Tasting our own beer, a Beer Saturday (well, Sunday actually) story

Two months ago I wrote about the beer we (my wife and I) were brewing. The brewing itself is easy enough. And it doesn't take much time, as it is done in a few hours.

The fermenting takes two weeks of waiting and enjoying the little bubbles in the waterlock. Then after two weeks it is time to put the brew in bottles, add a little suger and.... wait.

That's perhaps the hardest part. Because after the brewing and the fermenting, it's theriod that the beer is lagered in bottles that makes it really 'beer'. It takes time to mature and develop all the flavors. And although we were really curious how our own brewed beer would taste, we had to wait patiently. At least four weeks. And even better, eight weeks.

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So, there they were out little bottles. Silently doing their magic and becoming great bear. Put in the little side chamber, beneath a cloth to keep it dark. And week by week, the flavours grew, and it became harder and harder not to open one of them.

Then finally, after two months of waiting, came the moment we had waited for. We put some of the bottles in the fridge and waited another 24 hours for them to cool.

Sunday afternoon, when the weather is sunny, is a great time to taste some beer. So we opened the bottles, were a bit surprised by the foam bubbling out of the bottle and quickly poured the beer into a glass.

And then came the moment of truth. The taste of our own, home brewed Belgium triple. Full of anticipation we took out first sip, and....

... well, frankly, were a bit disappointed. It was a bit of an anti climax after all those weeks of eager anticipation.

It's not bad, certainly not. It's just not great. The taste is a bit like the taste of La Trappe triple, a Dutch trappist. It's not as well balanced though, and there's a bit too much alcohol. We did not measure it, but it tastes like it is well above 9%, perhaps even nearing 10.

So, here we are, drinking okay but not so great beer, feeling a bit disappointed, in the disconcerting knowledge we have to either drink 30 more bottles of it, or throw the lot away.

Difficult choice...