Update from June 29, 2010 - First failure

I started this blog noting that I had recently come upon my first failure as a home brewer. On 29 June 2010, I wrote how my batch of American Amber had not carbonated correctly, leaving me with two cases of alcoholic sweet amber liquid. Time apparently heals all wounds, as I kept this batch of bottles stored away for several more months. In January I came to a decision that it was indeed time to open the bottles and dump.

I placed several in the fridge for cooling, giving the brew one last chance at redemption, and to my surprise, was rewarded with a familiar "pfst!" upon opening the first one. I poured it out into a pint glass, and was welcomed with a light bubbly head and bubbles rising from the depths of the glass. Seven months later, and it had finally carbonated.

The beer itself is rather good, a classic amber beer, light on hops, a little heavy on the malt for my liking, but an overall good beer. A good late-spring, early summer beer, when there is still a small chill in the early morning, for a weekend of preparing the yard for planting.

But something to keep in mind for the future, should I continue bottling. If you think you have followed all of the steps, and done things correctly, save the beer a little longer. Hopefully I will be moving toward kegging very soon (blog post coming on this soon), and will not have to worry about bottles much longer.

- Tom.