Adventures in Homebrew

So I did it...I made the jump into brewing, something I've been talking about for a while, but never thought I would actually get around to doing. The first batch was a learning experience to say the least!

I made a wheat beer of some sort, that's about all I can tell you. I hope subsequent brews will have a bit more direction or purpose, but this was mostly just a beer to test the waters.

It was a little over a month from boiling to bottling (2 weeks in primary, 2.5 in secondary, bottled on 10/14/2008) I added some coriander and lemon peel to the mash to add a little character.

Andy and I opened the first bottle today to check the progress. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't completely fail at beer. It's not carbonated to the point that it needs to be yet, and there's still active yeast that is noticable in the flavor, but it's getting there. Next week it should be good. It has an interesting fruit quality to it, it almost tastes of pears or apples. I'm not sure where that came from, and I'll be interested to see where it goes in the future.

Next batch will most likely be a porter with a good bit more direction and professionalism, and hopefully, some better equipment (glass carboy, hydrometer...etc..). I'm going to start doing this right, and not just letting it fly to see if I can actually get a beer that has some qualities more reminiscent of what i'm actually attempting to brew. There will also be full photo documentation to detail the process for the East Georgian...