Well, here’s where I start writing about all the different small-batch homebrews I’ve been making.

Here are the basics about these beers:

• They’re all one gallon batches. This means I only get about nine bottles of beer. Which means, if you get to drink one you should feel LUCKY, because I’m not very good at sharing and I’d rather just drink them all myself.
• I’ve been making my way (somewhat randomly) through the Brooklyn Brew Shop beer making book that my gal gave me a couple years ago. Occasionally I’ll add different ingredients, or use different hops or grains, but I usually stick pretty close to the recipe because I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING and I’m a little afraid that I’ll brew something that will KILL ME.
• I sometimes listen to records while I brew and then write about them.

That’s pretty much it. So, now, on to the first Homebrew Review:

First up is the Grapefruit Honey Ale I brewed back at the end of August. I hadn’t done a homebrew since April, and then I found this Brooklyn Brew Shop ingredient kit at a grocery store and remembered that we had a grapefruit at the house which was about to go bad. So, I thought, “WHAT THE HELL,” bought the kit, and made the beer.

I had bottles to drink by the beginning of October and they turned out pretty good. Nice grapefruit smell and a little bit of a hoppy, bitter finish, but not too much. And a nice clean look to the beer. My only negative about this one was that I didn’t rack to a secondary fermenter, so there was a lot of sediment in the bottles which gave a slightly sour taste at the end if I wasn’t careful pouring the beer.

ANYWAY. I actually don’t care too much about that type of stuff. It tasted good. My gal liked it and she doesn’t usually go for bitter, hoppy beers. And it started me brewing again. So, mark it down as SUCCESSFUL. I’d include a photo of the finished beer, but the last one went down the hatch on Saturday night.