Ah, Caribou Slobber….

If you purchase a beginner’s kit from a home brewing supply shop, you’ll likely get to choose from a few recipes to be included as your first brew.  I purchased my kit from Northern Brewer and chose Caribou Slobber.  It’s considered a clone of Moose Drool by Big Sky Brewing.  I had one taste tester guinea pig comment that it tasted similar to Newcastle Brown Ale, but better (yeah!).

This was a really easy recipe to follow and I thought it turned out amazing.  No bias – promise!  It was an extract kit for me but also included steeping grains so you get exposure to working with grains right away.  Some extract recipes use only liquid or dry malt extract.  The steeping grains add a little complexity to your brew like mouthfeel or give it a better head (foam) when you pour it into a glass.

I’ll try to stick to reviewing the brew instead of all the newbie stuff.  If you want to read about my first brewing experience, check out this post.

I didn’t transfer to a secondary fermentation on this but otherwise I followed the instructions.

This recipe comes so close to what I consider a perfect beer for me.  I got impatient and drank a few of bottles while it was still “green” and actually preferred it to the “finished” bottles.  There was a little more sweetness, of course, and not as much bitterness.  This is definitely not in the IPA range of bitterness and even the finished beer is well within my comfort zone.  It’s more of a clean finish than being really bitter.  The caramel and nutty malt flavors do a great job of balancing things.

The color is on the darker side, but don’t let that fool you.  This is a light tasting beer.

Caribou Slobber is a great first timer’s brew because it’s hard to screw up and tastes amazing.  It definitely boosted my confidence.  The reactions from people I gave bottles to were awesome, too.  A few of them couldn’t believe it was my first attempt.