Two weeks of waiting, followed by a day of chilling in the fridge and then the moment of truth.

Opening the first bottle of homebrew.

I’ll admit, this shouldn’t be such a moment fraught with anxiety. If you’re a competent homebrewer you should have consistent success, you methods should be tested and true. Brewing should be a road to success, not a trip marked by pitfalls and wishful thinking.

But alas, for the humber amateur like myself I can never say I don’t have some trepidation as I put the bottle opener to that first 22 ounce bottle. Will it be skunky? Will it have a weird aroma? Will it be — gasp — flat?

Turns out my last batch was the perhaps the worst, flat as can be. It tastes good, it’s a little darker than I hoped but still doesn’t look bad, it has a nice finish but no bubbles. I’ll blame it on two things, waiting to long to bottle condition, not monitoring my fermentation well enough and also using the tabs of sugar rather than dosing out priming sugar.

I now have two cases of flat beer. Like I said, it tastes OK, but it’s flat. I resolve my next batch will receive my utmost attention and care. It shall receive a correct amount of carbonation sugar and I will ensure I still have healthy yeast to make it to the carbonation finish line.

As with all hobbys, one must not be daunted by failures but rather learn from them to achieve future success.