First off I was impatient with this brew. I know, bad thing, but I kinda wanted to start out that way so I could taste what it's like when you don't do it right.
So I made the Midwest Supplies Irish Red extract kit, left it in primary for 12 days (FG was stable 2 days in a row at 1.014) and bottled it. I tasted one 3 days after bottling (yep, impatient) and it was partially carbed and while I could finish it, it did not taste good. Now it's a week into carbonation and I tried another one. At this point the carbonation is just about perfect but the beer still doesn't taste terribly good. It's kind of sweet and has almost an alcohol like taste. It's not terribly strong, ABV came out to just a hair over 5%. It tastes like it has some potential but not like it'll ever be great.
The couple of questions I have is how much of this will clear up over time? I know time heals all with beer, I guess I can just throw one in the fridge every few weeks and see how they're turning out. It probably fermented a little warm as I didn't initially realize that fermentation ran warmer than ambient so it was sitting at about 68-69*F ambient during fermentation. I'll also definitely leave it in primary for 3 weeks from now on, I still had some yeast rafts hanging around the top and a few made it to bottles. I'm definitely using a strainer as I move to the bottling bucket next time.
But this is great, I'm definitely hooked. I'm doing a Belgian Trippel next that I'm going to let age for a bit and then turn around and do an IPA. I might start doing partial mashes but I don't think I'll be doing AG anytime real soon.
So I made the Midwest Supplies Irish Red extract kit, left it in primary for 12 days (FG was stable 2 days in a row at 1.014) and bottled it. I tasted one 3 days after bottling (yep, impatient) and it was partially carbed and while I could finish it, it did not taste good. Now it's a week into carbonation and I tried another one. At this point the carbonation is just about perfect but the beer still doesn't taste terribly good. It's kind of sweet and has almost an alcohol like taste. It's not terribly strong, ABV came out to just a hair over 5%. It tastes like it has some potential but not like it'll ever be great.
The couple of questions I have is how much of this will clear up over time? I know time heals all with beer, I guess I can just throw one in the fridge every few weeks and see how they're turning out. It probably fermented a little warm as I didn't initially realize that fermentation ran warmer than ambient so it was sitting at about 68-69*F ambient during fermentation. I'll also definitely leave it in primary for 3 weeks from now on, I still had some yeast rafts hanging around the top and a few made it to bottles. I'm definitely using a strainer as I move to the bottling bucket next time.
But this is great, I'm definitely hooked. I'm doing a Belgian Trippel next that I'm going to let age for a bit and then turn around and do an IPA. I might start doing partial mashes but I don't think I'll be doing AG anytime real soon.