As I have mentioned in a different post this is perhaps not the best way to go about it, but the best way to learn is from your mistakes and experience! Now, with a couple of brews under my belt and a recipe I am starting to like, I am still just as “beginner” as the next guy when sipping on the likes of some DPBC IIPA or some Kraken from Triggerfish.
A couple of things to consider for this however – most people do not understand terms such as efficiency, mashing, hop profile, off-flavors and all these wonderful “beer legalese” in use by brewers and beer nerds. Consequently they will not be able to properly express how they feel about your beer beyond an “ooohh, nice” or "erm, yeah that's ok, do you have any other beers?”.
The overall vote was that this was not a beer they would order at a bar, not a session ale and there is no defining character - almost like too many things have been added and there are too many things happening with nothing standing out to make it a good beer. As soon as someone said this, it made complete sense: I had tried to merge five different malts and four different hop varieties. Sure that can work, perhaps if you have been brewing for a decade, but not for me trying to put together my first recipe from random ingredients. This is going to be tough, but this is definitely going to be fun and a huge learning curve.
For some more pictures of our evening you can check out the gallery otherwise be sure to check back to see how Volume 2 played out, pretty sure my Black Rye will be a hit.
Salute!