a chance. You might think you've died and gone to heaven.

 

[user 30639]

Congrats on the first brew! It's a great feeling, isn't it?

 

[homebrewer_99]

Congrats!!! You never forget your first one...

 

[BillTheSlink]

You should aim to carb this style pretty aggressively. It should be light, clean, bubbly, and refreshing. I haven't experienced much head retention with hefes but you should have bubbling throughout the beer.

Well, that's is what I have, so I guess I got it right.:fro: I just thought it odd there was no head, but as I say I never had that style before.

I'll be sure to try the Dunkel. My next batches are going to be a trappest extract from the LHBS and then Briermuncher's Octoberfest I converted to partial mash and scaled to five gallon. I found his recipe in our recipe database. After that I might go all grain.

Bill