Taste Tests - Brew 1, Brew 3

When I opened the fridge last Saturday, I wish I'd taken a picture. The entire fridge was filled with beer bottles, most with no labels. It was true a vision to behold. Many would say it was sad. Many would disagree. Personally, I took pride in the fact that not only was that fridge filled with beer that may actually prove to be not only drinkable but maybe even good, but I made it!

Yeah, sure, it was a kit. Whatever, I still made it, so shush.

So anyway..

Brew 1, the Red Ale
On the day the directions said it would be ready, it was... OK? It was not really much better than it had been on the last taste test, and we realized that the growlers were actually pretty much flat. It tasted like Apple juice that someone dipped bread in. The caps were bogus. I was rather disappointed in that fact. The bottles were somewhat better than the growlers. I'm finishing the last four bottles now actually, wondering what the last growler will be like, as it sits alone on the top shelf of my fridge in the basement. ...yeah, we're down to 1 growler and 4 bottles. We did extensive taste testing. :D

When I tell you that my digestive track was a little "off" the next day, I really think you need to read every possible interpretation of the description. The word "explosive" only begins to scratch the surface. It was like a trash bag that was inflated and filled with beef stew had exploded.

Now, honestly? I don't mind a few extra trips to the bathroom, and I, like every red blooded American male find flatulence hysterical. Fortunately I was by myself most of the day, so it wasn't an inconvenience. I should have recorded a few, cause... wow.

So over all, the Red Ale: not bad. It was a step above the fizzy yellow american "frost brewed" lagers, so that's a plus. However, I think if I had my choice, I'd go with a Bass Ale.

As far as the alcohol content, it seemed to be ok, if a little lower than most others of it's kind.

I would probably not buy that kit for the next Red Ale.

Brew 3, the Irish Stout
I realize it's a little early for brew 2 or 3, but the results of Brew 1 lead me to believe that 21 days isn't going to make too much of a difference from 17. It's Tuesday now, and Brews 2 and 3 are scheduled to open up on Saturday.

You may have already noticed, I didn't try anything early from Brew 2 tonight. So why Brew 3? You may remember from a previous post, Brew 3 is a little special, because my priming sugar got dumped, so in a beer induced haze, I guesstimated amount of sugar I needed, and used run of the mill confectioner's powdered sugar. I wanted to see how that was going.

While I have no "test samples" of what that particular kit could give you having used the right stuff, I have to say, I'm pleased. It's got everything a stout should have. I'm going to hold off on saying where it ranks among the "big boys" right now, cause it's still technically got another four days to sit, but I think it's safe to say that the powdered sugar isn't going to make a problem for it.

Taste Tests - Brew 1, Brew 2, and Brew 3

So curiosity got the better of me last night. I had fifteen gallons of beer in the fridge, and whether you believe our motivation or not, I was actually very curious how it would taste before it was actually ready. Jeff and I thought we'd crack a bottle from each brew just to see what was what.

First problem: I mixed the bottles up by accident, and we ended up tasting the stout expecting the red ale... If you've ever done something like poured yourself a glass of orange juice while thinking about milk or something like that, you'll understand the shock when it tasted very different than what we expected! After we sorted things out, we found the following:

Brew 1: The Red Ale
This brew is supposed to stay in the bottles in the fridge until Saturday, but we opened it the Monday before. We were pleasantly surprised! The red ale is very nice, though still has just a little sweetness to it that gives it a slight aftertaste that stays with you, which I'm sure will burn off in the next couple of days. A few more days of mellowing should put it right.

The body was amber, light and crisp. It was decently carbonated. It reminded me of Bass Ale, only a little lighter. Long story short: I'm a fan. :)

Brew 2: The Brown Ale
This brew is not supposed to open until a week from this Saturday, but we opened it Monday, a full 12 days early, so we weren't expecting to be impressed. It had an awful lot of head! The sugar that was still floating around in the bottles gave it a somewhat syrupy sweet aftertaste that never went away.

We noticed that after drinking maybe six ounces, we were extremely full... Uncomfortably so! Naturally we finished the bottles, shrugged and said "Meh." while we bloated. Finally after a belch or five we were ready to move on.

Brew 3: The Irish Stout
My expectations for this brew were low to begin with being also 12 days early, and if you'll recall from the Bottling of Brew 3, I left my priming sugar in the kitchen disolving in the pan, and it got cleaned up by accident, and I had to use powdered sugar... I wasn't sure how much to use, so I estimated an amount that looked about the same as the priming sugar that came with the kit. I've heard a couple different opinions, but generally it sounds like if powdered sugar is used, it should be slightly less than Corn sugar... Last I heard was it's 1/3 of a cup of corn sugar, or a 1/4 cup of powdered... But don't quote me on it. I'm not planning on needing to know for the future, I'll be a little more vigilant in making sure I have what I need.

Like the Brown Ale, this brew was syrupy and sweet and had a long lasting after taste. All things considered, it wasn't bad. I'm looking forward to giving it another try after it's had a chance to consume the sugar.

All in all
The point wasn't to drink beer yesterday, but we wanted to know what a beer tasted like before it was ready, and I'm glad we did. I found it interesting to experience the different flavors of the ingredients as they went through their process, and yes, I'll admit, it was nice to get a sneak peek of what we can expect from the finished product, even if it was a little un-ripe.

I did end up having a bit more of the red ale than I'd intended though, cause really, it was good... Looking forward to cracking a few more of those this Saturday! (hopefully while we brew some more!)

I also got some pretty raging heart burn last night, around 3am. I am assuming it had to do with all the active yeast and sugar and such that I'd consumed. Zantac to the rescue!

Brew 1.4 - Red Ale (5-22-10)

Today was a productive day. First, we bottled the first brew, and brewed two more. I'll be posting about those two seprately.

I've never bottled, but I've watched it done several times online. A lot of the people I know who brew will tell you that it's the worst part of the whole experience. After my first time bottling, I have to say, I disagree. I enjoyed it immensely.

I've been saving bottles and growlers for a little while now. The growlers have no lables, they are all painted, so I didn't have to deal with those much. The bottles are a different story. I learned that not all bottle labels are created equally. I've stripped Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sam Lite, and Cherry wheat lager bottles, Bass Ale bottles, Guinness Draught bottles (and removed the little plastic air doodad) and Troegs Hop-back ale, and Smithwicks.

Ok, so the Guinness Draught bottles were the easiest to strip, they're wrapped in a plastic label. A simple slit with a razor, that label peels right off. But the Co2 doodad in there, you gotta get out. Fortunately, I have some long, tough tweezers that yank them right out. I like these bottles.

Second in line is Sam Adams. These labels come off easily when soaked in hot water. Smithwicks are by far the biggest pain in the ass bottles to remove the lables from. It's really kind of amazing how well those labels stay on!

First step of the bottling was to heat the water to mix in the priming sugar, and move to the bottling bucket. This is the new sugar that the yeast will use to produce a little more alcohol, and Co2, to carbonate while in the bottle. I believe it's basically Corn sugar, but from what I hear you can use regular confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar, but for now, I'm just using what the kit gives me.

This mixture is poured in with the beer as your transferring to the bottling bucket.

Sometime during this process, I checked the gravity. I wrote it down though, and can't find the paper I wrote it on. It was right where the directions said it should be though. Which... was the paper I wrote it on...

Anyway, we finished moving the beer from the primary to the bottling bucket, and the sludge left in the primary was pretty nasty, as you can see.

The bottling then began. We filled 6 growlers, and twelve bottles. I have to say, collecting, cleaning, filling and capping the 12oz bottles was rewarding for me. Maybe it's just because it's the first brew I actually made, but I found all that to be kind of a labor of love, as corny as that sounds. I really did get a good sense of accomplishment out of it though.

Here's the yield, currently sitting downstairs in the basement for a week, after which I'll toss it into the fridge for two more weeks.

Brew 1.3 - Red Ale (5-21-10)

So it's been 6 days since the first brew went into the fermenter. Having read the instructions again yesterday, I realized that this particular kit wants the secondary fermentation to all happen in the bottles. That is to say, tomorrow, I'm going to be siphoning from the primary to the bottling bucket, mixing in the priming sugar, and then bottling. The bottles will sit somewhere dark for a week, and then in the fridge for three more weeks. That's the plan anyway.

I'm a little bit leery of the bottling bucket, and I'm going to give it some extra cleaning, I think. I don't know how I feel about the spigot it's got on it. I get the sense that it'd be a great place for bacteria to hide, and I also think that by using that for the bottling, I will run a greater risk of bottling some sludge, as it's at the bottom of the bucket. I don't think I'll be using it, I think I'll just stick with the racking cane.

The more I watch and read online, the more confident I get about brewing in general. I think I'm to a point where I understand the process, and how / why it all works the way it does. This is giving me ideas. I realize I'm only about half done with my first ever brew, but I think I'm going to be ready to stop using the kits even sooner than I'd originally guessed... I'm getting anxious to just buy a bunch of ingredients in bulk and go by different recipes instead of kits. It's basically just cooking, and I do that well enough already.

I'd like to maybe make some non-standard brews for holidays... It's a little late for me to be thinking about the fourth of July as it's right around when this particular brew will be ready, but I'm thinking something interesting for Halloween... A pumpkin somethingorother maybe. We shall see.

Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow. Going to be doing the bottling and maybe starting another brew. or two.

Brew 1.2 - Red Ale (5-18-10) micro-post

Not much to report today. Just logging the fact that I moved the fermenter. I realized I had it on the floor in the basement, and that won't make for moving to the secondary very easy. I didn't want to move it before "moving" it to the secondary, as it would stir up the sediments, so I moved it up onto the table to make for easier siphoning.

Brew 1.1 - Red Ale (5-17-10)

It's now been two days since I poured the Wort into the fermenter. The air lock is bubbling along at a steady bubble every five to eight seconds, and the bubbles escaping smell terrific! SO tempting to just tear it open and try some. Don't worry, I wont. It does make me really want a beer though, and right now unfortunately I'm out.

I didn't mention in the previous post that I sampled the wort before the yeast was introduced. Actually, before the three gallons of cold water too. It was something of a fruity tea with a slight bitter after taste. I tell you what, it was good. :)

The fermenter is down in my basement, where the temp reading as of 2:00pm today was 64°F according to the thermometer, a good temp for an ale, so I'm told.

Something I did not do that I maybe should have was pour the wort through a strainer to remove the hops as I poured into the fermenter. I'm not sure what this might do other than make it a little hoppy, and if that's all it does, I'm OK with that. I like a good hoppy beer. I'm not worried about it ruining the beer, not by a long shot, but I was curious to taste it exactly how the kit was meant to be made as a sort of baseline, or controlled run so that I could gauge future brews as I start to experiment. Such is life.

Jeff and I had originally planned on using growlers instead of bottles, that way we'd only need to fill 10 vessels, but I decided for my half, I may use one or two, but I'd like to be able to have maybe just one beer from time to time, and cracking a growler for just one makes the left over contents go flat easily.

We shall see though.

Brew 1.0 - Red Ale (5-15-10)

Ok, finally got to brew on Saturday. Was an interesting time.

I kind of cheated doing this, I didn't exactly make it from scratch. We bought a kit, which basically amounts to making a cake from a box of cake mix instead of from scratch, but from what I understand, the end result is pretty much the same, though frowned upon by the purests. But hey, first brew. I wasn't going whole hog on something I was likely to foul up. The kit we used was for an Red Ale.

Anyway, there were a couple of things that bothered me about this particular experience. First, the pan we used was warped on the bottom, and I have an electic stove. That meant the middle never came in contact with the burner. This may or may not have been a problem. The mixture DID boil, albeit a fairly mild boil. It never came to a big rolling boil.

Why is this a problem? Well... I dunno, it may not be a problem at all. There's a step toward the end of the process where it says once you put everything in, the mixture should foam and try to boil over. You remove it from the heat, and put it back again, each time it starts to boil up and over. You don't let it boil over. Eventually, it's supposed to stop foaming like that, and that's how you know it's ready for the next step (which is to put in the hops). This is known (I'm told) as the "Protein Break". However, this did not foam up like that, and I'm thinking it had to do with the fact that it didn't get to the rolling boil that it should have.

I was advised that sometimes the protein breaks early, and doesn't foam though... So I went on with the process. I got everything together, got it into it's bucket and the air lock is now bubbling. Next weekend I will move it from the primary fermentor bucket to the secondary, leaving behind some sludge. There'll be pictures. Speaking of pictures...

The first step was to boil the water, and then take it off the heat while the grains steeped in it for 25 - 30 minutes. The grains came with a big sock-like fabric, with which you basically make a very big tea bag. I wish I'd thought to get a picture of it, but really... Just imagine a sock filled with a bunch of things that look like the bits in Rice Pilaf that aren't rice... Similar to that. After that was done, I had a gallon and a half of this tea like stuff that smelled a bit like bread, but not quite.

This was after steeping the grains, and added the malt. To learn more about Malt, click here. To learn nothing more than what it looked like in this particular kit, read on.

The malt came in two seperate cans, about the size of  a family sized can of baked beans. The malt itself had a consistence of molassas, perhaps a little thicker, although you heat it up in a pan of hot water, so it came out more like maple syrup. It smelled a bit like hot brown bread.

After putting in the malt is the step I was talking about. You're supposed to boil this, let it foam up and take it off the heat before it boils over. Repeat, until it stops trying to boil over. What you see in that picture is the extent of the foam that I got.


These little rabbit-food-like pellets are the hops. For some pics and information about real live hops, click here. For my very un-learned description, read on.

The hops are what gives the beer it's bitter taste. To experience the full effects of a "hoppy" beer, first sip something like Bud Light... Then try an IPA. It's that bitter bite you get after swallowing. I for one love a hoppy beer.

After adding half the hops, it was left to boil for 28 minutes, and I added the second half of them for the last 2 minutes of boil. From there, it was moved to the fermentor bucket, which is an air tight plastic bucket, and mixed with 3 gallons of cold water.

Hydrometer checked in at 1.050.

After it was down below 90°F, I added the yeast, and closed it up. An air lock is put on the top, which is just a plastic tube filled with water, through which air can come out, but not in. This is because oxygen can make the oxydize. I don't know what that would taste like, but it sounds like it'd be bogus. As the yeast eats, it produces Co2, so that's what is escaping. The fact that the air lock is bubbling is good, it means the yeast is doing it's thing.

My plan is to do a few of these kits, and see how things go. After five or six of them, I may just try to order grains and hops (and not in pellet form) and see what the brewing differences are. Perhaps I'll experiment with things like strawberries and such as I get more confident in the process. I'd like to have maybe four or five brews fermenting at any given time. I think I'd save a good bit of money on family gatherings and cookouts to just be able to hand out my own brew, rather than go buy it.

That's about the extent of my brewing experience thus far. I hope it comes out at least drinkable. I'd hate to have to dump five gallons for which I've spent about five hours on. Keep your fingers crossed for me, and I just might share some if it's any good!

...and you can bet I'll share some if it's not. I won't want it...

The kit I used was a "True Brew 5 gallon beer ingredient kit."