Just bottled and tasted my Pale Ale!

I just finished a Pale Ale batch and tasted it flat. It was good...no tannin taste or astringents.

I think if it tastes good flat is should be pretty good once it's bubbly.

Oh yeah, the reason I even wrote that was because it is my first batch ever. I'm tooting my own horn, thanks

I taste every single batch before bottling. Even when racking to the primary or secondary...lol. Flat but good!

You got that right. I've even been guilty of serving a pitcher or two during bottling. I figure if it tastes good enough why not drink it? It definately tasted better after aging a bit in the bottles and it's always nice to hear the little hiss from popping the top, but beer is beer and good is good.

Hmm.. I had wondered about that. Even beer going from the primary to seconday, or secondary to bottle is carbonated a little bit.

I know there are more sanitary ways to start a siphon, but I use my mouth, as a good excuse to drink beer through a straw from a 5gallon pail.

Also, I've been known to drink a few pints of "extra new" beer if I overfill my primary a bit, and don't have room in the secondary.

Does anyone know of any style of beer, or place in the world where a very "fresh" beer (like, fermented only a week...) is actually served as a style? I don't see why it couldn't be cultivated to something unique and flavorful

Keegan

If a flat beer tastes good, then it is a fine beer. Cold and lots of bubbles only hide a beer's flaws, but a flat beer is like a naked beer, exposed to the world with all its flaws, complexities, and wonderful nuances hanging out. If it tastes good then (and beer can taste absolutely fantastic then), then you know you've got something. I love tasting when kegging. Sometimes it can make you decide to go for a less carbonated conditioning, or a nitro pour with a warmer serving temp to keep that flavor full on.

Congrats on your first batch! Glad it worked out so well!

Me, too. I sample along the way.

me too. i sorta like the beer outta the bottling bucket.

Congrats! I just tried my first bottle of Pale ale last night (Sierra Nev Clone) it has been in bottles for a week, and it was delicious... (it was my second batch) WoOOOO HOOOOO for NOOOOOBS!

Yeah, this one was my first batch and it turned out very well. Booya!

I've got a stout in the secondary right now. I think I'll bottle it this weekend (or buy a keg).

Bottled a Pale Ale last night.
Very tedious job sterilising all those bottles, and it just seemed rude not to sample the bottle contents as I was going along.

Tasted pretty good, looking forward to getting it carbonated and cold...

Good for you!

I just bottled my third batch and it didn't taste so good (a bitter after taste). Hopefully it will taste better after it ages a bit.

Please! I beg you beer gods!

Gordolordo said:

I just finished a Pale Ale batch and tasted it flat. It was good...no tannin taste or astringents.

I think if it tastes good flat is should be pretty good once it's bubbly.

Click to expand...

Congrats on your first batch. It's always the scariest and it will do nothing but get better the more you do and the more you learn. Personally, I believe that if you have beer that comes out of your fermenter after the fermentation is completed, and it does not taste good, you're in trouble. All the ageing and conditioning in the world will not help a beer that comes out of the fermenter tasting bad. Sure, there are going to be some changes along the ageing/conditioning time, but it should be good to start. Happy brewing.

Ken

and wonderful nuances hanging out

Click to expand...

uhhhh janx?

heh

and yes i do sample on racking and on bottling day

To PaulHare: A fast way of sterilzing bottles is to
put a piece of aluminum foil on top of each bottle and then put bottles in your oven at about 300DegF
for about 15 minutes. Leave foil on until they cool and you are ready to fill. I found this tip on a forum and thought I would pass it on. I have used it ever since I found it. I rinse each bottle after I have enjoyed what was in it and put a piece of foil on it to keep dust out. Then when I am ready to bottle I put them all in the oven for 15 minutes. Works great
and takes much less time than idaphor rinsing...

How long does it take the bottles to cool before you can begin filling them?

I've been drinking (heavily for me) my first AG for the last couple of weeks. The first few pints out of the keg were a little rough, but after being in about a week and a half it's wonderful, and almost impossible to stop drinking

Born Brewing Co. said:

How long does it take the bottles to cool before you can begin filling them?

Click to expand...

Allowing time for the oven to warm up, loading the bottles in it, "cooking" time, unloading and cooldown, you could probably sanitize two cases of bottles using iodophor, then let them drain on a bottle tree.

It takes me maybe forty minutes from the time I mix the iodophor until the last bottle is on the tree to drain. While that last bottle is draining, I am using the first ones sanitized in the filling process. It's a more certain method, easier on the bottles, and I don't burn my fingers!

If it's good when I bottle it, I figure it's going to be good when I set into it in a couple of days. I use the Natural Selection process for bottle conditioning. The bottles that don't get drunk in the first week get to spend the entire week conditioning. The ones that survive the next week go that much further towards perfection, and so on until that batch is gone. Does this make me a bad brewer , or at least, unsophisticated? Perhaps I lack patience or self- control. Either way, I figure the only way I'm going to get to the piont where I can bottle it and leave it alone a while is to step up my brew schedule. Is that why so many others have a list of one in primary, one in secondary, and three in bottles? Homebrewtalk. Great mysteries revealed.

Born Brewing Co. said:

How long does it take the bottles to cool before you can begin filling them?

Click to expand...

What I usually do is the night before I bottle I load up the oven - 5 minutes
Then I turn on the oven to 400F takes about 15 min to get to that temp.
Then I let them cook for 15 minutes then turn the oven off and go to bed.
In the morning they are cool and I unload and they are ready to go. The foil
is still on the botlle so if something comes up and I can't bottle then..they can wait until i'm ready.

DBAib12 said:

What I usually do is the night before I bottle I load up the oven - 5 minutes
Then I turn on the oven to 400F takes about 15 min to get to that temp.
Then I let them cook for 15 minutes then turn the oven off and go to bed.
In the morning they are cool and I unload and they are ready to go. The foil
is still on the botlle so if something comes up and I can't bottle then..they can wait until i'm ready.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a good idea to me

sudsmonkey said:

If it's good when I bottle it, I figure it's going to be good when I set into it in a couple of days. I use the Natural Selection process for bottle conditioning. The bottles that don't get drunk in the first week get to spend the entire week conditioning. The ones that survive the next week go that much further towards perfection, and so on until that batch is gone. Does this make me a bad brewer , or at least, unsophisticated? Perhaps I lack patience or self- control. .

Click to expand...

naaw, i enjoy some young beer too. i enjoy tasting the changes, though i will say, i let them go at least a week before cracking one open. i've found it's best for me to bottle in batches of two or three, usually over a weekend. that way i have a lot of beer aging at the same time, and through the 'natural selection' process a fewmore than usual make it to the coveted one month in bottle

I also just tasted my Pale Ale which is my first batch of beer. My girlfriend and brewing partner racked to the secondary when I was out of town for the weekend and forgot to check the gravity. So I used that opportunity to test the gravity and taste it too. Tasted flat but good and the gravity was 1.010. I'm curious how long I should let this sit before I bottle. There isn't much bubbleing and my gravity is a hair below what the recipe calls for. So I'm thinking I'm ready to bottle, or should I let it clairify a while.