Homebrewing recipes and extract kits are a little more difficult to review than commercial beer mainly because there are a lot of factors that go into it. Whether the conditions, sanitation, freshness and so on are correct will really determine if a recipe is a success or a failure. I had a Schilling recipe that looked good, but the beer didn’t turn out as good as I thought it would. So I can’t review it until I at least try the recipe two or three times. So rest assured that any homebrewing recipes that I post on here and review will either be complete failures, successes or just plain ol’ interesting.

So that brings me to an extract Northern Brewer Pale Ale kit that I brewed up a couple months ago. I’ve done this recipe twice and the only difference between the first and second was that I reused the yeast from the first to the second. Pitched right on top of the old cake. Anyway, this brew passed BJCP judging with a 27, which is good, and I thought I’d share it with you as extra pale ales are some of my favorites.

You can read about my brew day here. Homebrewing Northern Brewer Extra Pale Ale 1040 -Reusing Yeast

Review of Northern Brewer Extra Pale Ale 1040

Appearance

A deep golden color that is surprisingly spot on for an extract kit. It’s clear even though I didn’t use a secondary, so there is no yeast floating around in there. The head is a coarse, bubbly white, but doesn’t stick around very long.

Smell

A definite cascade aroma. Floral and citrus, but the malt breaks through and entices my tongue. And that is really what this simple beer is comprised of. Tons of malt.

Taste

A decent mixture of malt and bitterness that I think has balanced a little better with age.  It is heavier on the malt side, and I agree with the judges on that. It does taste pretty good though.

Mouthfeel

Even with some extra aging it still is low on carbonation which gives it a bit of a flat feel. At first my tongue tingles but its just the hop acids attacking my taste buds, not fizzle from the bubbles. It is very smooth and has a medium body to it that feels a little bit like a mouthful.

Drinkability

For me, it’s high. I love EPA and for me this one rivals and Summit EPA. If you’ve had the Summit EPA it is better balanced than this beer, but this brew definitely reminds me of it. It’s not over whelming one way or the other and I can definitely drink a few of these.

Overall

This kit and recipe are good. It wasn’t hard to brew and it turned out solid both times I made it. I didn’t see much difference between the first batch to the second batch reusing the yeast other than it saved me $7.  So if your looking for a good Extra Pale Ale Extract Kit, Northern Brewer’s 1040 is pretty good.

How bout you?

Have you brewed this one up? What were your results like?

Buy Northern Brewer’s 1040 is pretty good.

The day finally came where I could try the Northern Brewer Bourbon Barrel Porter I homebrewed, what seems like, a long time ago! This homebrew has been about a 12 week process to get to the point where I really enjoy it as a treat! I brewed up the extract version of this beer which has attributed to it being a little bit darker than a porter would be according to the style. However, the flavors are right on! I thought the kit was relatively easy to follow and yielded a pretty good result.

Review of Northern Brewer Bourbon Barrel Porter

Appearance

The brew pours a pretty deep black. This is a bit off from the style, mainly because its an extract with a ton of “dark” malt. It has a nice brown head. The head didn’t stay around a long time for me, but that could be in my process.

Smell

Sweet. There is a hit of vanilla and bourbon, but it is an overall sweetness that I can’t attribute to one specific component. It could be the chocolate, vanilla, caramel or a combination of them all. The hop aroma is pretty non existent. I do get a tinge of alcohol, but completely bearable.

Taste

Pretty good. Its sweeter than expected. I believe this would make a good night cap or breakfast beer as it stands now. I compare it to a cold coffee as I get some coffee under tones, but it is balanced nicely with all of the chocolate and vanilla.

Mouthfeel

A bit thicker, but I’m ok with that. It has a real smooth mouthfeel that attributes to a smooth after taste.

Drinkability

It is good, and I could probably do 2 or 3, but it definitely isn’t a session beer. The sweetness would eventually get to me after a bit of time. I did mention I think this would be perfect with some bacon and eggs though in the early am and could  be a real good hangover beer.

Overall

Northern Brewer Bourbon Barrel Porter Extract Kit is completely worth giving a try. It is a little bit more expensive to brew coming in at around $32 for the kit with an addition of half a bottle of booze to it, puts the kit at around $55. However for 54 beers of this quality, its about $1 a bottle, which you’ll never get in a store. However, it wasn’t overly complicated and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve had so far.

Changes

Next time I brew this, and I will, I’ll probably add more oak and more bourbon. I tend to like a more distinct alcohol flavor in a beer like this. I feel that would balance well with an added wood and vanilla flavor from the oak. It was definitely lighter in that department than I thought it would be.

Remember, if you want to get into homebrewing I’ve got a great article on getting started brewing my own beer that you should check out!

Six weeks has finally past and my second homebrew comes out of a quick cold bath in the fridge to get a tasting in my mouth for the first time. This last brew was actually my second time homebrewing and I ordered a kit from Northern Brewer, I ordered the “Bavarian Hefeweizen” and brewed up my batch. Here is exactly what the recipe looked like.

Bavarian Hefeweizen Northern Brewer Kit (extract)

5 Gallon Batch
6 lbs Wheat Malt Syrup 65% Wheat 35% Barley
1 lbs Dry Malt Extract Bavarian Wheat 65% Wheat 35% Barley
1 oz Tettnang Hops 60 Minutes
WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan

Bottled using 1 1/4 cups wheat DME.

IBU’s 12  | OG 1.043 – 1.009 | ABV%:4.0% – 4.2%

Schedule: 1 week primary – 2 weeks secondary – 3 weeks in the bottle

The Review

Obviously homebrewing can lead to different flavors from one person to another so I won’t get to stringent on all of the characteristics but I do have to say that I pretty much followed the recipe to a “T” and what I got doesn’t look like a Bavarian Hefe to me. It actually looks a lot like my first Hombrewing Brewer’s Best Red Ale.

I was expecting a much more golden wheat color and beer calculus tells me a “light yellow” and I got more of a red color. This beer actually reminds me of a Dunkelweiss.

Difficulty

Easy

This recipe was really easy. It is all malt and little hops. It truly is a recipe that once you put the hops in you can pretty much walk away from it till 60 minutes is up.

Appearance

Very little head, even after warming it up a little bit. However, I do get some bubbles sticking to the side of the glass on the way down. The color is a deep ruby red with some crisp looking carbonation.

Taste

Like I said, it tastes more like a Dunkelwiezen than anything else. It has a bit of spice, like nutmeg or some other holiday spice, but what really comes through is the banana characteristic. If I burp, I get bananas. There isn’t much for hops in this recipe and it tastes like it. Much more sweet and citrus than hoppy.

Smell

Smells a little bit caramelly and a little spicy. NO hop aroma at all. Suppose there wasn’t any aroma hops so that is to be expected.

Drinkability

If you can get past the fact that this is not a Bavarian Wheat and more of a Dunkelweiss, you’ll really enjoy this brew. My wife loves these so I’ll kindly wait my turn.

Overall

Easy to brew, quick turnaround, decent alcohol content coming in at just over 4% ABV so if you are looking to bridge a gap in your brewing schedule and you like something a little sweeter, this is a good go to.

You can read more about the process here, Homebrewing – The Second Experiment

Brewer’s Best Red Ale Review

Overall

I don’t think I could mimic this recipe and make it taste like this again. I think the factors of it being my first brew, not being sure I properly did a hot break, and then prematurely pitching yeast and the yeast not starting for 6 days has attributed to the nuance flavors within this beer. However, my wife likes it and I think I may do it again sometime using WYeast. I encourage anyone to give it a try and tell me how it turns out for them, because this “Red Ale” does not fit the style profile laid out in the BJCP guidelines. The citrus and spice through it way off.

Ingredients

6.6 lbs of Light Liquid Malt Extract

8 oz Crystal 120L

1 oz Chocolate

1 oz Willamette Bittering Hops

1 oz Willamette Aroma Hops

1 Package Dry Yeast (Muntons Brand)

IBU’s 19 – 23 | OG 1.048 – 1.052 | ABV%: 5.0% – 5.5%

What I Did

This was the first batch I ever brewed, for more on that debocal read “My First Homebrewing Experience“. I started off by bringing my water up to about 150 to 160 degrees. Once at a solid temperature I put my specialty grains into a grain bag and steeped them in the water for about 20 minutes. Once the grains were steeped I took them out and threw them in the garbage.

I brought the wort to a boil and added all of my LME making sure to slowly pour it in so I didn’t burn any to the bottom of the pot. After the LME was all stirred in and the wort came back to a boil I added my 1 oz of bittering Willamette hops. I pretty much left it at a rolling boil for 55 minutes at which time I added my aroma Willamette hops.

After the 60 minutes of boiling were up I put the pot in a sink full of ice water. During this time I filled my primary fermenter with 3 gallons of cool water. Once the wort was cooled down enough, I did not adhere to the proper temperature, I believe it was 90 degrees when I moved it into the fermenter. Once combined I mixed it up and waited impatiently until 78 degrees at which time I took a gravity reading that fell within the range, so I pitched my yeast and shook it up again.

It took 6 days to start fermenting. Once it started fermenting I let it do its thing for about 8 days. I did not move it into a secondary, I just went on to bottling where I used priming sugar to naturally carbonate the brew. I let the bottles condition for 2 weeks before cracking one open.

Review

Appearance

It is very red with highlights of blond if held up to the light. It is very cloudy, probably because of the single stage fermentation and the lack of any type of protein clarifier during the brewing process. The head on this beer is not very strong and usually is gone with in a minute or two. Very disappointing as I thought it would be very fluffy when fermenting.

Smell

It has a distinct citrus and spicy smell. Which I find interesting since I did not put any spice in it. The hop aroma is very low but there is a definitely an effervescent smell coming from my glass.

Taste

Homebrew is always interesting to taste because it seems to change from day to day. During the “peak” time of drink this homebrew I think it tastes a lot like it smells. It has a citrus flavor but is complimented by a nutmeg and all spice that surprises you. Without the second stage of fermenting there is definitely a taste of yeast in it.

Mouthfeel

The natural conditioning always seems to have a more crisp tingle on the tongue than force carbonation or nitrogen tablets. The beer is what I guess I would consider medium body, basically a step up from light “watery” beer. Personally, the tingle is where it is at.

Drinkability

As a first homebrew, the drinkability is moderate. I think the most I’ve drank in a sitting is 3. The flavor starts to wear on me and the yeast starts to leave an after taste in my mouth that I’m not a big fan of. It also came in at a low 3.7% alcohol which is a bit weak.

Difficulty

This kit was not hard at all. It has some steeping and two hop additions, but they are completely manageable and the turnaround on the kit can be as little as 4 weeks if you wanted. A great beginner recipe.