So who drinks their homebrew before carbonation is complete ?

I sit here after having about 50 fluid ounces of my first homebrew, a british pale ale.

The beer went down quite well. I even drank some warm cause I was so excited.

So, I'm wandering, how many of you just can't wait till your beer carbonates???


Brandon

I sample mine at all stages. I like to know how it's progressing.

I bottled my Irish Stout last Friday the 7th. I got 53 bottles and had about 8-10 ozs left over. My wife and I sampled it, and I used the rest as a marinade on some chicken breasts. mmmmm!

Last night I couldn't stand it anymore so I popped the cap on one of the bottles. A satisifying *pffft* sound made me grin. After all, this is my first brew attempt. The beer is still flat, but carbonation is just beginning and I could feel a few small bubbles on my tounge.

I am going to wait until Friday to sample another.

When I'm bottling, there is always not enough left to fill the last bottle. My second batch I drank it and probably will continue to do that. I think I'll try the cooking too, stout with my steak sounds pretty good!

homebrewer_99 said:

I sample mine at all stages. I like to know how it's progressing.

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Same here.

Everybody. Who can wait 2-4 weeks without trying at least one? lol.

I test mine through all the stages and usually have one per week after the first week in the bottles.

Funny...I'm sitting here with a case of Kolsch that's been in the bottle for 4 days and I was contemplating throwing one in the fridge and sampling tonight, but then I realized I had three more 312's left to satiate me for at least tonight. Come Friday, they'll have been in the bottle for a week so I'm going to sample one. Man, Friday is a LONG way away.

Like Rhoobarb and homebrewer_99, I like to sample mine at various stages - although more to satisfy curiosity than to make sure I'm on target gravity or any such silliness.

Dragonfly said:

Like Rhoobarb and homebrewer_99, I like to sample mine at various stages - although more to satisfy curiosity than to make sure I'm on target gravity or any such silliness.

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...so true

God bless this forum and all ya'll

Put me down for the "sampling" crowd

Sampling teaches you how an ale changes with time. Sampling early and often also teaches you that you should make larger batches!

david_42 said:

Sampling early and often also teaches you that you should make larger batches!

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I'm sure this is ancient proverb in some culture

I've just bottled by first batch of IPA and have used 2 plastic bottles. I figure that way I can make sure the carbonation's worked without opening. I'll sample 1 at 1 week and the other at 2 weeks. If it's good enough I'll start drinking from the glass then.

Since it's already been over a month since I started my Kolsch, I'm going to break into one tonight. It's in the fridge, and I'm almost ready for another one.

[EDIT]

It's neither cold enough or carbonated enough to consider it ready to drink, but DAMN is it tasty! It's got a great smell that I wish I could place. It's fruity and sweet and has great mouthfeel and flavor.

I'll give it another week to prime since I'm garage priming and the temp is in the mid-60's in the day time. I can honestly say that, after 4 tries, I finally made good home-made beer. In three or four more weeks, this will be good enough to give to friends as a gift (or keept for myself!)

I lasted 10 days and poped the seal on one today. I got head!

She bubbles those fine little ale bubbles. It's good too. I'll give it another 6 days then into the fridge.

ScottT said:

I lasted 10 days and poped the seal on one today. I got head!

She bubbles those fine little ale bubbles. It's good too. I'll give it another 6 days then into the fridge.

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What are you drinking?

OK..so maybe it's because I'm into my 5th beer of the night, but I decided to give my two in-progress brews a progress report:

1. Caramel Vanilla Cream Ale
Aroma: a bit sour
Color: A nice golden brown
Flavor: Creamy, sweet, delicious. No vanilla flavor detectable. Good, creamy flavor without noticeable hints of either caramel or vanilla
To-Do: Add more vanilla prior to bottling to improve taste and aroma

2. It's The Great Pumpkinweizen
Aroma: Spicy, like pumpkin pie
Color: A nice deep orange, like a sunset
Flavor: YUM! I actually said it out loud. It tastes like pumpkin pie, in beer form. Not too spicy, but with a noticeable taste of pumpkin spices.
To-Do: Nothing but wait a while on it. The flavor and color are perfect. I've had pumpkin beers before that have disappointed me due to a lack of unique flavors. Dependant on post-bottling flavor, I might actually enter this one in a competition just to see how it fares. This is the BEST pumpkin beer I've ever tasted, and it's not just because it's mine.

If you have liked the look of any of my recipes, I'd recommend trying either of these, but if you're looking to do a pumpkin, and you like a decent (but not too strong) pumpkin-pie flavor, I'd highly recommend trying the Pumpkinweizen recipe. But that's now, with less than 1 week in the primary.

Cheesefood said:

What are you drinking?

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The Scottish Export 80/-. I just realized that I hadn't updated my Signature.

Cheesefood said:

It's neither cold enough or carbonated enough to consider it ready to drink...I'll give it another week to prime since I'm garage priming and the temp is in the mid-60's in the day time...

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You need to put it in a warmer place to get yeast activity for carbonation. The '60s are too low.

homebrewer_99 said:

You need to put it in a warmer place to get yeast activity for carbonation. The '60s are too low.

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Good to know! Into the warm basement it will go. I think I need to bring my two in-progress beers inside as well, I'm getting the feeling that they're not fermenting to their full potential due to the cool temps.

I am in the camp that drinks down that last fraction of a bottle on bottling day. I don't sample before that, mainly because I like to leave everything sealed up before that point (I have not used a secondary yet, after maybe eight batches).