Lukesteroo
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- Sep 18, 2013
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I just thought I would post some thoughts on the wondrous pastime of homebrewing and also take the opportunity to introduce myself.
I have recently taken up the hobby again after a twenty year break, when I used to brew up Boots kits and flog the resultant potion to the sixth form. It used to taste pretty foul from what I remember - not that I was much of a beer drinker back then, and I had very mixed views from the patrons of my wares.
So now two decades later, married and with two young children, social life out of the window, and I got chatting to a customer at work. Being a keen homebrewer, he reignited my interest and I took it up once more, full of optimism and renewed enthusiasm.
Fast forward 3 kit brews and I am pretty fanatical, it has to be said. I built myself a fermentation fridge, spent weeks haunting the bins of Bath's hostelries for old beer bottles, got kitted out with all the basics and got stuck in. Now I have a running stash of over 60 bottles with more on the way, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Cheap and almost unlimited beer at the stretch of an arm!
The hobby does rather suit my obsessive, and also rather self-sufficient personality. The science, as well as the practical aspects of the brewing itself, provide me with a great deal of satisfaction. These days I actually enjoy the beer too, which is a bonus!
I have spent a lot of time reading this forum and picking up as many tips as I can. One thing I have been worried about is allowing others to sample my beer, thinking they would either lie, saying it was "drinkable" but secretly wishing they were swilling Fosters instead, or simply being downright unimpressed. So, yesterday, I carried out a controlled experiment on my wife, brother in law and sister, using my latest brew (Wilkinson's Golden Ale), a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, and a Badger's Fursty Ferret.
I lined up 3 sample glasses and filled each one with a taster of each beer, making sure they were all at a similar temperature. Luckily the carbonation levels of each were roughly equal. My own tasting notes are as follows:
Wilkinson's Golden Ale - lovely colour, full rich flavour, slightly honey-like to the taste, a little bit sweet. Very drinkable.
Newcastle Brown Ale - Very watery, thin beer. Odd chemical-like taste to it, difficult to put my finger on. Pretty unpleasant I thought.
Fursty Ferret - Clean tasting, hoppy, nice pale colour, still slightly watery.
The verdicts were:
Wife. Declared the Newcastle Brown Ale as "definitely the homebrew" and said that was her favourite. Second place homebrew, third place Fursty Ferret.
sister. First place homebrew, second place Fursty, third place Newcastle Brown.
Brother in Law. First place Fursty, homebrew second, third place Newcastle Brown.
I think that is a pretty good result, and I was especially pleased that nobody could immediately tell the homebrew apart from the other beers. My big worry that it would taste noticeably homemade or nasty in some way - clearly not the case. This surprised me because I have tried two other homebrews recently, both made from one-can kits. One tasted overwhelmingly of plastic, the other just tasted very watery.
I must say that personally I am ultra-critical of pub beers these days, and seem to notice rough pints a lot more! One thing I have observed is that pub beers (over bottled beer or homebrew) often have a much more hoppy aroma to it - I'm guessing that kit brews cannot retain that freshly hopped smell after undergoing the canning process. Similarly - perhaps pasteuristion has a similar effect on bottled beer?
That's one reason for me to move to all grain after Christmas!
I have recently taken up the hobby again after a twenty year break, when I used to brew up Boots kits and flog the resultant potion to the sixth form. It used to taste pretty foul from what I remember - not that I was much of a beer drinker back then, and I had very mixed views from the patrons of my wares.
So now two decades later, married and with two young children, social life out of the window, and I got chatting to a customer at work. Being a keen homebrewer, he reignited my interest and I took it up once more, full of optimism and renewed enthusiasm.
Fast forward 3 kit brews and I am pretty fanatical, it has to be said. I built myself a fermentation fridge, spent weeks haunting the bins of Bath's hostelries for old beer bottles, got kitted out with all the basics and got stuck in. Now I have a running stash of over 60 bottles with more on the way, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Cheap and almost unlimited beer at the stretch of an arm!
The hobby does rather suit my obsessive, and also rather self-sufficient personality. The science, as well as the practical aspects of the brewing itself, provide me with a great deal of satisfaction. These days I actually enjoy the beer too, which is a bonus!
I have spent a lot of time reading this forum and picking up as many tips as I can. One thing I have been worried about is allowing others to sample my beer, thinking they would either lie, saying it was "drinkable" but secretly wishing they were swilling Fosters instead, or simply being downright unimpressed. So, yesterday, I carried out a controlled experiment on my wife, brother in law and sister, using my latest brew (Wilkinson's Golden Ale), a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, and a Badger's Fursty Ferret.
I lined up 3 sample glasses and filled each one with a taster of each beer, making sure they were all at a similar temperature. Luckily the carbonation levels of each were roughly equal. My own tasting notes are as follows:
Wilkinson's Golden Ale - lovely colour, full rich flavour, slightly honey-like to the taste, a little bit sweet. Very drinkable.
Newcastle Brown Ale - Very watery, thin beer. Odd chemical-like taste to it, difficult to put my finger on. Pretty unpleasant I thought.
Fursty Ferret - Clean tasting, hoppy, nice pale colour, still slightly watery.
The verdicts were:
Wife. Declared the Newcastle Brown Ale as "definitely the homebrew" and said that was her favourite. Second place homebrew, third place Fursty Ferret.
sister. First place homebrew, second place Fursty, third place Newcastle Brown.
Brother in Law. First place Fursty, homebrew second, third place Newcastle Brown.
I think that is a pretty good result, and I was especially pleased that nobody could immediately tell the homebrew apart from the other beers. My big worry that it would taste noticeably homemade or nasty in some way - clearly not the case. This surprised me because I have tried two other homebrews recently, both made from one-can kits. One tasted overwhelmingly of plastic, the other just tasted very watery.
I must say that personally I am ultra-critical of pub beers these days, and seem to notice rough pints a lot more! One thing I have observed is that pub beers (over bottled beer or homebrew) often have a much more hoppy aroma to it - I'm guessing that kit brews cannot retain that freshly hopped smell after undergoing the canning process. Similarly - perhaps pasteuristion has a similar effect on bottled beer?
That's one reason for me to move to all grain after Christmas!
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