BrewBrain Sports Investing

Way back last September I bottled up a first shot at an amber ale.  Well, that one was a dud.  It never carbonated - or so I thought.

I took the remaining bottles out of the box they’ve been stored in at room temperatures all this time with the intent of dumping them down the drain.  I figured I’d dump them because the flavor was always less than good on top of the non-carbonation issue.  I pumped so many different grains into that recipe that it ended up tasting like mud.  Just not worth any salvage effort.

Anyway, when I popped the top off the first bottle, I was greeted with an enormous PFFFSSSSTTT!  I poured a mug of foam out of that bottle.  I chilled the rest of the bottles down and will sample tonight.  The flavor still wasn’t anything I’d shoot for again, but it was beer and it wasn’t horrible.  Certainly, it is no longer a dumper.

Good thing, because I’m down to my last few bottles of my last pale ale.  I have a new IPA effort in week #1 of bottle conditioning, so that’s a couple weeks away.  In the mean time, I’ve managed to relieve the new BevMo in town of many bottles of a variety of beers.  I’ve got some work to do if I want refrigerator room for the homebrews I’ve got coming on line over the next several weeks.

Speaking of the homebrews, there is a good chance my first Spiced Holiday Ale attempt is not going to be any good at all.  This was expected.  For some reason I thought I’d add chai spices to a lighter beer recipe.  It is basically a pale ale with a little chocolate malt.  Huh?  Ya.  It didn’t taste very good last night after two weeks in primary.  It may mellow out and be drinkable, but I seriously doubt it will be truly “good”.  The only decision is whether to do anything else weird to it, like adding lactose before bottling, or following through with the vanilla extract plan.  I don’t know yet.  I do know the next attempt will be with a stout recipe of some sort, likely a sweet stout.  That makes much more sense.  I did pretty much nail the spice quantity for a stout I think, so at least I get something out of it.

Next week I bottle up my first stout.  It tasted green, but fine when I racked it to secondary last week.  I don’t think it will be anything special, but a good first effort.  Certainly something to build on.