#11 Homebrew - Red Ale

This is my first homebrewed beer. I made it from a "Red Ale" beer kit bought at Worm's Way a local homebrew and gardening store. This beer fermented for 6 days and has been in the bottle for 3 weeks by the time of this tasting. I started drinking it after 1 week in the bottle. I haven't noticed much change in taste over the last few weeks even though the beer is bottle conditioning. I didn't use a Secondary fermenter which is required used to clarify beer in homebrewing.

Sweet caramel notes and light hops are present in the smell. Being a homebrew it's not filtered so the beer is a cloudy red color. There is only a very light carbonation and not the best head retention but the beer is carbonated so the bottling worked.

The sweet caramel smell stays in the taste along with a sweet fruit taste. The fruit taste has likely been caused by too high of fermentation temperature, well above 75 degrees when it should have fermented closer to 65 degrees. There is also some bitterness to the beer that I hope is caused by the bittering hops, but fear it could be some contamination. The local Homebrew club where took the beer did not mention noticing a yeast contamination so I could just be too worried about my own beer. There is some hop flavor to the beer but it is not strong and is overpowered by the sweetness.

Compared to the Killian's Irish Red a very days ago the bitterness and little hops is well appreciated alongside the malt sweetness. I am very happy with this beer and would love to make the same beer again.