Well, it’s been a week since I bottled my extract brew and today I just went and opened a bottle. Yes, I know, it’s too soon but I can’t help myself. I wanted to see how a 5 week old extract brew would taste like and well, it tasted great! As the previous article about the brew had stated, I had poured too much water into the fermenter. It was supposed to be about 22-23 litres but I went and dump up to 26 litres of water. This will result in a weaker and watery beer. I have to agree. The alcohol content is reduced as well. I believed that it is about 2-3% alcohol only. But it was surprisingly good. Not much carbonation or even head though. Yes, sure, it wasn’t that malty and we don’t get much of a mouthfeel in the beer, but it was refreshing, tasty and smells marvelous! Not too much bitterness too. I don’t really like bitter beer myself. I have known people who just love the bitterness, but not me. A little bitterness to combat the sweetness of the malt is okay, but excessive bitterness is always overwhelming.

One interesting thing to note is that the beer does taste a bit “sticky“. Can’t really explain it but the beer seems to stick in your mouth. After you drink the beer, you could still feel the stickness in your tongue. Could it be the rice maltose I added into the brew? Or it is because the beer is full of malt? Never tasted beer that have such a feeling before. Probably because I have only drank cheap lager beers before and they are definitely not malty at all. Or could it be the hops I used? I used the Super Alpha bittering hops as well as Cascade hops for flavouring. Don’t think either of them will add stickness to the beer. Or could it be that this is what they called body? My home brewed beer has body! Well, I guess I have no choice but to wait till my extract beer is properly carbonated and then share them with my friends and see what’s their take on this.

Well, I am going to start my Blue Mountain Lager brew tomorrow. I have prepared my bottles of boiled cold water and ice to cold down my wort. Well, I don’t have a wort chiller, so a cold sink will have to do. Wish me luck!