Block Party Amber Ale Beer Recipe Kit

I actually brewed this for our annual block party this year. For me it could have used a bit more hops but generally all comments were favorable on the taste of this beer. I will be brewing again for next years block party and will do a neighborhood poll for the style to brew.

We've had lots of amber ales over the years ranging from malty, caramel, sweet to fairly bitter. This has light flavors of rich, caramel, and malt. It's not a bad amber, but we weren't really impressed. Not bitter at all which is fine. Someone mentioned it was alright, wouldn't win any awards, and another said it was just average. I agree with both. I expected more pronounced flavors. Won't buy again.

It was not exactly what I was looking for but it was good enough that I ordered more.

I'm totally new to brewing. I had planned to go all in with full grain equipment, but after talking with some friends decided to start small with extract. I bought minimal equipment, except for a killer craigslist deal on a kegerator. This kit was unbelievably easy to brew. I tasted after 10 days of fermenting and it seemed good, so I kegged it and force carbed. Another 2 days and I was drinking a very pleasant amber ale! Friends can't believe how good my first brew turned out. 2 weeks later and it's nearly gone ☹️. I have two taps, and plan to keep this on one for the foreseeable future!

I finally began brewing this beer Sunday. After pouring the wort into the fermenter, I waited for the temperature to go down to 71 degrees as the printed instructions stated to put the yeast in. Since it did not get down to listed temperature, I stored the wort, covered, in my basement. On Monday, the temperature was down to 79 degrees. Since it was not 71, I waited. Tuesday afternoon, the temperature was down to 77. I was getting worried because I didn't think it would ever get to 71. Because I did not have the printed instructions that came with the kit on hand, I looked at the recipe I downloaded. Those instructions said that the yeast should be added when the temperature was down to 78 degrees. The two different recipes gave me cause to be concerned about the status of the brew. Because the wort felt cool, I decided to follow the on-line recipe instead. I'll see how the beer comes out in 2 weeks.