D-Day Is Here!!! (Drink-Day)

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Well guys here is some of my thoughts on my first taste of my beer, and photos.

First I have to say I am very happy with the way it turned out!! room for improvement of course particular with taste unfortunately. It has a slight grassy or vegetal flavour after taste, not so unpleasant it's not drinkable, I bottle down 37 to go haha. clarity surprisingly very good. I did use Irish Moss, wort chiller and cold crashing. carbonated well too effervescent  to the last drop!! So why did it have these slight off flavours? I only used Cascade hops and did a dry hop too no hop bag, and cold crashed 2 days after adding the dry hops. Still I give myself a solid 6 or 7 out of 10.

Proud Daza.

[Craig Howard]

Looks like beer.  well done

After Taste...How long has it been conditioning?  Maybe too  fresh with the best still to come.

I definitely notice a difference between  3 weeks (the earliest I will taste) and then 5 weeks plus on every one of my brews.

I thought I had buggered a Bohemian  Pilsner at 3 weeks....it was brilliant 2 or 3 weeks later.  I now have 10 x 750ml of it left and I am treating it like gold. Drinking a bottle otr two  a week to track how it changes

ps...watch your mailbox for package sent Thursday

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Thanks mate for everything. Always giving solid advice, cheers. hey it has only been 2 weeks tomorrow....so could be just fresh? I was really just doing a test taste to see if it was rubbish or alright and worth waiting for. So next Saturday it will be 3 weeks and should notice a difference I reckon too, as I just finished sharing bottle no.2 with partner and she said " better than I thought it would be" haha. I think I may have been hard on myself as on second bottle much cleaner taste. No bad after taste so fingers crossed it gets better. As for the clarity I am gob-smacked never thought it could ever be that clear. I did use good techniques to get it, and haven't even tried whirlpooling yet.

cheers mate.

[Ryan Perkins]

Good result Dazza the first one can't perfect but it sounds like you did a good job anyway.  My first one tasted like fizzy brown banana water, but I did follow the home brewing kit instructions to a tee and that was the mistake.  The kitchen sink enjoyed that one.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

bugger! yep pretty happy with results so far. cheers.

[Peter Church]

Well done, re your flavours, from how to brew

AcetaldehydeA flavor of green apples or freshly cut pumpkin; it is an intermediate compound in the formation of alcohol. Some yeast strains produce more than others, but generally it's presence indicates that the beer is too young and needs more time to condition. 

GrassyFlavors reminiscent of chlorophyll and fresh cut grass occasionally occur and are most often linked to poorly stored ingredients. Poorly stored malt can pick up moisture and develop musty smells. Aldehydes can form in old malt and can contribute green grass flavors. Hops are another source of these green flavors. If the hops are poorly stored or not properly dried prior to storage, the chlorophyll compounds will become evident in the beer.

Dimethyl Sulfides (DMS)/ Cooked Vegetable FlavorsLike diacetyl in ales, DMS is common in many light lagers and is considered to be part of the character. DMS is produced in the wort during the boil by the reduction of another compound, S-methyl-methionine (SMM), which is itself produced during malting. When a malt is roasted or toasted, the SMM is reduced beforehand and does not manifest as DMS in the wort, which explains why it is more prevalent in pale lagers. In other styles, DMS is a common off-flavor, and can be caused by poor brewing practices or bacterial infections.DMS is continuously produced in the wort while it is hot and is usually removed by vaporization during the boil. If the wort is cooled slowly these compounds will not be removed from the wort and will dissolve back in. Thus it is important to not completely cover the brewpot during the boil or allow condensate to drip back into the pot from the lid. The wort should also be cooled quickly after the boil, either by immersing in an ice bath or using a wort chiller.When caused by bacterial infection, DMS has a more rancid character, more liked cooked cabbage than corn. It is usually the result of poor sanitation. Repitching the yeast from an infected batch of beer will perpetuate the problem.

[Peter Church]

If you have variation between bottles then look at you bottleling and cleaning routines around bottling

[Sam DT]

Nice work!

Make sure you give the rest another week in the warm to fully carbonate, like the others have said it'll still be quite green, give it another three weeks or so and no doubt you'll bump your score up another couple of points.

You can get grass and veg from dry hopping too long but at this stage your beer won't have fully conditioned so it's most likely to be that. 

Enjoy!

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Thanks everyone. i was thinking it wouldn't be the dry-hopping either as I did that 5 days out from bottling. As for variation between bottles there probably wasn't really, I would like to know it's ABV as that is something I've already been asked....I am going to leave it 2 more weeks and then that'll make 4 weeks in total, surely that will be long enough. I di notice that it doesn't have a strong hop presence that I enjoy with other pale ales,  the Moa session pale ale has Nelson Sauvin, Cascade, Motueka and Kohatu (whatever that one is) and the hops are much more noticiable than just my Cascade hopped APA.

[Nathan]

From my untrained eye those carb bubbles look big so id say give it another week to really come right, Beer is a strange thing I have a faux pils in the fermenter now thats just giving me the run around pulled a sample and tried it striaght away and tasted like rubbish put in fridge for 3 days then drank it this morning(yes beer before toast) and it tasted good.....I cant explain that one

[Che Soffe]

looks pretty, well done. Think you've done pretty good for the first batch. Give it another week and it'll be even better. Heading for a solid 7 I reckon.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

I honestly expected it to be like vinegar or rottin eggs, no infections so really pleased. I hope I haven't ruined next batch with my temp during mash went to 85C for 3 or 4 mins, do maybe it's ok? Might mean lower abv? My gravity reading pre fermenter pretty much spot on so I guess wait and see?

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Thanks heaps. Ok I'll put a bottle on fridge next Friday and see if it's enough? I have 3 dozen 500ml left so will take a few weeks to get through anyway, so some will get 4 weeks and more. Really happy I didn't have to dump it. Hope next batch isn't stuffed. While mashing grains my temp shot up to 85C for about 3-4 mins then back to 63C ?
Cheers