Today the Mr. Beer West Coast Pale Ale I bottled as my first homebrew hit a solid two weeks in bottles. While that seems to be the lower limit of time a beer ought to spend bottle conditioning, I just couldn’t wait any longer.

Pssshhhh. The sound of gas rushing out of a bottle greeted me when I removed the shiny cap I’d crimped in place two weeks ago. At least I got the priming syrup right, and the beer was sufficiently carbonated. Pouring into a glass revealed great clarity, and a nice aroma. A head did form, but head retention was practically non-existent. As I’ve poured many a beer in to these glasses and been met with plenty of retention, I’ll go out on a limb and say the proteins required for head retention just weren’t there.

As for taste, you can taste the sweetness of the malt over any sort of hops Mr. Beer added to their hopped malt extract. For a beer with the words pale ale in the name, there was no hop bite at all. Drinkable? Indeed, but it’s not a recipe I’m likely to make again.

First homebrew

First Homebrew

Homebrew tasting video