Or how I proved that I’m better than everyone else, yet again.

So I mentioned in my first post about my home brewing that the most prolific piece of advice I received from friends and family was that the one’s first home brew was destined to be a piece of crap. That I should bite the bullet of predetermined failure, and look to the slightly more optimistic future of my home brewing experience. While my position that all of those d-bags can suck it hasn’t changed, I now have to evidence to support my righteousness. That’s right, once again I have proven all of the naysayers wrong in creating a what no one thought possible. A good, nay GREAT(!), first-time home brew.

Like I said before, it’s a Red Ale, so it’s got a lot of flavor. It’s sweet, and really hoppy, so you get a nice piney taste. It’s also surprisingly deep in flavor, meaning that the taste doesn’t just wash away, so I find myself drinking it pretty slowly. I didn’t test the alcohol level, so I can’t say for sure how alcoholic it is, but it definitely isn’t light.

Despite my early success, I did learn a lot that’s going to help me in the future. For one, I think I am going to tone down the amount of bottling sugar I put in at the end by a lot. With this batch I put in closer to the higher end of the recommended amount based on the recipe I was using. A lot of carbonation might be appropriate for a lighter brew, but with something so sweet and flavorful it seems to be a bit much. Also, I am definitely going to try and give myself a lot more room to operate in the kitchen next time. There is a lot of sanitized equipment lying around during the process, and it’s important that it stay sanitized, so a lot of clean space would definitely help.

Needless to say, I’m very happy with the way things turned out, and I’m already looking forward to my next batch.

Oh, also as a bit of an experiment to see how many people actively read this anymore, I wanted to get suggestions on what I should brew next.  Post your suggestions in the comments section.  Thanks.