Review: Wells' Banana Bread Beer

Alright, here goes a first attempt at reviewing someone else's beer. But please be gentle. It's my first time.

Now that the requisite virginity joke is out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks: this is one fantastic beer. It is, according to other review sites (not to be found on the bottle or the company's site), an English Strong Ale, which apparently are "generally malty with minimal to low hop presence (beerpal.com)." That seems like a fitting description of this beer. Aside from the strong banana flavor, the primary taste is the malt, which mixes nicely with the fruity banana flavor. The hops are just along for the ride, though they provide a nice spicy undertone to the overall flavor and come through more strongly in the aftertaste. Sure, they might use 'banana flavor' in addition to their FairTrade bananas and natural mineral water, which might account for the rather intense (in my opinion) flavor. But that flavor, whatever its origin, balances and blends easily with the malts and hops. Each ingredient has its own role to play: the malts provide a base, ensure a certain stability and definition to the drink; the banana counteracts and balances the traditional malt flavor with a light and fresh feeling; and the hops leave just enough bittering, not too weak or too strong both in the initial taste and aftertaste, to leave you wanting more.
So the overall review for this beer? Outstanding? Excellent? How about just, you know, great. A fine and unique flavor that could have been a mess (I mean really, bananas? in beer?) but succeeds beautifully.

Let's take some time to talk about our first home brew. Steve and I, being interested in the art of science and fine alcohol, decided to craft a brew that we could call our own. We sang softly to the yeast as they developed into a beautiful ale.

So, how did it go? Surprisingly well actually. The type of ale we made was called a "highland heavy ale", as far as I know, it's a style common to Scotland. We wanted a dark, bitter, hoppy beer. That's exactly what this was. It's a little sweet and maltly, but finishes with a very bitter aftertaste. A taste which I have grown to love over the years. (I can thank Arrogant Bastard Ale for that).

Hopefully we will develop our craft and hobby further to make better, fresher, and beers with more character and body to them. Granted, I'm not positive what that all means, but hey, I'm still learning.

Growing our own hops?

While perusing the internet, I came across this on ThinkGeek.

It's a little greenhouse for growing your own hops, wheat, and barley. Cool! It probably doesn't make a whole lot, nor is it guaranteed to grow, but why not give it a shot. We can add it to our next creation to give it a kick of pure beautiful freshness.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/dd60/

Nut brown almost ready to bottle

I took a hydrometer reading today, reading 1.020. It's a little on the low alcohol side, about 3.8% right now, but pretty much right on target since we were aiming for 4%. Another day or two and we can take another reading.

Welcome, from Eric

Hello, Steve. I am glad to see we got this up and running. Hopefully we'll get some info up and running soon as well as some photos!

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to Eric & Steve's BrewBlog*! This will be a place for us to discuss beer and brewing, from reviews of anything we can get our hands on to our own experiences with homebrewing. And possibly anything else that strikes a fancy. So welcome and cheers!

*Name subject to change at a moment's notice