Plastic vs. Glass bottles

I noticed something when I was trying some of my home brewed beer recently. I used some recycled glass bottles for some of the beer and for the rest I bottled it in plastic bottles that came with the kit. I recently tried some out of a plastic bottle for the first time, and the beer was noticeably more carbonated and had a much richer head to it than the beer that was in the glass bottles. I suppose this could be because I was able to get a tighter seal on the plastic bottles than the glass ones, but I wonder what happened.

I tried the beer...

...and it was good! It's a pale ale, so it went down pretty smooth. It tasted like something you could buy, so I was pretty pleased with that. All in all, I'd call my first attempt at home brewing a complete success. I'll try to post a picture of what it looked like in the near future.

The beer is bottled!

This morning I bottled the beer that's been fermenting in my closet for the past two weeks. Now I just need to let it sit for a week or two, then give it some time for conditioning. I'm thinking it will be good to go just in time for the Super Bowl, if I can wait that long. I might have to sneak some before then and see what I have...

Update on brewing at home

So I could have bottled the beer which is currently sitting in my closet, getting all nice and ready for me. I tasted it and it tasted like very flat beer, which is good - that's how it should taste at this point. But I decided to wait and give it an extra week before bottling it for carbonation because if it was good after one week, it should be really good after two, right? Anyway, I plan on bottling it this weekend and then in a few weeks after that I'll hopefully be drinking it!
I'll let the world know how good it is when I try it.

New Cards and New Beer for a New Year

Well it's almost time to welcome 2009 and I've gotten back into collecting baseball cards, starting brewing beer at home and also started this little blog. In 2009 I'd like to beef up my Pirates collection and maybe complete a set or two, we'll see. I'd also like to brew a few different kinds of beers and experiment with some unique flavors - who knows maybe I'll stumble on something really tasty. As for the blog, I think I'll just keep writing about beer and baseball cards and we'll see if anyone in the whole wide internet actually reads it.

Home-brew

Today I started my first ever batch of home-brewed beer. My wonderful wife gave me a kit for Christmas with everything needed to make beer at home. So this morning I sanitized everything and brewed the wort and added the yeast and all that good stuff. Now the mixture is sitting in a closet away from sunlight and in a couple of weeks I'll bottle it and let it sit some more. When it's all done I'll sample it and let you know how it is!

Public Service Announcement

Just a quick reminder to support your local independent brewer(s). Have a beer - it's Saturday!

De Koninck

Today the spotlight swings from baseball cards to beer. Featured this evening is a Belgian beer called De Koninck Triple. It has 8% alcohol and a slightly sweet and hoppy taste. I've enjoyed this beer on a few occasions. Despite it's high alcohol content it is very drinkable and enjoyable. Next time you are some place serving Belgian beers, I'd recommend this little gem from Antwerp.

On another note, something I like to do whenever I go out for a beer is to try something I've never had before. I'll make an effort to make some mental notes and maybe snap a picture of what I happen to be drinking so that I can post here about it.