Failure.

It is with much sorrow and humility that I announce our first major failure in homebrewing: Half Batch Bitter.

Yes, this was a "left over" batch where we combined some extra malt extracts with 4 different hop varieties to make a half (2.5 gallon) batch. Our attempt was to brew an English Style Bitter. We failed.

The frustrating part is that it has been hard for Jason and me to figure out exactly what the off flavor is. The first word to come to mind for me was astringent. There is definitely a bitterness quality to it that is not the typical hop bitterness. Frankly, it is just plain unpleasant to drink. Down the drain it went.

Perhaps our wort was too concentrated. We did add an absurd amount of hops and the wort ended up looking like a witches brew: boil, toil, and trouble. Definitely trouble.

I tell myself that this is just a minor setback. In reality, I am nervous yet again about our current and upcoming batches. What went wrong? Anyone's guess at this point. It may take us six weeks to find out.

At the end of the day, or rather, the end of 6 months, 7 out of 8 is not so bad. Not too bad at all.

-nhc