A little over two years ago my wife made the mistake of getting me a really nice starter home brew kit for Christmas.
I hoped to have the motivation here to go back and give a little detail on the batches that I have brewed up in the past, but I can't seem to quite get there.
So I though I would just make a list of the batches that I completed prior to starting this blog. These were mostly packaged extract kits from my local home brew shop O'Shea Brewing (Laguna Niguel, CA):
Batch #1 - Nut Brown - my first home brewed beer, so of course it was great!
Batch #2 - All Citra IPA - this one was insane! When you popped the bottle open it smelled like slicing open a grapefruit. Still might be my favorite home brew batch of all time.
Batch #3 - Hefeweizen - changed the yeast to White Labs Hefeweizen IV (WLP 380) and fermented a bit warm. The banana aroma was off the chart. This one fermented so fast that it actually blew the top off of my fermenter bucket. I thought it would be contaminated, but it turned out just fine.
Batch #4 - Red - wasn't my favorite at first, but over time it got better.
Batch #5 - Belgian Pale - turned out nice. Finally got tired of bottling with the 12 oz. bottles that came with my brewing kit, so I switched to 22's.
Batch #6 - Imperial Nut Brown - couldn't get this one to carbonate. I even tried popping a cap and adding a little extra yeast to one bottle. That didn't work. Turned out that the bottles were just too cold. They were sitting on a tile floor in my pantry right next to an exterior wall. Moved the bottles to an interior pantry and they were ready to go in a week!
Batch #7 - Belgian Wit - Hoegaarden clone for my wife. Turned out really clean, but not too much orange peel or coriander came through. I actually submitted this one for the OC Fair home brew competition, but I didn't plan ahead and the bottles didn't have enough time to carbonate. Better luck next year...
Batch #8 - Belgian Saison - Liked this one a lot. Fermented a bit warm and it seemed to have some good spiciness to it.
Batch #9 - Oatmeal Stout - my grain sack for steeping was too small so I didn't get a good soaking of the grains because the oatmeal swelled up. It ended up tasting OK, but was a bit light on the flavor and maltiness.
I learned a ton making these beers, and luckily didn't have any major screw ups, so I decided to take my confidence and start with all grain batches...
