To update, I placed four liter bottles and six 12-ounce bottles in the refrigerator last Saturday (a little over four days ago now), leaving two one liter bottles to remain at room temperature for a bit more bottle fermenting. Admittedly, it’s been less than the one week prescribed by Mr. Beer experts, but with the Gatorade bottles looking like they might burst, I figured I might as well begin trying them. I sampled one last night and one this evening.
At this point, the Red Ale is highly carbonated, even having come from the back of the refrigerator. It had a sour/sweet smell both in the bottle and in the glass. The second bottle actually had something of a berry smell to it, which seems a good reason to avoid reusing Gatorade bottles, I think.
It poured a lovely red-amber color with a full thick head. (Yeah, that's a picture of it to the right, there.) I had to back off both times to avoid overflowing the glass and the pour for the second bottle was more active than the first. It has a thin mouth feel and a malty taste that is rather dry with a quick finish.
Though I'm a tad underwhelmed, I can say at this point that the first batch from the Mr. Beer system wasn’t a total loss and I don’t intend to pour the remaining product down the drain; after all, I can always let it sit longer. Tomorrow I’ll deliver half the beer to Johnny Southside and I’ll keep the four liters lagered in the back of the fridge along with a single bottle at room temperature at least until the 30th, then we’ll see where we go from there. At least one Mr. Beer home brewer has made the case for lagering the beer longer to allow its flavor to develop. Additionally, Senor Brewmaster has suggested ditching the Gatorade bottles and I couldn’t agree more, especially after smelling berries in tonight’s bottle of Red Ale. These people know what they’re doing. Why should I try to reinvent the wheel?
Now, what beer recipe to order next? Maybe a pumpkin lager? How about a nice stout for Christmas? The prickly pear cactus have bloomed and their fruit pods are beginning to ripen; hmm, I wonder if a prickly pear wheat beer would be okay this late in the year? I’ll keep you posted.
4 comments:
Being patient is the hardest part. I think I've broken down and opened a bottle of just about every batch I've made at the one week mark. I used to rationalize it with "Hey, it's the trub bottle, right?" but now I just fill a 12oz. twisty top last and plan on opening it early.
It's fun to have a beer that you brewed yourself, isn't it? Cheers!
jdot, thank you so much for contributing and for your return visits. Yes, I've almost had to will myself to forget the stuff is here, holding myself to a single sample per week. The stuff bottled in Gatorade bottles is all gone and I won't use them again as the liter bottles are clearly tasting better. I'm trying to conjure up some sort of pumpkin beer next...Hmmm. Best wishes and Cheers right back at you!
Have you brewed anything else?
Hi, uh, 6p00e54ed644278833. Hope I pronounced that correctly.
Well, yes, I just finished a batch of what was supposed to be some winter/holiday cinnamon beer and it was an unmitigated disaster. Suppose I'll have to post a piece about that next and get it out of the way and dusted under the carpet.
Thank you for dropping by and I hope you'll visit on a regular basis. Keep a watch out for my "cinnabomb" post...soon.
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