first taste of first home brew

made my first batch on the 5th of this month. made a hef kit from homebrewerycom. I did a full 5 gallon boil with DME. my humble home stove top couldnt do a full on raging boil so i did the best i could. tonight i popped open the first bomber. one week after bottling and the bomber was only half full. its what was left in the bottling bucket. it didnt taste bad just very generic and almost like a concentrated version of a hef. im thinking maybe because it was only half full and only a week later is why it wasnt awesome. it did have a great hiss when popping the top. so what do you guys think? maybe longer bottle conditioning? next time do a partial boil to get a raging boil? my next batch is an imperial stout kit that i want to secondary with whole vanilla beans. any rec's would be appreciated. thanks!

Bombers will take a bit longer to bottle condition than a regular 12 oz bottle. Plus, one week isn't enough time for a regular bottle. Don't feel bad, I try mine every week too, which is why I don't use bombers.... I waste less beer that way Try again in 2-3 weeks, it will be much better... That's the toughest part of this hobby... WAITING!!!!!

Not sure what to tell you about the boiling, I do a partial boil on my kitchen stove, but I don't have a big enough pot to do a full boil without a boil over. If you're getting any boiling at all, I would say you're fine, but somebody else may have a different opinion.

I agree, waiting is the hardest part of all of this! I had a NB Winter Ale kit and tried it every week of bottle conditioning. Guess what? The last week (week 3) of conditioning was the best! Be patient young Jedi.

My first batch was the the same kit you speak of. had the same prob but me thinks it gets better every week. what i did because i had no patience was tasting it out of the primary then the secondary then out of the bottles every week haha patience is virtue says the man with closet full of beer!