After I decided that it was time to brew my first beer I felt an immense wave of excitement coupled with a sneaking anxiety. I was thrilled to finally be able to try brewing, something that I'd wanted to do for a long time, but I was also nervous that I'd botch it the first time. This, of course, is a concern that I'm sure every new brewer feels the first time, but mine had more of an edge. If I screwed up this first batch I'd have to wait a few more weeks/months until I could get more supplies for another beer. As I said before, there are no homebrew stores in Taiwan, so I wouldn't be able to run down the street for another can of malt extract and some brewing sugar.

Nonetheless, I tried my hand at it anyway.

During my research previous to this first batch I found a fantastic youtube channel called Craigtube that had some great videos on how to brew with a Coopers kit for the first time, and other useful stuff. My thanks to Craig and his videos for giving me the step by step know-how I needed. Anyway, I pulled up one of Craig's videos I'd already watched about a dozen times and wrote out instructions for myself, leaving the video open and ready in case I wanted to review something. Which I did. A lot.

So, I sanitized the crap out of all of my equipment using Starsan and set my can of malt extract to warming. What followed was a slightly frenzied mixing of ingredients (which I will post below) and a few minutes of near panic at what I perceived to be mistakes that were going to ruin my beer. But, all in all it was great fun and before I was finished I couldn't wait to make another one.

The recipe:

1 can Lager malt extract
1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 1
Lots of love

One of my favorite parts was tasting some of the liquid malt extract after I opened it. Tasty stuff. Stirring everything together went fine and I scurried into my bedroom with my fermentor. I knew that this was a vulnerable stage for the wort and I wanted to get it topped up as soon as I could. Tap water in Taiwan is not drinkable and even if it were I wouldn't use Taichung city water to brew. So, I cracked a big Poland Spring type bottle and emptied it into the fermentor. After I had it topped off to the 23 liter mark gave it a good stir and got ready to pitch my yeast. At this point my thermometer showed the temp up around 34 degrees Celsius, or 93 degrees Fahrenheit for my fellow English systen barbarians. I pitched my yeast anyway and stirred it in, hoping for the best. Then I stood back for a second to admire my handiwork, before scrambling back into the kitchen to grab the frozen bacon and a bag of ice to try and bring down the temperature in my fermentor before finally getting to bed.

I kept the temp in the fermentor around 24 degrees or so, give or take a few (no I didn't write it down and yes I know I should have). The morning after I brewed I could already see condensation and the beginnings of a nice Krausen ring. I agonized over my brew like a newborn baby, checking it numerous times a day, just to make sure.

My original gravity was 1.032 and I reached final gravity a week later at 1.005. Then I bottled until 3am. That in itself was an adventure because in the months before I brewed I neglected to keep my stuff in the fridge (except for the yeast) and my carbonation drops melted together. So, some bottles got the regulation two drops per bottle, and some of the others I had to eyeball.

I waited the required two weeks, again checking my bottles numerous times a day, just to make sure. I wanted to wait a little longer to let the beer condition more...but I couldn't help myself.

So I took my bottle from the fridge, got a glass, a camera, and sat at the table. There was a lot of anticipation coursing through me at this point and I felt giddy as all hell. This was the moment of truth. I had waited 3 months to brew, a week to bottle, and now two more weeks to finally taste the fruit of my labors.

If there are any Beer-Gods, I probably said a quick prayer to them.

And then cracked my first beer.

After I poured it there was a head that was a good two inches tall and a nice beery aroma.

The first sip was amazing. Crisp, airy, slightly fruity, and a mouthfeel that was immensely different from the commerical beers I was used to. I suppose it was fitting that my first sip of homebrew was my own. In retrospect the fruity flavor should have been a flag but at the time I didn't really care all that much.

I had brewed beer that was actually not bad, even for my first time.

In closing I'll put up some bullet points of my notes that I took over a few weeks as my beer aged a bit (and steadily disappeared).

2 weeks

Good head retention
Sweet flavor/fruity tasting
Crisp and refreshing
Interesting mouthfeel

4 weeks

Darker color- more amber/orange
Smaller carbonation bubbles
Not as sweet in flavor, more beer-like.
Crisp

6 weeks

Amber/gold color
Great head retention
Fruity taste is more diminished

8 weeks+

Great color and a very pleasing taste. Some bottles taste a little more fruity than others despite aging of several months. The last few were a bit more fruity than the rest. Still, job well done!