Alright, so I opened one of my first bottles last night of my first batch (the Irish Red Ale). Not sure quite what I was expecting but here are my impressions:
- 13 days in the fermentor. Pitched at 62F and tried to hold constant temp with a water bath (temp of water bath was about 60-62F) as ambient temp in my apartment is about 72F. Fermentation started with 24hr of pitching and continued for about 2-3 days after settling down.
- 11 days for 1st bottle tried. (I know I should probably wait a little longer for bottle conditioning but I was eager to try one).
So the positives are that it didn’t taste bad or off and no real detectable ester flavors. The carbonation seems good, maybe a tad on the weak side.
My initial taste and impression was, “hmm that tasted like a New Castle Brown Ale”. It had good flavor up front, some nice notes of malt and caramel, but then it kinda petered out into a water nothing taste on the back end. Like I said it didn’t taste bad, it just tasted a little weak on the flavor all the way through.
Should I wait another week and test another bottle? Also the color wasn’t really a deep red, it was sorta of darkish brown color (looked exactly like a Newcastle Brown).
Does the tasting like the New Castle Brown mean that perhaps didn’t steep the grains long or hot enough? (I steeped them for 10 minutes at the beginning of heating of the water). Or maybe I haven’t had a commercial Irish Red recently, so I’m not sure what to expect. :lol:
Sorry for all the n00b questions!
I’ve got a Bourbon Barrel Porter and a Saison au Miel in the fermenters next to bottle!
