Always Bottle!

I "failed" a new brewer, and I didn't even have a chance to help. A friend of a friend on Facebook remarked that he was sad that his porter was too bitter. I shot him an email telling him to stash the bottles in a cool place (65-70F) for a month and to try it again.

Turns out he was talking about the flavor post-fermentation and pre-bottling!

He bottled up a 12er to see how things turned out and then TOSSED the rest. He is now a "friend" of mine via FB so I'll get him doing some reading before we lose a newb to the finest hobby ever.

I know he is going to be very disappointed when he cracks open one of those bottles and realizes he tossed almost two cases of good tasting brew down the the drain.

Yep, time is your friend in brewing. The brews really do get better with age.

I can't believe he just tossed the rest. Hell, bottle it all up and see what happens.

Maybe you should tell him to log into Homebrewtalk.com

Diver165 said:

Maybe you should tell him to log into Homebrewtalk.com

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+1, This website is my first recommendation any time someone shows interest in brewing.

It was one of the first things I told him but strangely enough he hangs out here. It also turns out that he tasted a 1.063 porter on day 10 of fermentation. No wonder he thought he had a loser!

Several huge FB messages later he is chilling out on the fast judgments.

o0weno said:

Several huge FB messages later he is chilling out on the fast judgments.

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There you go! put that newb in his place!

but dont scare him off.. :cross:

About 16 years ago, I did the EXACT same thing to my first porter without advice from any friend.

While moving from my condo to a new place (~8 months post-dumping the batch), my little brother said the porter he just drank was the best he ever tasted. After I insisted there was no porter in my inventory, he showed me the 6 22oz bottles of the original kegged batch. I forgot I counter-pressure filled those 6, and he was correct. That beer was the best porter we EVER drank.

Needless to say, I never dumped a bad tasting batch of home brew since.

"Good things come to those who wait."