My First Home Brew - Rolling Pin Pale Ale

For my birthday, Cathy bought me a home brewers kit. Since I love beer, she thought it was a great idea, and I agree. My first attempt at brewing my own beer started way back in July. The first thing that I learned in the whole beer brewing process is that you have to be patient. All of these steps take time, and there really is no rush to get to the next step. You really just need to let all of the science happen.

My first beer is a kit of American IPA from Listerman Brewing Co.

Step 1: Make Tea
Basically, you make a 2 gallon batch of tea. Fill a bag with grains, etc. and steep at 150-160 degrees for 30mins.

Step 2: Add Malt and Hops
Bring to boil, remove from heat, add malt syrup bring back to boil add hops.

Step 3: Boil add more hops
'nuff said.

Step 4: Almost beer...cool the "wort" (wert), add yeast, seal
Cool your wort (65-75 degrees), in a water bath. Then add yeast. Seal your brew.

Step 5: Wait for the yeast to do its job
Yeast turns the sugars into alcohol.

Step 6: Bottle your beer, wait some more
Wait 3 weeks, then bottle your beer. Wait three more weeks.

Step 7: Drink your beer
Yay!

So, now to the review...

Rolling Pin Pale Ale and American IPA.
It's definetly tough to review your own beer. But, I'm going to be honest with you, it's not that great. It pours a very nice amber/deep orange color and has a nice thick creamy head. I can smell the citrus and it's overwhelmingly malty and bready. While it has a nice flavor with some sweet undertones, it was supposed to be more bitter and an actual IPA. It tastes a lot like Bass or English style Pale Ale. I'm not sure where I went wrong in the brewing process, but I know something isn't quite right. I still enjoy my "bad" beer more than an American Lager, but it needs improvement.

Yesterday, I brewed a second batch of beer and hopefully it turns out better. I was way more careful with temperatures and paid more attention to all of the little details that I may have missed out on this first time around.

I did keep notes of both brews, so I can look back and see how it turns out and compare there.

Happy Drinking!

Who: Myself
Where: Home
Price: --
Score: 2 / 5