Drinking my first brew

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bennyd

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
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Location
Iowa
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Before

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After

It's been one week since bottling and in the name of the process I decided to cool one bottle and try it tonight. I was thrilled to hear a nice loud hiss when I cracked the cap. It had a nice foamy head that hung around until I finished the beer.

As far as taste goes, it had some of the flavors that I was really hoping for, but it was......the best way to describe it is...........off balanced. It was about what I thought a young, or green, beer would taste like. I'm really hoping for some of the flavors to mellow and others to come into their own over the next couple of weeks.

For those of you who try one or two beers early, about how much will the taste mature in weeks two and three of your carbing process?

EDIT: I'm a little ashamed of the glass......I'm a diehard Hawkeye fan and my brother gave me this Iowa Sate glass when he lived in Ames.......But it had beer in it..so.........
 
What was the beer style and recipe. It will definitely change over time, especially since it's only been bottled one week. It looks delicious and that lacing looks pretty good. Congrats!
 
Thanks. It was a Nut Brown Ale. It was an extract kit from Midwest. Actually, since it was my first one, I did a 20 minute boil kit. Canned and hopped LME, DME, and 1oz. of Williamette hop pellets.

I got a little more ambitious with my second brew. Maybe too much so. We'll see.

This one didn't taste bad. It just had a strange aftertaste. I could taste the sweetness I was expecting...but it was quite subdued. I don't think any were off flavors from any problems, I just think it was pretty young.
 
You probably need to give it another week. Most all the extract brews I've done seem to take about 2-3 weeks of conditioning depending on style, etc. However, I think drinking several samples throughout the conditioning process is a good learning tool. It looks like it has a great head on it, so you did something right. Cheers!
 
Thats' s awesome benny, Another 3-4 weeks, that brew will truly rock.

Thanks! The next few weeks are going to be tough. Especially now that I've had one.

When would you recommend moving these to a cooler spot or even the fridge?
 
Check out Revy's blog on bottle conditioning, it'll tell ya all you need to know. On darker brews, I condition mine 4 to 6 weeks. I can definitely tell the difference. The waiting kills me but when you pop one open after waiting the proper time, you relieve yourself of pointless concerns about the beer. If there are off flavors after 4 to 6 weeks THEN you have real data to research, figure out what might have went wrong, and work to correct on future batches, not a green beer making you needlessly concerned and charging off on wild goose chases. Good luck, looks like a fine first batch!
 
Frist thing you need to do is throw that glass away that is most likely the reason it is an ok beer and not a great beer! Go hawks :ban:
All kidding aside it looks great congrats on your first brew
 
HA.....I jokingly thought the same thing about the glass:D

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was just thrilled that it had a nice head that stuck around and it didn't taste like crap. Will definitely wait the proper amount of time.
 
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