Broke down and popped a bottle...

Well its been 3 weeks since I brewed and 1 week since I bottled... I broke down and opened a bottle... carbonation wasn't bad actually... very little head... still young tasting and a bit yeasty smelling. But all in all not bad for my first try.

I did the Irish Car Bomb so there is definintely a taste of whisky and vanilla there.

I know the feeling. With my first beer, it was so hard to not pop a bottle open before at least three weeks. I got to two weeks and then tried one. It was awesome. And it only gets better!

Oh man, I was notorious for doing this when I bottled. Sometimes I'd pop it two or three days in. Always a bad idea. A week though, that's acceptable.

I almost always try 1 at a week. I tell myself it is a carbonation test but that is just a justification.

LOL, the gravity samples of my last couple of batches, two different ESBs, have tasted so good that I had to pull another "sample" or two from both before even bottling!!!!!!!!!!! The one that I bottled last Sunday will probably have a bottle or two in the fridge tomorrow night so that they can be opened at a party on Saturday night.

I always kick myself for it later when I run out of the beer, but I like to think it's a test to confirm Revvy's 'On the patience of bottle conditioning' thread, confirmed! but I still pop one here and there

Although if was hard to do I made it two weeks before I opened my first, this Saturday I will bottle batch number 2 after three weeks fermenting. This makes three weeks In the bottle for number one so. I'll probably out one or two in the fridge for comparison purposes of course!

I usually sample a bottle at 3 weeks. But there is usually a big difference for the better when week 4 hits and even a few more weeks is good with bigger beers. But I wouldnt have known this for myself unless I tried the stuff earlier!

Early tastes/samples are the brewer's privilege.

Yeah it was much better than I thought it would be... although just didn't feel as "full" as I wanted it to. Should have added the malto like I was planning on.

Hell yeah i bottled my 10 batch a hopped wheat after 3 days i was drinking it pretty good just had another last night 13 days even better. My nrxt batch was a ipa bottled 3 days and i had one last night was really good.

If you brew em drink em!

You should be brewing your next batch....so when its time to carb up you have your current batch to drink instead of trying one too early!

Oh I brewed on the same day I bottled. Got an IPA sitting in the primary right now. Probably is about done but am going to leave it in there for a while longer. I had left my original beer in the primary for about 23-24 days.

Make sure you save some (past the ~3 week point after bottling) for several months. The flavors will all mellow out and will be incredibly drinkable. Unless, you know, you like the harsh whiskey flavor

Have Fermenters, will brew! I'm bottling Saturday and starting a new batch either Saturday or Sunday. Trying to build up my pipeline!

Here's what I do - on a 5 gal batch, I bottle the first 46-48 bottles and label the caps. The last 6-8 bottles are, quite literally, the dregs. They're the ones with the most trub, hop gunk, etc. in them. I put an extra little mark on the caps and those become the sample/taster bottles. The good, clear bottles are the ones that last through the whole X-week waiting period.

Good idea Jonm! I was suprised at how well the bottling went and how little trub etc there was in my bottle I tried... especially since it was one of the last ones I bottled.

I always try to wring at least one extra out of the bottling bucket (like JonM). I use oxygen absorbing caps so the head space will be oxygen free and then after a few days I randomly choose one and turn it over and back once to look through the bottle to see if bubbles form. Once I can see not only foam, but carbonation bubbles continuing to rise it alleviates some fears of opening bottles to discover something was wrong and nothing happened. That extra beer or two that I otherwise wouldn't have had is to check when the carbonation is right. I put that one in the fridge and get it to serving temperature before opening to see where it truly is--since there is a difference in carbonation retention between warm beer and cool beer.