Remember your first brew?

my first batch ever was this past October 2014, a 5 gallon BIAB batch. I went with an IPA and overall i lucked out and it came out pretty successful. But a few missteps of course, and lessons learned. Specifically...

calculating strike water. i used too much i think, 9 gallons that time and didn't boil it down enough. i ended up with more wort than could fit in my fermentation bucket and i ended up pouring some down the sink (i know i know).

But it was fun as hell and i think it turned out well, although a touch sweeter than i wanted (but not sugary sweet, but just not as IPA-ish i guess you could say).

 

no...but I can tell you it was not the best batch I've ever brewed.

 

I brewed an extract Dunkel as my first brew(not a kit). It was okay, nothing to write home about...but I enjoyed the process and dove right in.

 

I made a... brewers best kit I think it was.. Double IPA I think.

Had all the gear though, chiller, How to Brew, you name it.. Didn't have temp control, or care about pitching enough yeast.

I think I remember the beer being really dark, I blame the LME, or maybe scorching it a little.

Dryhopped it with some leaf citra for half the batch.

Came out well, was pretty bitter, not a ton of aroma, and the dry hopped one was better. Fusel alcohols, and all that jazz..

Found a bottle a year later and remember opening it warm, and it gushed out the top.. was pretty funny, but no bottle bombs and tasted like shit after a year obviously.

Enjoyed the process, the wait, the whole nine, so I was brewing right behind it. Did a couple extract brews, brewed a bunch for a wedding and people drank all my beer within an hour and a half, and then I moved to all grain and things started getting more fun.

Wasnt terrible, wasn't great.. middle of the road. Looking back compared to now.. it was pure shit.

 

A brewers best American pale ale kit. Several missteps that I only realized after the fact. I remember tasting my hydrometer sample at bottling (ha) and all I could taste was unpleasant and buttery. I bottled it a worried for 2 or 3 weeks that my first batch was doomed.

After a couple weeks I cracked the first bottle and all tho I've heard the sound a million times over it was awesome to hear that sweet sound happen on my first brew. I poured it and marveled at what I had just created! I poured great, looked great and even smelled great. I tasted it and I was so excited. I shouted at my wife that it tasted like BEER! Lol. She looked at me and said. It's supposed to taste like beer! You were brewing beer right! Ha good times.

It wasn't perfect but it wasn't buttery like I had worried about. If anything it had a little fruity flavor to it. But I didn't care because I thought it tasted great.

I learned from there on to just let the ingredients do their job and to not sweat the small things.

 

I think it was a Mr Beer...or the beer pig. ..or some kind of really bad starter kit (I think it was an English ale) back in 1995 or so. It turned out absolutely terrible and so I tried it again...and it turned out worse! I still think it was bad ingredients/crappy half rate starter kit. I didn't brew for another 5-10 years until I bought an actually home brewing starter kit and I made a Nut Brown Ale similar to Newcastle. It tasted great and my friends drank it up fast enough for me to start brewing more often.

 

"Inherited" an all-grain setup from my brother and brewed an English Pale Ale (SMaSH Maris Otter and EKG). Pretty much stayed on the phone with him throughout the brew day, and thanks to that things went very smooth. Kegged it in 5-liter mini kegs with just about 1 tsp of priming sugar per keg. It came out tasting surprisingly close to real cask ale like you get in the UK with a very soft carbonation and a gravity feed. Needless to say, after that I was totally hooked.

 

My equipment and the recipe kit were a gift, so I dug right in by reading the instructions and starting. No one warned me about the rapidity of the boil-over or what to do to stop it. I had a mess, but it was on the concrete floor of the back porch. It was a kit called Atlantic Amber. It wasn't very good.

 

It was an Irish Stout extract kit from HomebrewUSA. The recipe had me steep the flaked barley and said nothing about a starter. Threw some spices in at the end of the boil. I remeber that it was hopped with cascade. I thought it could have turned out worse.

 

Shit, I remember fusing a stock pot to the carpet because it just came off the stove, pitching yeast at 90F, and being half an hour late for work. Those were good days, man! (Not much has changed).

 

My first ever was when I was 14 in 1994 and got a kit from Boots the chemist. It was a bag with malt syrup in it and all a pressure release valve in the lid. All you did was add water and yeast - it was horrendous. Even the slugs wouldn't touch it

Then a few years ago I decided to try again after successfully making some kit wine, I tried a woodforde wherry two can kit - it was excellent, a really nice simple bitter. So then I quickly moved onto all grain and a SNPA clone was my first one of them

 

Remember my first batch? Hell, I still have about 6 bottles of it in my basement. Double IPA extract kit from Midwest, did a partial boil, cooled with an ice bath and then fermented it too hot. Despite that, it actually turned out drinkable, if flawed. Not a great beer, but for a first attempt I think it turned out pretty well. Better than my 4th attempt did, at any rate...

 

I brewed my first beer in college about 10 years ago. It was an extract Hefeweizen. I followed directions perfectly and was so excited to taste a bottle. Carbonation was perfect but I hated the taste. I ended up dumping every bottle.

Looking back, I think it was because I was expecting a Widmer Hefe taste (as that was the only Hefe I had tasted) and not a real German style (I used the Weihenstephaner strain). I didn't like the clove and banana flavor because I thought it was infection or something. Stupid me....

 

Brewed an extract amber. Knew nothing of sanitation but had a friend help walk me through it. Pitched yeast prior to cooling, and we all know what happens when you add yeast to almost boiling wort. Tasted like a flat Fat Tire, if I'm being generous, and became our after hours party drink. I had a buddy visit and he proceeded to drink a 6 pack by himself. I needed the bottles back.

 

It was extract only, American Pale ale. I can't recall what it tasted like, but it was hazy and my college friends gobbled it up because it was free. I do remember it was the longest fermentation I had every experienced. It took only 2 weeks, but I was so impatient; Is it done? Is that what is suppose to look like? What will it taste like? I hope I didnt screw it up. I remember checking on it like every half hour.

 

First brew was an extract Brown Ale kit, wouldn't be able to tell you exactly how it came out because I was too impatient and drank it all when it was still green. Needless to say, that was one of my first lessons in homebrewing, be patient and give your beer time to condition. That and start a pipe line, so I'm not as compelled to steal from my future self.

 

My first brew was a mess in so many ways. Tried making an IPA and it ended up with no hop flavor or aroma at all. Pretty sure I added all of the hops wayyy to early in the boil. Didn't dry hop. Overcarbed the bottles. Thankfully they've been much better since then!