Homebrewing Beer Tasting

   
   Ever thought of brewing your own beer?? Home and micro-brewing is becoming more and more popular these days. Not only do you control what goes into your beer but it’s also interesting to learn the process of beer making.  

We had our 2nd Ladybrand Beer Maker’s Get Together last Friday evening. We’re a few people who brew our own beer in the area and we plan to get together every now and then to taste each other’s brews and discuss brewing techniques. We had snacks, boerewors rolls and I made a chocolate stout cake for pudding.

Marc’s last stout was very gassy. At first we had no idea what could have caused the gas overload but Werner, who recently attended a beer making course, told us that is was probably due to a wild yeast infection in some of the bottles…eew…sounds terrible…but it makes sense.

The evening was most enjoyable and interesting. We evaluated and tasted 14 different home-brews. I made a sweet pineapple cider but it tasted too good to be part of the formal tasting.;) We kept a score sheet while tasting the beers. This forced everyone to really think about the taste, appearance and smell of the beer. Marc’s beers did very well and he had all 3 of his beers in the top 5. In first place was Marc’s All Day IPA, Karl’s Porter received 2nd place, Marc’s Stout and Weiss Beer came 3rd and 4th and in 5th place was Ian’s Pilsner. Werner’s beers didn’t get top scores but he should get extra points because he makes his beers from scratch and sources his own ingredients.

The easiest way to start brewing your own beer is to buy a beer brewing kit. The beers that tasted the best were those made from beerlab kits. Choose a kit that gives you grains and not just liquid. It’s more of a process to make but it tastes much better! It takes about 4 weeks for a batch of beer to be ready for drinking. 🙂

“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.”