Another of those "don't dump your beer" threads

So, my brother and I brewed a new recipe about 2 months ago, it was supposed to be a red. Well it most definitely was not a red then and still is not to this day. The 1/2 lb of chocolate malt (10 gallon batch) really screwed this thing up as far as color goes, dark brown, no red at all.
Anyway after this thing fermented out, we kegged it. After about 2 weeks in the keg I tasted it and hated it. The flavors were all over the place. Gave it another week tasted it, pretty sure it got worse. My brother actually didn't mind his keg, he said it wasn't his favorite, but he had tasted worse. He named his "Brown Eyed Red Head", I just call it "Brown Eye".
Back to it, I let it go for another week, still could not pallet this beer, whatever flavor I was tasting, really disagreed with me.

I started thinking about doing the unthinkable, and dumping 5 gallons of beer, I just did not like this beer. My brother said he would take it, but didn't really sound excited about 5 more gallons of crap.
Well last night my brother called me up telling me how wonderful the "Brown Eye" had become, how even his wife thought it was wonderful. I didn't really believe him. Well today I get home, and decide to pour myself the "Brown Eye", and low and behold, this beer had completely transformed from a steaming pile of poo, to a wonderfully clean malty love affair. I am honestly shocked that this is the same beer that I HATED just 1 week ago, its flavor profile had matured to be a thing of beauty. I would actually love to brew this again, just knowing to let it age out for at least 8 weeks.
Morale of the story, don't dump those beers! Some are just ugly ducklings, they just take awhile to evolve into something beautiful.

+1

I told you not to dump it and it turned out to be a good beer (more brown than red). And it was not chocolate malt it was the .7lb roasted barley and .4 lb Crystal 120 that made it a little too dark for a red.

Chowe, admit it, you were not pleased with it until yesterday.
So I got an ingredient wrong, I drink beer!

8 weeks is when I generally drink most of my beer. I would not really consider 8 weeks as any kind of "aging". I usually go 3 weeks fermentation, 3 weeks conditioning, and then start to sample. But, 8-12 weeks is usually about the prime drinking time frame depending on style.

Braufessor said:

8 weeks is when I generally drink most of my beer. I would not really consider 8 weeks as any kind of "aging". I usually go 3 weeks fermentation, 3 weeks conditioning, and then start to sample. But, 8-12 weeks is usually about the prime drinking time frame depending on style.

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I would agree, our beers usually taste best after 8 weeks, (this one was actually 9 weeks, thanks Chowe for the confirmation). However, typically I can taste once fully carbed and know where the beer stands, I don't usually dump it out in disgust as I did with this one.

I remember tasting my Belgian blonde (a Leffe clone) after four weeks in bottles (four weeks in primary)... man, was I disappointed.

It was amazing what a few weeks did for it.

Knee jerk reactions are usually not a good thing.