First taste of my own beer...

[mattybabsy]

So I got the 5 other guys I've started brewing with round last night to taste our first carbonated, cold beer.

So far we have done the brupac tripel, coopers aussis lager and stout. Then we did a brewferm grand cru, diablo and a coopers pilsner

We tasted the tripel, lager and stout last night.

Started with the lager. It was very green (I think that's the term- tasted like apples a bit). I've read about this before but couldn't remember why this happens. Am I right in telling the guys it'll fade with time (I'm the only one who does any research really, so I've become the designated 'expert'!!)

We then moved onto the tripel- holy jeepers! It was unreal. I was very loathed to open one as it had only been conditioning for 19 days (the lager and stout had had 2 weeks only). It was great. No green taste. Smooth and sweet, but not too sweet. Had the familiar belgian sweet smell too. The only bad thing is that those kits only make 9 Litres!! Feel asleep with the biggest grin on my face (we had, after all invested £300 between the 6 of us under my advice, so I was starting to feel the pressure of need ing to produce something for them that tasted good!)

Finally we tasted the stout. It tasted a little green- not as much as the lager though. the green taste subsided quickly to a peaty smoky wonderful taste which was great.

The belgian and lager had an ok head- am sure this will get better with time. Stout head was non-existent.

The ones that did have head clung to the glass nicely.

All that said, I now am off to invent a time machine to fast forward a couple of months till these bad boys are at their best.

Also, and most importantly, a big thank you to all on this forum who helped and supported a newbie like me

cheers!

 

[anthonyUK]

Great news. Get some more brews on as you'll need to build up a bit of a stock to avoid any droughts
The the high gravity ones such as Trippel and Diablo will be ready for Christmas.

 

[Wolverine]

nice one : )
its great when a plan comes together. if you want to make a beer from a kit that will really impress your mates get a st peters ipa kit and chuck in a big 907g jar of clear honey from holland and barrat. ( cheapest I could find) The result will be a nice strong beer with an amazing honey smell and slight honey taste. mine was 6.8 % abv when it was finished and is my best to date

 

[mattybabsy]

brilliant- am looking into more kits to buy

is the st peters one ur talking about the double can one? this one:

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/beerkits/ ... 3-0kg.html


I'm ordering a 50 l ss pot over the next few days. my friend in the US sent me an extract kit from great northern brewer. so this will prob b the last order of regular kits I do!

 

[WelshPaul]

I've heard too many good things about Brewferm's Grand Cru kits so I've just gone and ordered 2 for Christmas! :grin:

 

[Dunfie]

Well done on the success. Let us know what your mates reaction is when you are asking for them to invest in an AG setup. :lol:

The "green" taste is often attributed to acetelaldehyde which is an intermediate compound on the way to becoming alcohol. Some yeast produce more of this than other. You should certainly find that this reduces over time.

 

[Wolverine]

Yes the 2 can kit it doesn't need anything extra but it makes it better my friend Di one at the same time withought the honey an it was nice but boring
good luck