Taste before bottling?

Hello,
I'm new to the form and to home brewing. I have my first batch fermenting now and i'm 10 days in and almost ready to bottle. I was just wondering if you should taste your beer before you bottle? If there is a problem will you be able to tell? Will it taste like the finished product just with out the carbonation? I would hate to bottle it all then have it taste like crap. Please help.....
Thanks

Pull a hydrometer sample, check the SG and then taste the sample. Write down the SG reading and repeat 3-4 days later. You'll be able to taste off flavors in the sample. If it doesn't taste right, chances are it just needs more time in primary. If you taste green apples, then the beer is still GREEN and not nearly ready for bottles.

Most styles of beer should taste pretty much like the finished product - just flat.

However, Besides sanitation, the hardest thing you are probably going to have to do as a new brewer is to learn to wait. Almost every beer tastes better with an extra week in the primary. If it is your first batch, an extra week is going to fix a lot of the flaws that it might have right now. Don't open it or peek at it, just let it sit there. Yeast have an amazing ability to fix mistakes if you just give them enough time. I know you want to get it in bottles and start drinking it, but nothing good happens when you try to rush beer.

10 days is pretty short. Give it another week in primary and then bottle. When you bottle it will taste pretty close to the final product. A month or more in bottles will make it even better.

billl said:

....the hardest thing you are probably going to have to do as a new brewer is to learn to wait. Almost every beer tastes better with an extra week in the primary.....

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+1

I usually taste a sample at bottling time. I have had some that just tasted flat, others that didn't taste very good. All of them tasted different when finished.

I had one that was in bottles for 2 weeks and I didn't particularly care for it. I waited another week and had one. What a difference! That batch was one of my best and didn't last real long.

Also I agree that 10 days in fermentation is pretty short. At least check your gravity over three days to determine that it has finished fermenting. I primary for about 3 weeks then bottle.

Taste the sample before adding the priming sugar.

I pull samples often, the best way to see how things are coming. At 10 days the beer will definitely be green however, don't be too quick to judge it.

billl said:

Most styles of beer should taste pretty much like the finished product - just flat.

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I was never more excited to say something tasted like "Warm, flat beer" than after pulling a gravity sample from my very first brew.