After four weeks of fermenting and slightly more than a week of aging in the bottles, I’ve finally opened my first bottle of homebrew beer.

Palett Taste: 7/10
The taste was definitely better than than the usual Tiger, Carlsberg, Tsingdao, etc. It’s also more bitter. Carbonation was good. Have bubbles coming up consistently like what we see in commercial beers.

After Taste: 3/10
After taste was not very good. The beer taste remained, but there was the wierd after taste that comes with young red wine. I am guessing that with age, the after taste should improve.

Initial Head: 5/10
It’s probably similar to Carlsbergs, but nowhere near the head we see in Erdingers though. Rated 5 because this is my first homebrew and I want to use this beer to benchmark future homebrews.

Head Retention: 5/10
The head disappeared within 10 minutes (okay I wasn’t timing). I want to use this to benchmark future homebrews as well.

Clarity: 7/10
Could easily be an 8 but I want to keep some ratings for future homebrews (rate too high later must rate above 10…). It’s clear like a lager, considering that I did not do any filtering. What’s more, the bottle that I opened was from the bottom of the fermenter.

Chris Rating: 6/10
Though the beer is definitely drinkable, I’m leaving more ratings for future homebrews, benchmarking with this beer.

Dear readers,

During my trip to Australia a few months back, I purchased a Cooper Microbrewery Kit after being inspired by Solidghost when he shared his home brewing experience. In many countries, home brewing is very common. Singapore however, has a small community of home brewers, probably because of the higher temperature that makes it a challenge to home brew.

Being a beer lover trapped in a country where alcohol is heavily taxed. Home brewing seemed like the perfect solution. In Singapore, individuals are allowed to brew any form of “fermentable” alcohol such as beer, alcohol, cider, sake, etc. legally for home consumption. The limit is 23 litres per month for beer, and another 23 litres for other forms of alcohol.

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