Brew #1 Tasting - APA vs. Moe's Backroom Pale Ale

Since I finally got the blog up and running four months after we brewed this, I decided it would be a fitting celebration to drink the final Adrian Peterson Ale (APA) and conduct a basic a taste test.  The APA wasn't a memorable brew, but it was definitely beer and beer is good.  I didn't want to aim too high in my taste test comparison so I went to Kroger and bought a sixer of the Moe's Backroom Pale Ale.  Welcome to Moe's!  It is a decidedly average pale ale - better than a commercial light lager and still falls well short of something like a Sweetwater 420. In the photo, the TD APA is the darker beer on the left and the Moe's is on the right.

I didn't refrigerate this bottle until a few days ago, which means it lost the nice bit of hop taste and aroma that it had back in November/December.  I enjoyed drinking it, but I won't be writing about it like the guys on BeerAdvocate.  It "poured an amber caramel color with a one finger head that dissipated quickly into micro thin lacing that reminds me of my grandmother's favorite negligee..." (I'm not that magniloquent with my beer reviews.)  I know an APA shouldn't be this dark and it had a slight haze so the Moe's has a better appearance. Welcome to Moe's!  But we were novices and didn't create the recipe.  Otherwise, these 2 beers were very similar in smell, aroma, and mouthfeel.  Very average with malty flavors and a little too bitter without much hop presence.  I would rate them both a 2.5/5 in overall drinkability.  If I had to choose which beer to buy, I would buy the TD APA because it was fun to brew and cost $.95/beer compared to the Moe's which was $1.15/beer.  WOOHOO!  I saved 20 cents/beer.  The most important lesson from this first beer was: we made something on our FIRST TRY that tasted significantly better than commercial lager piss and approximately the same as an average ale.

Final score: not a Touchdown brew, but a solid 40 yard field goal. 

Todd

Brew #1 - Adrian Peterson Ale

The Adrian Peterson Ale (APA) was nothing fancy - just a straight forward first beer, just like AD's running style.  (Also the Purple Jesus has been the #1 overall fantasy football draft pick and this was our #1 overall beer.)

TD decided to start out with a simple recipe to test our equipment and processes so we selected the Austin Homebrew Supply Session Series American Pale Ale (10A).  Everything went smoothly and although the beer was not very memorable, I think it accomplished it's purpose and we learned some important first lessons:

1. 'Tis best to strain the hops - For this first brew, we threw the  bittering hops directly into the boil.  After cooling the wort, we dumped everything into the fermenter.  Of course, as I impatiently waited day after excruciating day for my first taste of home brew I was reading message boards and blogs and had that moment of "OH MY GOD we should have strained out the hops."  (RDWHAHB).  Turns out, it wasn't a big deal - the beer turned out just fine for a first effort. However, TD has strained every beer since with better results. (More on this topic in future blogs.)
2. Wait 3 weeks from bottling for first tasting  - AHS advertises this recipe as a session beer that can be ready in 3-4 weeks total.  We had it in primary for 1 week, secondary for 1 week and of course started tasting the bottles way too soon after only 1-2 weeks.  The comforting part was that  we found out that indeed, we had made BEER!  But it had a pungent green, sour apple taste as well as a lot of unfermented priming sugar.  

We let it condition another week or two and it became a very drinkable session pale ale.  Not amazing, but a solid B-/C+ for the style.

AHS Session Series American Pale (10A)
TD Brew Date: 10/01/11
Specialty malts: 1.0 lb total combined of pale chocolate malt, Crystal 20L, Crystal 60L, Carapils® 
Featured hops: Galena (the most widely used commercial bittering hop in the U.S.)
Extract -  Liquid: 6 lb Liquid Malt Extract
Other additives: Malto Dextrin, BrewVint Yeast Fuel, BrewVint Alcohol Boost 
Yeast - Wyeast American Ale 1056


Todd

4 months of homebrewing, day 1 of blogging

TD Brewing is the home brewery of Todd & Dave - neighbors and brewing buddies from Marietta, GA.

• TD Brewing generally brews on weekends while watching our favorite football teams score TD's.  (TD Brewing appreciates double entendres almost as much as double IPA's. )
• TD brews at Dave's house because he has a temperature controlled basement and Todd does not.  
• TD brews in the garage because Dave's wife hates the smell of a good wort boil.  
• TD's mission is 1) learn how to brew some damn delicious beers; 2) drink other excellent beers as we brew; and 3) try not to drink so many other beers that we get drunk and brew beer that sucks.

We officially launched TD Brewing on 10/1/11 and my initial plan was to start the blog at that time, but we were having too much fun brewing.  We also have busy lives outside of making and drinking beer.  In the last quarter of 2011, we brewed and bottled our first 4 beers, so I am going to kick off this blog with a quick recap of those early beers.  We have ramped up production and already brewed 3 more batches in January 2012.  I expect to get things going with a flurry of activity to catch up on the last 4 months, and then it will even out.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew!
Todd