Finally bit the bullet and bought a starter kit!

ipreferamediumroast said:
Most home brews rock. For you non yanks, the stereotype that US beer sucks is not a stereotype, but a fact, however, we do have microbreweries that produce some of the greatest beers available and many home brew kits are modelled after the microbrews. You can get all sorts of extracts and (my opinion only) do no not put blueberries or rasberries in the beer. That stuff is disgusting.

Also, any yanks who are from NE OH can tell you that cleveland has some of the best miicrobreweries in the country (so many popped up in NE OH in the 90s, and only the strong survived)
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I could not agree more... although I do love a good Sam Adams or a Guinness :)
 
well my nut brown ale is starting to taste pretty good. A little rough around the edges but honestly, no worse than some beer I've had on tap. But it still has a bit of a rougher alchohol taste than I prefer. I have a feeling it will smooth out in another week or two as the last one I drank 5 days ago was much rougher than this one.

Woohoo homebrew!

So... I have to admit I also have a hefeweizen in the primary now... and I am planning a blonde or something similar to brew for next weekend.

Still haven't got around to wine though I am researching it. I think I would like to buy my own grapes and start from scratch. Trying to source stuff is not easy though.
 
Good job, know remember, if you have only been raised on big brewery beer(labatts, molsons), don't expect your homemade to taste like them, once you get use to the new flavour and the big cost savings, the only time you will go back is when you either no longer have the time to brew or you are board and want to move onto other things.

How did your carbonation turn out? (I find this is the hardest part of beer brewing, getting consistant carbonation).
 
Carbonation is pretty good. Head retention is not great but decent. Flavour is very good. Quite happy with it!

I'm a micro brewery guy anyways. Never was a fan of piss water beers, my friends always make fun of me and my import beer. :)
 
There's a product you can get that will improve head retention but I don't think it really worked that well when I tried it - it wasn't that important to me, refridgeration also hinders head development, I use to just keep the beer in my basement and drank it at that temperature. Sometimes I would put the beer in the fridge and take it out a half hour before drinking it, if I wanted a cooler drink. Hey, the brits drink their beer warm.
 
Hmmm. I think my biggest problem is temp control & proper extraction from the grains. I only soaked them for 30 mins at 160f. I think I need to let them soak longer and then resoak with more water for a little bit to fully extract all the sugars.

I know I am skipping all the technical terms...

Once I get those two things down, I think it will make a big difference.

I have no idea how that would affect head retention of the beer. But flavour should improve even more.

Now I am researching wine... wow, lot's of work in wine too.
 
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