Ain't she pretty?

Cheers :)

First Bottle

Oh man. I got to taste my beer for the first time in its carbonated state aaaand...

It's only been in the bottle for about 5 days, but it's already showing some signs of being a wonderful brew. The malts I used in the recipe gave it not only a nice caramelly sweetness, but also a BEAUTIFUL color. This beer is the most beautiful caramelly amber EVER! The Wye Target hops proved excellent for bittering, and the Goldings have the most amazing flavor--so earthy and yet with a residual estery fruitiness with hints of juniper and light citrus (calamansis or tangerines perhaps?). It was just *slightly* hazy with an equally *slight* yeastiness to it. Not necessarily a bad thing, and certainly a characteristic of unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle-conditioned English Bitter, but it will fade into the wallpaper along with the haze as the bottles sit for another couple of days.

The final prognosis: this beer is already great, and it is going to get even better. My lovely girlfriend, who doesn't even like beer, thought this was delicious :). It's earthy character along with its silky fruitiness will prove to be a treat for any palette as it matures these last couple of days.

Lastly, I have been neglecting the fact that this beer is LIKE NO BEER I HAVE EVER TASTED BEFORE. And why shouldn't it be? I made it here at home. It's fresh, delicious, and made mimicking the water of Burton-on-Trent, England, thus adding extra authenticity and a character that you wouldn't necessarily find in other American ales.

Happiness!

-The Brewmaster

P.S. I was so excited about the beer that I forgot to take a picture of my first pint of the ale. It is so beautiful, I promise to share it with the world soon :)

First Beer, First Post

As this week neared an end, I finally boiled up a wort and brewed my first beer. I decided to forgo the JV homebrewing step of doing a beer-in-a-can kit and went for a real recipe, and with the help of my local homebrew store owner (Jeff of Jasper's Homebrew in Nashua, who happens to be a damn genius), developed a recipe for an ESB (English -or Extra- Special Bitter) ale, one that I picked because it is an easy, satisfying style of beer that is drinkable within about 2 weeks of brewing. I anticipated being pretty anxious to taste this, my first brew, so I wanted to go with one of the quicker brews (I also thought about doing a brown ale...maybe next time). The boil and cooling went off without any issues, and my sanitizing was thorough. The recipe I used was as follows:

4.4 lbs Munton's light malt extract syrup combined with:
1.1 lbs Munich malt extract syrup
1.1 lbs Wheat malt extract syrup (these came mixed together)
3 oz 40L crystal malt
3 oz 90L crystal malt
1 measly oz of black patent malt for color
1/3 oz Burton water salts (one package, these are the minerals from the water in the region where this style of beer is most often brewed...pretty awesome!)
English style ale yeast

The beer had an OG (starting specific gravity/density) of around 1.056 and racked up a beautiful dark amber color. I took a picture with my phone this morning of the beer, cloudy with activity, which was showing a nice foamy kraeusen and bubbling away constantly.

Simply beautiful :)

I am already thinking about my next beer, and probably plan to rack something that takes a little longer to ferment so that I can brew it and let it ferment during the time that I spend enjoying my current brew. I'm probably either going to take the route of IPA or California Common (steam beer)...should be exciting.