What a difference just a week makes!

I just started to get into my first batch (IPA) and I am just amazed at how much the beer improved from week 2 to week 3 in a bottle. After 2 weeks it had a noticeable sweetish burning. Not sure how to describe it but it's the same flavor I have noticed a lot in New Belgiums Trippel. Anyway, fast forward a week and that taste is all but gone. I plan to every few days drink a bottle or two just to learn the progression of flavors but so far, damn. What can I say, you guys are right yet again, waiting is worth it!

Side note, brewin batch 2 tonight or tomorrow. The irish red ale from morebeer, anyone had any experience with this one?

It just gets better. I have been letting mine sit 6 weeks in the bottle before tasting. Yes, its hard to do but I have found, well worth the wait. But what's interesting is that it just gets better and better. I'm down to the last few bottles of a couple of batches I bottled right before Christmas and they are at their absolute best. If I could stand to wait 3 months before tasting I would but I definitely can't wait that long.

Dennis

Dennis1979 said:

It just gets better. I have been letting mine sit 6 weeks in the bottle before tasting. Yes, its hard to do but I have found, well worth the wait. But what's interesting is that it just gets better and better. I'm down to the last few bottles of a couple of batches I bottled right before Christmas and they are at their absolute best. If I could stand to wait 3 months before tasting I would but I definitely can't wait that long.

Dennis

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Well I figure if I get on the right brewing schedule I can have a batch fermenting, a batch aging, and a batch getting drank at any given time. Basically the circle of life.

Dionysos911 said:

Side note, brewin batch 2 tonight or tomorrow. The irish red ale from morebeer, anyone had any experience with this one?

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I wish I would have had the ability to make even 20 gallons of the B3 Irish Red. My sister who has never had a homebrew took home 6 bottles. My mother, who never drinks beer took 3. Finally, my stepdad, who, so far as I know, only drinks yellow fizzy beer also took 3. Needless to say, that kit went fast.

Aging is good and an IPA was originally intended to spend some time in the bottle before consuming, but now we like it full of hops.

I tasted tested my hydrometer reading of my RIS after 4 weeks and it definitely has some more refining time to go. I am going to try and hold off another month and then bottle and wait until it cools down next November before I crack one.