I recently did my first BIAB (mini-BIAB) and after three weeks in the bottle I put one in the fridge earlier today.
I've been brewing 'enhanced' kits for 12 months and I was really interested to see if I could taste the difference between one of my Pale Ale kits (it's a clone of a well known Australian pale ale called Fat Yak) and my first all-grain brew.
It's fair to say that the BIAB takes a lot longer and is more involved than the kit so if I was going to continue doing BIABs I had to make sure that it was worth it and that the proof was in the tasting.
So, I poured two glasses this evening with a sampler of both of these beers.
Picture of both beers is attached.
The darker one on the left of the kit clone Fat Yak, the one on the right is my first NRBs American Pale Ale (recipe done using the BIABacus on this very site).
My first impression of the NRB was that I liked the colour, the head was good although it didn't last too long, it was not too heavily carbonated which I liked.
Now on the tasting front, I'm a complete novice in this regard with regard to picking flavours such as malt and caramel and so on so part of the reason to write this post it to ask others, from a tasting perspective, how would you describe this NRB APA?
So, I tasted my kit beer first and I'm familiar with it as I've had the odd bottle on and off for the last 6 months, it's a kit so it is what it is.
Then tasting the NRB brew I was really happy to notice that there was a huge difference compared to the kit. The kit beer all of sudden tasted very 'thin' and lacking body and flavour. The NRB brew when I would first take a mouthful I was getting this hit of malt, it was like I was tasting the malty grains, I could really taste it (maybe even too much?), it wasn't sweet or anything and then near the end I was getting the mild bitter/hoppy flavour coming through. It had a nice full bodied feeling in the mouth compared to the watery feel of the kit and it just packed in so much more flavour.
Overall I was very happy with it and really happy to see the effort of the all-grain brew making a massive difference (this is probably obvious to the rest of you but was great to taste it first hand for myself).
I do like these American Pale Ales and after tasting this all-grain one of mine, it'll be hard for me to go back to drinking the kits!
So was hoping for some thoughts on this NRB APA and other people's thoughts as to the taste and flavours you should expect in it and whether my descriptions above roughly seem to match the accepted opinion on this beer.
Thanks
1st BIAB NRBs APA vs Pale Ale Kit - taste test
Post #1 made 10 years ago
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by chesl73 on 31 Oct 2015, 18:36, edited 1 time in total.
