Home Brews

1. Everyday IPA: Brewed  October-November 2014

This is the first homebrew I've done and it was a cool experience. I got started using a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/

The IPA was pretty simple to make and took about 4 hours initially, followed by 2 weeks of fermentation, followed by bottling and an additional two weeks. I got it done just in time for Thanksgiving 2014, which allowed me to share with my family that week, which was cool.

I really enjoyed the process of making the beer itself, and using Brooklyn Brew Shop made things easy. I bottled the beer using a bottle capper (and caps) that I bought on Amazon:

The bottles were just used bottles that I had lying around. I regret that I didn't print out any labels for the beers I made, but I hope to do so for the remaining two bottles I have. All in all, the one gallon brew jug produced eight 12-ounce beers.

Brendan helped me bottle

But what about the taste?!

I may be biased, but honestly this beer is one of the best IPAs I've ever had. I was a little concerned when I opened the first bottle and it instantly fizzed up and started to slowly head out of the bottle. I realized then that the beer was slightly over-carbonated, too much head, but after pouring it off into a glass it was fine. I would think over-carbonation is better than under-carbonated but that's just my opinion. Next time I'll try and balance my sugar input more in the bottling step.

Anyways, the beer itself was quality stuff. I can best compare it to "Zombie Dust" as far as IPAs go, but slightly less bitter and slightly more hints of citrus. The hoppiness was perfectly balanced, very smooth. The beer had a very citrusy smell to it but it wasn't reflected too strongly in the taste. There was a little bit of sediment in each beer, but just enough to give the head an interesting green color (the green coming from the Colombian hops).

I would definitely recommend trying this beer, it was easy to make and delicious. Brooklyn Brew Shop sells packs of just the ingredients themselves, but I may at this point just venture into the realm of free-balling it (with the help of a rough recipe). When I cook food I typically look at a recipe then shake things up, why not with beer?