Quincy Ek Review

So my first beer was a good experiment, but I did make some mistakes.

The taste of the beer was somewhat cidery and with a strong green apple note. I have been reading How to Brew by John Palmer, and that indicates that I had excess Acetaldehyde. I believe that the reason for this is because the yeast that came with the kit might have been old, since I did follow the 2-2-2 rule for this beer. One reason I believe this is because there was little or no Krausen in the fermenter. Looking into the fermenter for my new batch, I can see that there is a thick layer of Krausen already.

Because of the weak yeast, the sugar I added to the bottles to carbonate my brew wasn’t converted into carbon dioxide. I did not put enough sugar in to begin with, but had I put more in, I believe that it would have just exaggerated the sugary, cidery taste.

In order to correct this in my next batch, I will make sure to re-hydrate the yeast (and perhaps make a yeast starter.) Also, I found a calculator when it comes to bottling, so that I can add the correct amount of sugar to the bottles.

Quincy Ek Photos

Here are some photographs of Quincy Ek, my first homebrew.

These will be ready to drink this weekend. I definitely had some issues when it came to carbonation, but I found a nice calculator online that should help me avoid these in the future.

I opened up a few last week, and I have found that they have a distinct and pleasant apricot taste.

Quincy Ek

Here’s the label I am working on for my first beer. I still need to print this out and see how the colors come out. Let me know what you think!