Keg Outlet - BYO Magazine

The fine folks at Keg Outlet have a Mag Monday contest going on, and I was chosen as the May winner.  I'll be receiving a one year subscription to BYO (Brew Your Own) magazine.  Thank you Keg Outlet for the prize and I look forward to expanding my brewing knowledge with the magazine.

First Pour - White IPA (Seasonal)

Tried my first Mr. Beer seasonal flavor on Monday.  This is the White IPA.  While it had good carbonation, it didn't have much of a head at all, and it disappeared quickly.  The aroma was nice, with a spicy note that neither my wife nor I could identify.  It tasted very good and went down easily, with a peppery note on the swallow.  Very little hop bitterness noted, which is surprising for an IPA, but consistent with feedback from other brewers which have made this seasonal flavor.  While I don't yet have a hydrometer, I can tell the ABV was up in the 6% range as I sure could feel it after only one 12 ounce bottle.  Over all a very good beer, but one that shouldn't be considered an IPA.

Labels

How to label home brew seems to be a common question on the Mr. Beer forums.  I use removable labels from Compulabel, they are easy to apply and remove.  And 1000 for $20, a good bargain.  I use Labeley to generate the labels and print them out myself on my color inkjet printer.  Four of the labels I've created are shown to the right.  Once I get a photo of the other labels, I'll add it to this post.

First Pour - Bavarian Weissbier

First pour of the Bavarian Weissbier.  Has good color and decent head, nice aroma.  Taste was overshadowed by a bit of a sour note on the swallow.  I think it is just a sign of not being conditioned long enough as I didn't have any other indications of an infection when brewing this.  I don't recall any pronounced sour notes when I sampled this during bottling. Will let it go for another month before trying it again.

0008 - Prophecy Ale

Finally got some time this weekend to get another brew going in the Brew Demon conical fermenter.  This go around it is the Brew Demon American Prophecy Ale.  Here's the Qbrew info:

0008 - Prophecy Ale
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Brewer: James
Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 2.13 galExtract

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.053 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 19 IBU
Recipe Color: 5° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.1%

Ingredients
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BrewDemon™ American Prophecy Ale 1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
Corn Syrup                    0.70 lb, Sugar, Other
Muntons DME - Extra Light     1.00 lb, Extract, Extract

BrewDemon™ American Prophecy Ale 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

BrewDemon™ 2g Dry Brewing Yeast 1.00 unit

Notes
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Recipe Notes:
Used 1 can of BrewDemon Brew Enhancement Sugar (BES), but that isn't in the database, so I used
corn syrup above as an approximate fill-in for AVB estimation.

Batch Notes:

It was a basic recipe, came with the can of HME and BES.  Added a pound of extra light DME for more body and flavor, and to make it a bit maltier.

Update: 2013/06/12
Bottled this tonight, 3 days later than expected.  Initial taste was mild, with a sweet, malty note but not extreme.  It does have a heavy alcohol taste to it, most likely from the BES.  Will need to add 4 weeks to the conditioning schedule for this one.  It started off quite cloudy.  The last couple of bottles were pretty clear, as was the sample, which I draw after the bottling is complete.

First Pour - Aztec Mexican Creveza

Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone (a day late as I wasn't home yesterday to update the blog)!  Tried my Aztec Mexican Creveza yesterday that I brewed especially for this day.  I was quite pleased with the taste of the beer, nice, light, a just a hint of a bitter after taste.  Aroma was very mild, almost non-existent.  About the same darkness of the Negra Modelo that it is supposed to emulate.  Can't compare the taste as I've never had a Negra Modelo, but I do like this better than the more common Corona.  I'll be looking forward to drinking more of this one.  And apologies for the plastic glass, I wasn't home when I tried this one and had to use what was available.