All this time I've heard about how important sanitation is, and how your beer can become infected. I've even posted the typical newbie questions showing concern for my batches. You guys lied to me!
No, actually I'm just really lucky...two beers ago, my immersion chiller basically fell apart in my wort. Hoses came off, water from the unsanitized inside went into the beer. Thought it was surely a goner. It wasn't. It turned out to be a terrific brown ale. Finished a new beer Saturday night and had about three drops of water from an "unwanted source" fell into the wort. With my luck, that'll be what infects the beer.
On another note, I stopped brewing for a while because all my beers tasted the same. My first brew was an imperial IPA, second was a cranberry cream ale, third was a kolsch; they all tasted nearly the same with subtle differences (mainly hops). I asked you guys what the problem could be, and none of us came up with definitive resolutions.
I lost interest. A few months ago though, I moved from my stove to an outdoor propane cooker and achieved a "rolling boil", and it appears to be what was missing. My comeback beer was an Irish ale, and it was absolutely fantastic. I'm addicted to brewing again, and I'm even working up a recipe to serve at my wedding. That'll be a difficult task; alot of people there don't like beer. So any suggestions are more than welcome on what I should make. I'm leaning toward an easy going fruit wheat beer.
Thanks again guys!
No, actually I'm just really lucky...two beers ago, my immersion chiller basically fell apart in my wort. Hoses came off, water from the unsanitized inside went into the beer. Thought it was surely a goner. It wasn't. It turned out to be a terrific brown ale. Finished a new beer Saturday night and had about three drops of water from an "unwanted source" fell into the wort. With my luck, that'll be what infects the beer.
On another note, I stopped brewing for a while because all my beers tasted the same. My first brew was an imperial IPA, second was a cranberry cream ale, third was a kolsch; they all tasted nearly the same with subtle differences (mainly hops). I asked you guys what the problem could be, and none of us came up with definitive resolutions.
I lost interest. A few months ago though, I moved from my stove to an outdoor propane cooker and achieved a "rolling boil", and it appears to be what was missing. My comeback beer was an Irish ale, and it was absolutely fantastic. I'm addicted to brewing again, and I'm even working up a recipe to serve at my wedding. That'll be a difficult task; alot of people there don't like beer. So any suggestions are more than welcome on what I should make. I'm leaning toward an easy going fruit wheat beer.
Thanks again guys!