How impatient are you?

What is the earliest you've cracked a freshly bottled homebrew "just to see how it is"? I opened the IPA I bottled 3 days ago to find it looking and tasting amazing already. Only a bit on the sweet side, but nice color and head starting already.



So, how impatient are you?

LOL, not that impatient!

2 weeks is the shortest!

Pappers said:

LOL, not that impatient!

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What can I say?

one week on my first brew and regreted it

Ok, OK, I'm w/ ya. Not enough in the pipeline to be too patient. I have opened a brew not more than 5 minutes after bottling, just to check if "I was it doing right". Typically from from week 1 on I check every few days. I know enough to wait, but god damnit this hobby is enjoyable. But yes I know it get's better w/ age. But if it tastes great to you and you feel like drinking it, no one can tell you you're wrong!:rockin:

Now that I have about 25-30 gallons in the pipeline I am remarkably patient.

Just depends on how much I really want that beer. If I have a keg full of RIS and it is a hot day. Well yep that 1 old bottle IPA is going to die!!!

I'm still fairly new to brewing, so I like to pop a bottle every week, just to see how the carb'ing is coming along.

Oh yeah, I usually cap and chill that extra half bottle or so and drink it within an hour or two of bottling, just important to know that what you taste wont be much like the final product.

Everyone goes through this, but it goes away eventually.

I'm not impatient. Curious maybe. Four days in the bottle has work very well for me many times. Not so well in the keg. Bottles clear faster and have better flavor faster. What I have from a bottle in a week takes two or three in a keg.

One time I bottled a stout, put it in the basement, and tried it after 3 days. Yuck, I think the yeast were just getting started on the priming sugar or something, it was disgusting and I couldn't finish it. Other than that, sometimes I'll try one after a week but usually longer. I usually bottle to 22oz but sometimes I'll put a few in 12oz bottles for early sampling so I don't waste much.

This weekend I bought a carbonator cap then we bottled and kegged some beer. I stole some samples into PET bottles as we were racking into the priming pail, tossed them in the freezer for a quick chill, used the carbonator cap to force carb it in a few minutes. Worked out well, it was nice to taste a cold, carbonated sample instead of the room temp flat ones. Kind of like time travel a few weeks into the future. Each of the beers this weekend had 4-8 weeks in their pri or sec so they weren't very green.

Jughead said:

But if it tastes great to you and you feel like drinking it, no one can tell you you're wrong!:rockin:

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I've tried one in 2 days I think. I think it's good to see the difference that time makes, even with a pipeline.

I typically don't bottle, but when I did, I would usually wait a couple of weeks. Now that I keg, I still wait a couple of weeks, but I'll usually pull a half pint at the end of the first week.

2 weeks on a Belgian Dark Ale. Sure, I should wait 6 months in the bottle before I gave it a shot, but I was too curious to see how it turned out.

I just bottled my first hefe about 10 days ago.

The wort was delicious. The flat beer was delicious. My first bottle after one week? Had that green apple flavor all over it. I was suprised and now worried about my batch. I'm assuming it's just an off flavor from the yeast eating the priming sugar, and it will clean itself up. But man, it tasted nothing like the flat beer I had.

I could only wait a week on my first batch, but I regretted it.

Now I have a routine down, I let me impatience get the better of me with one bottle at two weeks (not a day more or less) just to test it out. Then I let the rest of the batch wait at least another week before tossing a few in the fridge.

Over the winter I kegged a cream ale around 8 in the morning, let it sit in the 30F garage for a couple hours on the gas, then around 10AM I cranked the PSI to 30, shook the crap out of the keg for a half hour, and served it to guests at 10:30. Man that was tasty. Albeit not too clear.

I'm more impatient with things like dry hopping... After 2 days I'm like "Well that's probably enough." Then keg and drink in 2 days.

Impatient enough to invest over $500 in a kegerator and kegging equipment

SC_Ryan said:

Impatient enough to invest over $500 in a kegerator and kegging equipment

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Yeah haha, doing this this week.

Completely impatient here. I was actually talking to a friend of mine the other night and we compared it to kids in the back seat of a car, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" That's me while my beer is fermenting!

I generally don't wait. I'm a stickler for quality control so it's important to see and taste the day to day changes in your beer. Once bottled or kegged I'll be sure to check often. Although oddly enough I find that by the time the beer is properly aged there just isn't that much left of it. Go figure. LOL

I usually sample one after every 5 days. Not because I am impatient, but when I bottle, I like to see how things are coming along.

How impatient are you?

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I am going to wait for awhile before answering that one.

i just pulled a sample out of the primary after 2.5 weeks.

i was downstairs to grab a beer. saw the primary. hmmmmm, i wonder what that tastes like...

Jughead said:

Ok, OK, I'm w/ ya. Not enough in the pipeline to be too patient. I have opened a brew not more than 5 minutes after bottling, just to check if "I was it doing right". Typically from from week 1 on I check every few days. I know enough to wait, but god damnit this hobby is enjoyable. But yes I know it get's better w/ age. But if it tastes great to you and you feel like drinking it, no one can tell you you're wrong!:rockin:

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LOL!

that's awesome...and agree with everything you said

pcollins said:

Although oddly enough I find that by the time the beer is properly aged there just isn't that much left of it. Go figure. LOL

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so true!

that's kinda why i decided to step up the game and brew more (beside the fact that i love doing it) so i eventually have enough properly aged brews to keep me away from the young stash

Once you have been brewing for at least a dozen years you will know how your beer is doing, and you no longer feel the need to open one "just to see". You will have come to realize that you are just wasting a really good beer by drinking it before its time.

I seemed to get a (financial) clog in my pipeline, so I'm becoming more impatient. The kegerator set me back financially more than I expected, and my last two brews were lagers, and I only have room in the fermenting fridge for one at a time.

Frodo said:

I've tried one in 2 days I think. I think it's good to see the difference that time makes, even with a pipeline.

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Agreed! I taught a fermentations class at the college, but we were always given the recipe and limited in time to the class schedule. Now that I'm brewing on my own, I taste every chance I get just so I get a good understanding of what's going on during the process.

I bottled a Scottish Ale two weeks ago on Friday and am thinking of chilling and cracking a bottle this weekend. I don't expect it to be "good beer" yet, but I'm curious what the difference will be between the tasting at 3 weeks in primary and 2 weeks in the bottle.

I also do not have enough in the pipeline yet to be very patient!
*cheers*

Depends on the beer. I usually like to try sometime after two weeks. If it's not a terribly complex/big beer, it's open season at that point.

Bernie Brewer said:

Once you have been brewing for at least a dozen years you will know how your beer is doing, and you no longer feel the need to open one "just to see". You will have come to realize that you are just wasting a really good beer by drinking it before its time.

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but if you enjoy drinking it,are you really wasting it?

more like after a dozen years of brewing you admit that you know how its coming along,and you just want to drink one.

whats this green beer everyones tallking about?? I know its got somethng to do with unfinished beer...

I tested a bottle of my first batch ever made yesterday after being bottled for a week and it tasted awesome...

I drank a pint of an IPA while bottling it. I'm hoping carbed and cold it will be my best brew yet.

jonbomb said:

whats this green beer everyones tallking about?? I know its got somethng to do with unfinished beer...

I tested a bottle of my first batch ever made yesterday after being bottled for a week and it tasted awesome...

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Wait a week, (two if you can stand it) then try another - awesome now, even better later! Now if it's an IPA, start your drinking at 3 weeks, but if it's an amber, brown, porter - give it a little more time. It really will be better. Some higher-alcohol beers have a perceptible 'hot' taste in the first week or three, but it all blends in.

I always pour one, usually the last in the bottling bucket right into the mug and down one from there. Then after 4 days or so I will try one. I love to see how they progress. I wonder what they taste like after 20 days or so. Mine never last that long.

When I bottle I crack a bottle every week. When I keg, I'm drinking it after 3 days. I agree with GRhunter though, once the pipeline is strong it's alot easier to be patient.

I could only wait until the second day in the bottle before I cracked open a bottle from my first batch. It had some carbonation and was still green, but it was delicious none the less.

When I started, it was all I could do to go 3 weeks from wort to drinking the first bottle. Now that I keg and have a pipeline, I can go a long time. I've had an IPA sitting in primary for 2 months, just check the airlock every now and then so it doesn't dry out