Beer #1: Extra Pale Ale
I received a home brewing kit for Christmas this year and a few weeks ago I finished my first batch, an Extra Pale Ale from Northern Brewer. I made a new category on the ol’ blog for me to track the beers that I make. I just transferred my next beer into the secondary fermenter, I’ll bottle that batch in a week. So, here are the stats for the first batch:
- Beer: Extra Pale Ale from Northern Brewer
- 12/26: Beer gets brewed, hydrometer reading: 1.041
- 1/3: Hydrometer reading: 1.019
- 1/4: Hydrometer reading: 1.019
- 1/4: Transferred from glass to plastic secondary fermenter
- 1/17: Bottled the beer, yield was 40 bottles
- 2/1: Opened first bottle, it was ready to drink
I gave away several of these beers since it was my first batch and I wanted people to try it out, but I’ve still got some left, I’m drinking one as I write this 
I was really happy with the way this batch turned out, it would have been really disappointing to ruin my first batch and waste several weeks of my time. My next batch hasn’t taken as much of my time as I know all the steps involved now. The next batch should be ready to drink in ~3 weeks hopefully its just as good.
justin said,
Wrote on February 28, 2007 @ 9:46 am
I had the beer, I thought it was pretty tasty. Easily drinkable with some good flavor. Just wanted to comment on two things I saw above, one was that you “Transferred from glass to plastic secondary fermenter”. I was just wondering if this is correct or if you reversed it? Typically you start in the plastic bucket then transfer to the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. It’s possible for beers to produce quite a bit of froth during the primary fermentation step and blow off the air lock from a carboy unless you use a blow off tube… which can be a horrible mess and ruin a batch of beer due to contamination. Just wanted to warn you!
Also I noticed that your final gravity was 1.019, which means that there were probably some sugars left unfermented. This will leave a slightly sweet flavor which, if intentional, is perfectly fine. A beer that is completely fermented will probably go to 1.010 (or pretty close to that). The culprit is probably your yeast or the temperature. If you used the packet of dry yeast try getting one of the smack packs next time, it took me probably 3 batches before I realized the difference it makes to use good yeast. If you used a smack pack then maybe try putting the fermeter somewhere warmer, or try making lagers during the winter since they typically need colder fermentation areas.
So what is the next style gonna be?
ben said,
Wrote on February 28, 2007 @ 9:53 am
Yeah, I put it in the glass carboy first and then moved it to the plastic second. I didn’t realize that I would be using a secondary fermenter until I had already started fermenting in the carboy. The next batch started in plastic and was just moved to glass.
I was a little unhappy with the gravity of 1.019 as well, I used the smack pack for yeast, so I think the culprit is the cold basement where the beer ferments. Even the current batch that was in the primary fermenter for 10 days still had a gravity of 1.018 when I transferred it. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes when it gets warmer out.
The next beer is called “Hex Nut Brown Ale”, from Midwest Supplies, when I transferred it last night it smelled great
Josh said,
Wrote on March 7, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
I tried the beer as well and thought it was very good. I can’t claim to be a beer expert but I would probably buy some at the liqueur store.
I still have the bottles you sent it over in. Do you want that back?
ben said,
Wrote on March 8, 2007 @ 8:36 am
Hey Josh, yeah I’ll get those bottles from you next time I see you. Maybe you can give me them in exchange for the $85 I owe you