waggastew
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 7/1/10
- Messages
- 868
- Reaction score
- 310
Cracked the first bottle of my first ever homebrew last night. Was a Coopers Pale Ale to the following recipe (adjusted from some suggested first brew posts on AHB):
1 x Coopers Pale Ale Can
1 x Coopers BE2
1 x Saaz Finishing Hop Tea Bag
1 x US-05 Yeast
Brewed at ~18 degC using a Smash cooler and ice bottles for 3 weeks (FG 1010). Bottled in PET straight from primary (had cleared up well) with 2 x Coopers Carb drops. Has been in the bottle at room temp since 31/1/10, making it about 6 weeks old.
Very little noise when the cap was opened (was thinking 'uh oh no carbonation'), but poured beautifully creating a lovely creamy head. Carbonation was perfect, bubbles were really small and vigorous. Lovely light gold colour, quite clear before the addition of the sedimenty bit from the bottom. You could smell and taste the Saaz hops, I would probably use Cascade next time which would be closer to style. I drank it along with some Wicked Elf beers to compare, because of the Saaz it smelt more like the Pilsener but tasted reasonably similar to the PA.
Overall I am pretty stoked, will happily work my way through the 29 remaining bottles. I think the non kit yeast and lower temp made for a much cleaner beer but still with the distinctive pale ale flavours. I would highly recommend new brewers get temp control sorted as soon as they start.
Anyway, thanks to all on AHB for your wealth of information. The homebrew bug has bit bigtime!
Stew
PS. Finished off the rest of the sample pack of Wicked Elf beers including the Tripel. I was really impressed, kinda like beer on steroids. Would recommend picking some up, I think they are in Dan The Man O'Murphys now? I am a local so I picked em up from the brewery door.
1 x Coopers Pale Ale Can
1 x Coopers BE2
1 x Saaz Finishing Hop Tea Bag
1 x US-05 Yeast
Brewed at ~18 degC using a Smash cooler and ice bottles for 3 weeks (FG 1010). Bottled in PET straight from primary (had cleared up well) with 2 x Coopers Carb drops. Has been in the bottle at room temp since 31/1/10, making it about 6 weeks old.
Very little noise when the cap was opened (was thinking 'uh oh no carbonation'), but poured beautifully creating a lovely creamy head. Carbonation was perfect, bubbles were really small and vigorous. Lovely light gold colour, quite clear before the addition of the sedimenty bit from the bottom. You could smell and taste the Saaz hops, I would probably use Cascade next time which would be closer to style. I drank it along with some Wicked Elf beers to compare, because of the Saaz it smelt more like the Pilsener but tasted reasonably similar to the PA.
Overall I am pretty stoked, will happily work my way through the 29 remaining bottles. I think the non kit yeast and lower temp made for a much cleaner beer but still with the distinctive pale ale flavours. I would highly recommend new brewers get temp control sorted as soon as they start.
Anyway, thanks to all on AHB for your wealth of information. The homebrew bug has bit bigtime!
Stew
PS. Finished off the rest of the sample pack of Wicked Elf beers including the Tripel. I was really impressed, kinda like beer on steroids. Would recommend picking some up, I think they are in Dan The Man O'Murphys now? I am a local so I picked em up from the brewery door.