First brew in the bottle...quick question

OK...I just bottled my first home brew. It is an "American Ale" from a Brewers Best kit. It spent 1 week in the Primary (plastic bucket) then 1 week in my secondary (5 gallon carboy) and then into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar.

I siphoned off a glass when I was transfering to my secondary and it tasted WONDERFUL...however, after I added my priming sugar in the bottling bucket and was bottling I thought I would pour a little bit and try it. The taste was very strong and overpowering...

Do you think the beer is OK? Besides tasting really "flat" and strong "hoppy" tasting it did have that "ale" taste. Is everything going to be OK? The instructions in the kit say to let is sit in the bottles for 14 days....does this time "mellow" the beer?

I guess I'm just nervous about my first batch of Home Brew....any words of wisdom? I feel like this is going to be a long 14 days!

Cheers!

Dark Magneto

Sounds normal. IMO, the taste of your sample depends where you got it from, the top, middle, or bottom, if you got any trub mixed in, etc.

When you sampled it from the bottling bucket it was more homogenized and you did add more sugar. All this will change the flavor somewhat. Then again, were you eating anything between samples that would alter the flavor? These are just things I am throwing out there. I do not expect an answer.

I think your beer will be fine.

homebrewer_99 said:

Sounds normal. IMO, the taste of your sample depends where you got it from, the top, middle, or bottom, if you got any trub mixed in, etc.

When you sampled it from the bottling bucket it was more homogenized and you did add more sugar. All this will change the flavor somewhat. Then again, were you eating anything between samples that would alter the flavor? These are just things I am throwing out there. I do not expect an answer.

I think your beer will be fine.

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It was the VERY last bit out of the bucket. So I would assume that was the "not so good" taste that I was getting.

Like I said....when I transfered from Primary to Seconday it was AWESOME tasting! However, the "bottom" of the bucket on bottling day was not so good.

2-3 weeks in a bottle aged, will mellow it out. It is difficult to ruin a extract kit if you follow directions. I think you will be as pleased as you were when you 1st tasted it. Give it a little time.

I agree. I usually taste that last half full bottle you get at the end of the bottling process, just to see if I can get a feel for it. They seldom taste very good to me before carobonation (you know, that flat beer thing), but unless it causes a retch reaction, you should be fine.

Dark, where do you go for your HB supplies? Just wondering because im in your area.

I am a complete and total noob, but BEERMAKER I have to say WOW! I dont even know for sure what I am looking at but your rig is sexy LOL.

Am I to assume that you start with boiling your wort in the top tier. Let it flow to the the second tier for fermenting and then use the last tier for bottling?

Again I have just started to get my feet wet so feel free to tell me how ignorant I am with this break down.

Again WOW. My father is a metal fabricator by trade and I WANT ONE!!

WvBrewNoob said:

I am a complete and total noob, but BEERMAKER I have to say WOW! I dont even know for sure what I am looking at but your rig is sexy LOL.

Am I to assume that you start with boiling your wort in the top tier. Let it flow to the the second tier for fermenting and then use the last tier for bottling?

Again I have just started to get my feet wet so feel free to tell me how ignorant I am with this break down.

Again WOW. My father is a metal fabricator by trade and I WANT ONE!!

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It's been a while since I checked out Beermaker's rig in his gallery. Yes, I seem to remember it being the Cadillac of rigs. Very nice.

If his rig is like most, the top tank is for heating water (hot liquor tank). The second is the mash tun for mashing grain and sparging. The bottom is the boil kettle to boil the wort with the hops and such for an hour or so. Once the wort is chilled, it is moved from the boil kettle to a separate fermenter.

It took me a while to figure three tier systems out too. Now I want one! lol

AHammer16 said:

Dark, where do you go for your HB supplies? Just wondering because im in your area.

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I get my supplies at Perfect Brewing in Wheeling, IL. Perfect Brewing

I always sample my beer before adding priming sugar. It really seems to affect the flavor negatively to my poor palate. I've had two samples sitting beside each other, one with priming one without, and the difference was night and day to me. I think that's what caused your flavor on the second sample.

I siphon from my secondary into my bottling bucket as gently as possible (like most everyone else) and then draw a sample out of my bottling wand into a pilsner glass for sampling while I bottle. A lot of times there is a very slight natural carbonation in the sample which seems to give a very accurate indication of the final product.