Finally, a really good batch.

Just cracked my first bottle of my 5th batch. And it is awesome. An American Pale Ale of my own recipe. Clean, crisp, hoppy, just perfect, no off flavors.

The point is, it took 5 batches to really nail down my processes, and gain enough experience to do this. (although I could be wrong and I just got lucky).

1st batch. I loved it, even with the slight taste of bubble gum. (it was my first batch, so I graded on a curve)
2nd batch was Budwieser, completly tasteless. (I choked it down)
3rd batch had a terrible after taste, almost gasoline tasting. (I choked it down)
4th batch. Was great, but the first half of the batch had a banana taste, the later ones did not. (they conditioned longer)
5th batch: perfect.

If I have learned anything here, it is temperature.

Make a starter yeast. Chill your beer to 65 degrees and then pitch your starter. Ferment your brew somewhere between 60 and 65 degrees.

Now I know I am new to this, and take my advise with a grain of salt, but once I got that temperature down, all the off flavors went away.


Speak "Friend" and enter,
Grossy

Awesome... great to hear. I'm on my 3rd and have yet to have that "hell yeah" moment...

Nice work! Glad you got something you like, though I'm sorry it took so much choking to get there.

I totally agree that temperature is one of the key factors in getting a really good batch. The owner of one of the LHBS's here tells me that he swears by fermenting at 62-64F at most because even 3 degrees or so higher than that and you're producing fusels.

I fermented my first all grain too hot with US-05 and got some bubblegum flavors i didn't enjoy.

Great to hear!!

Temperature is definitely one of the biggest factors along with having the right pitching rate (like you said, use a starter).

After my first couple batches I got my temperature a little better (though it is still not perfect since I don't have a chamber yet and I just use my heat or AC to change the temp of the room). Now I am getting into using starters which I am hoping will make my beer 100 times better than it is.

I hear ya! I just brewed my fifth solo batch today and I still screwed some stuff up. My successes have been brewing with an experienced neighbor doing all-grain. But I am certainly aware that this process of brewing takes patience, time and experience to learn.
But man, is it worth it!