First Brew tasting

I was unsure that the brew was fermenting, as there were no bubbles whenever I checked. Then the bad (read: useless) bottle capper meant that there was such a loose seal that the beer didn't carbonate. This also led to a lack of cleaning of the bottles after the bottling as I didn't want to disturb the delicate seal. This caused mold, so I had to clean and dry the whole batch.

After purchasing a better bottle capper and re-sugaring the bottles (and waiting about 2 weeks) - Tasting time!

So bearing in mind that it was a bare bones homebrew kit (no dry malt extract - DME, hops etc.) it tasted like a slightly carbonated malty cordial with a slight apple aftertaste. I'd give it a 2 out of 10. Alcohol content really isn't a concern for me, it's all about flavour. But I would estimate about 4% due to some unreliable gravity readings.

The lessons learnt from this brew are:

1. Don't skimp on a bottle capper - buy a good one!
2. Dextrose is good but still gives a slightly appley after taste.
3. No DME makes a fairly body-less beer.
4. Thoroughly wash and dry the bottles after bottling and muck on the outside will cause mold.

So now I'm making a Coopers IPA to hopefully bring out some true flavour. I have used DME instead of half the sugar, and after reading up on other people's blogs and tasting the malt extract I decided to hold back on adding any extra hops.

So I'll report back with the results :)