Tasted Red Ale

I cracked open my Irish Red Ale for the first time tonight. Really great head, stays pretty long. The aroma is a little banana-ish. I think that's a sign of fermenting a bit too high. I was in the low 70s which would make sense. I couldn't find a good temperature range. Yeah, so this won't win anything, but it'll be a good test to see if I'm right after I get my results back from the NHC. The first thing I taste is caramel. I'm digging that. I'm not sure if it's appropriate, but it's pretty tasty. It's from the CaraRed and Crystal. I get a bit of fruity hop flavor. At the very end I'm tasting a roastiness aftertaste. I can't tell if there's an off-flavor at the end or if it's just a roasty grain flavor. I'm pretty happy with it.

NHC 2009

I entered my first two all-grain beers into the AHA National Homebrew Competition. The Robust Porter (aka Manual Porter) and an Irish Red Ale I've yet to taste. I called that one O'Shilly Red, but I'm sure that will not be my final name for the beer.

The competition is broken into two stages -- a regional round and a national round. I draw similarities here with American Idol. My beer is the cocky confident singer who strives to impress the judges with its perfection. Hopefully the beer is good enough and is not like one of those off-key losers they make fun of. I also hope that I do not get judged by the Paula Abdul equivalent. The fates will decide whether I survive the first round on the weekend of April 17-19 and make it to "Hollywood". The Hollywood in this case is in Oakland, CA. There will be up to 750 entries in my region -- the Northeast (CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) -- spread out into several categories and sub-categories.

I drove into Philly this afternoon to drop off my entries at Home Sweet Homebrew on Sansom St. I'm glad it's close. I feel weird about mailing beer somewhere. In ten years of brewing, I've never entered this national competition. The goal is to be in the top 3 in "12B Robust Porter" and "9D Irish Red Ale" so I can GO TO HOLLYWOOD, BUT ACTUALLY OAKLAND! I should find out how I do by the third week of May. Wish me luck!