Win, Lose, or Draw

To date, I've been a part of nine batches in my young brewing career. All batches were basic brews using malt extract, which is sort of like using instant coffee instead of grinding the beans yourself. Well, slightly more advanced in that they included the steeping of specialty grains for some added character.

Based upon my own criteria (i.e., my taste buds and those of others), I have a record of 4-2-3.

English Pale Ale: Win
My friend Tyler captained this brew day in June 2008. It was an introduction to homebrewing for me and two other friends, Luke and Eric. We all played a part in the process and the result was (surprisingly) really good. In fact, there's some debate as to whether this still stands as our best beer.

India Pale Ale: Win
Our brewing group grew to five with the addition of homebrewer Nick. I told my Portland, Ore., friend Jason about our pursuits and he promptly sent me a large Ziploc bag of hops that he had harvested from a plant in his backyard. Giddy with excitement, my brew friends and I took turns smelling the bag and were determined to brew a hoppy beer. (In fact, it was about this time that we assumed the name "The Hoplings.") We pieced together an India Pale Ale kit with help from our local homebrew store and cheered as we dumped every last hop leaf into the brew pot at the beginning of the 60-minute boil. Turns out, the beer wasn't that hoppy. But it was a decent pale ale that I would drink regularly if there was any left.

Raspberry Hefeweizen: Draw
This beer, brewed from a hefeweizen boxed ingredient kit the same day we brewed the above IPA, resulted in mixed reviews. In an experiment, fellow Hopling Nick added a bottle of raspberry flavoring to approximate something like Abita's Purple Haze—and to impress his raspberry hefe-loving girlfriend. His girlfriend claimed to like it but most of us thought it tasted too sweet.

Summer Ale: Loss
The Hoplings added yet another seasoned brewer to our ranks and by this point we were feeling pretty confident. As a result, we made the ambitious decision to brew three new batches and bottle the previously mentioned IPA and Raspberry Hefeweizen, all on the same day. Probably not the best decision for any of the beers involved, but this Summer Ale is the one that tasted the worst. Rather, it didn't really have a taste at all. Very, very bland. I ended up pouring it out after five of our six Hoplings got a chance to try it.

Amber Cerveza: Draw
Brewed alongside the aforementioned Summer Ale, this one was my early favorite from the three brewed that day. Soon after conditioning, it developed an odd metallic aftertaste that fortunately and inexplicably disappeared. The beer isn't big on flavor but seems to be decent for its style—especially with some lime juice added. Still suffers from a wet-cardboard off-flavor, which I've since read comes from aerating the beer too much while cooling and transferring. Lesson learned.

Extra Special Bitter: Draw
Hopling Tyler pretty much single-handedly brewed this ESB as the rest of us bottled two other beers. He used a recipe that he found posted at a local homebrew store. Shunning the box kits for a more a la carte approach, he turned out a beer that had more body than anything we'd produced to that point. If you ask Tyler, this one should go in the win column. Unfortunately it's plagued by a really pronounced wet-cardboard taste so we'll call it a draw.

Irish Red Ale: Loss
For my first solo brew, I picked a recipe from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. It required the toasting of some grain, which turned out to be a double-edged sword. On the plus side, grains toasting in your oven make the house smell amazing. On the other hand, they may have ruined the beer. I've since learned that you should allow toasted grains to rest for a several days before brewing with them. Mine went straight into the brew pot. As a result of that, or a broken thermometer, or both, this beer was incredibly husky tasting. Bottom line: undrinkable.

Fat Tire Amber Ale clone: Win
Fellow Hopling Eric wanted to brew a beer on his own to learn the whole process firsthand, and I sort of supervised—despite not really being qualified to do so. The result is a really solid beer that has been well liked at parties. Not sure I can really take credit for this one but I need all the "wins" I can get at this point.

Chimay Premiere Red Belgian Ale clone: Win
I had my first Chimay a few months back while at Nashville's Flying Saucer location with fellow Hopling Kevin. It was the Premiere Red and I was blown away. The desire to make a clone of this beer—for both educational and budgetary purposes—moved it to the top of my "To Do" list. Using the recipe from the book Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers, I made this as my second-ever solo batch. The brew day was my worst yet, with countless numbers of mistakes, accidents, and curse words. And although my original gravity reading (a measurement one takes using a hydrometer and a sample of the unfermented beer to indicate how much fermentable sugar it contains) came up well short of the recipe's target, the finished beer turned out to be my favorite of all those listed here. My first really satisfying win.