Happy Brew Year 

Ha! See what I did there? Super clever huh?  I slay me...

My brother and I have taken the plunge  and started down the popular road of brewing our own beer.  We brewed our first batch a couple of months ago.  Things went pretty smoothly except the brewing instructions blew (at least for actual noobs) and we ended up with a bit of a stuck fermentation.  After thinking we'd have to dump the batch, we salvaged it and had a successful bottling.

bottle, bottle, bottle

On Christmas day, we tried our first bottle.  Because of the stuck fermentation and a slightly low FG, we were afraid we'd be spitting the beer on the floor after the first sip but, thankfully, it wasn't horrid (no worse than Bud) but it wasn't exactly revolutionary.  

proper testing glasses

hmmm, it looks like good beer and smells like good beer 

but tastes like mediocre beer

Darren was happy enough.  The cat? 

Not so much.

Next step?  We've got a brew scheduled in a couple of weeks with a guy who actually knows what he's doing followed by an IPA brew of our own with astounding success (it pays to be upbeat).