1st Brew Varies from Bottle to Bottle

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efreem01

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Hey all, I just started to seriously critique and drink my first brew (AHS English Ale):tank: . It's been bottled for three weeks now and i want to see how well i did. I drank five bottles so far.

The first (1 week) was absolutely putrid. :mad: Little to no carbonation, and it had a very harsh taste. Now i realize that this was in part due to my pouring the sediment at the bottom of the bottle into my glass (eww). The second bottle at 2 weeks was carbonated and definitely tasted like beer. But it also had a harsh flavor. It even had a harsh smell which was like cough medicine.

The third (2 weeks) was GREAT! I went to the bar and had a Bass Ale, and thought that i liked mine much more. It gave me a really big ego boost when my girlfriend (strictly a bud drinker) said she would drink it.

The fourth and fifth were varied. The fourth had a harsh flavor (sediment?). I think i poured the homebrew in with the sediment. The fifth, i was very careful not to add the sediment to the glass with the beer. But this bottle didn't have the body that the third one did. Or the sweetness to go with the bitter.

Is this normal? Why does the taste vary so much from bottle to bottle? Should i stir it next time in the bottling bucket?

FYI: This was an extract kit which followed the 1 - 2 - 3 rule to a T. All of the beers were bottle conditioned with corn sugar, and the bottles were sanitized with bleach and then put through the dishwasher.
 
I know that my beers as they age typically change flavor and get better and better. I have never used bleach to sanitize but a lot of people say there is a chance of it messing with the flavor? I've also never used the dishwasher because I don't think it cleans very well since the bottle openings are so small. I wash with a bottle brush and soap, then rinse with a bottle washer. Then I sanitize in a big bucket with star san. I have had zero incidents of off flavors thus far. Hopefully your beer just needs some more time to mature.



Dan
 
Not drinking all 48 (25 16.9 oz) bottles of beer in 2 months does sound like a tall order. I just popped two more in the fridge. I want to see if there's a difference having refrigerated them for > 6 hours or so. I usually just throw it in the freezer for 25-35 minutes and it's the perfect temperature.

To solve the drinking it all problem, i have another 5 gallons of beer which will probably get bottled a week from today. Tomorrow i'm brewing my third batch which is a Honey Brown Ale (Mini-Mash). I LOVE Brew Day!:mug:
 
When using bleach to clean with, make sure you rince really well with a lot of HOT water to neutrilize the chlorine in the bleach.
Stir your carbonating sugar (that has been disolved in boiling water and cooled) into your bottling bucket without getting any air into it. Don't splash in other words. This will mix the solution into your beer giving you more even carbonation.
 

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