Thursday, March 5th, 2009: It's been 10 days in total since I started my first batch of home-brew beer. It's been conditioning in the fridge for 5 days now. That means that it's supposed to be ready, and time to give it a taste!
TYPE: Beer Machine American Lager (note that the mix arrived with a small slit and a second small hole in the bag... I was told that it would still be usable, but I had my doubts)
APPEARANCE: Cloudy. Imagine drinking a glass of milk, then without rinsing the glass, pouring yourself a glass of apple juice. Actually, that's kind of the colour that the beer has as well. The head seems to linger much longer on top than you would expect a normal commercial lager to.
AROMA: It smells a bit like beer, but... sour. And not a "mmm... sour patch kids!" kind of sour. It's more like "oh no I dropped a lemon into my beer and left it overnight!" Not good. Not much in the way of noticeable hops aroma at all.
TASTE: The first thing to hit my tongue is an intense sourness. That quickly gives way to a taste more of what you would expect from a Budweiser or something, followed by an aftertaste that just feels wrong somehow. The best way I can describe it is Corona left out in the sun for a couple of days... mixed with wood shavings. Sour wood shavings. I really have no good way to describe a beer that tastes this BAD.
OVERALL: It's safe to say that this first batch was a complete failure. I have no doubt now that the beer mix was tainted by outside contaminants as a result of the holes in the bag. I don't care what the lady on the customer service line said, that mix was no good. I'll stick to perfectly sealed mixes from now on. Bottom line... I wouldn't make anyone drink something this terrible. This batch is getting dumped. I'm going to completely re-sterilize the machine, and start either today or tomorrow on a batch of Irish Stout, which conveniently should be ready just in time for St. Patty's Day!
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