Our first effort at brewing our passion turned out just as we expected. Only, not really...As expected, the Cream Ale wasn't perfect - yet it had different imperfections than we had hoped for.
Somewhere around 7 months ago, we dusted off the brew kettle and fired up the propane tank in effort to create some Cream Ale magic. All in all I would say that things went smoothly on brew day up until tranfering to the primary. Too much wort was left behind in the kettle and too much distilled water was added to the primary in an effort to reach the ideal batch size before pitching. The end result was a beautifully hued, undercarbonated, greatly watered-down malty beverage. We expected some cloudyness and particles in our beer but not the creekyness of this diluted tart. Even so, every last drop has since been consumed (forced down by many) and the lessons learned were priceless:
- Bottling sucks and bottles are a pain to keep and store.
- Force carbonating HAS to be better than bottling with priming sugar.
- A true friend will drink free beer regardless of taste and clarity.
For our next batch we will attempt to work out the kinks and skip bottling all together. That's right, it is time for the KegeGATOR and the Heartache draft system to be completed. Force carbonating Cornelius kegs should make the whole process faster, cleaner and easier. Up next is a Porter and a Heffe.
Cheers!
3 comments:
Great job on motivating yourself to startup a blog. Once you get a good "fan base" you will feel more obligated to update regularly, post pics, etc. Also, check out http://brewschool.blogspot.com/.
This guy used to run Blacksburg Brewery up here at VT, but he is now in brewmaster school in Berlin. His blog is pretty interesting.
UPDATES!!!!
On the way, I promise!
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