What a difference time makes

I brewed an extract Nut brown ale back in November and cracked the first bottle around Christmas time. It tasted kind of like taking a sip of a generic dark ale and then eating a mouthful of my yard.

An experienced friend said it tasted like stale ingredients (it was a kit) and I was going to dump it but he told me to sit on it for a while.

At 2 months it was slightly tolerable. My mom liked it so I let her drink them while I drank my pale ale. At 3 months it was somewhat palatable.

At 4+ months I'm sad I let my mom have so many because it's matured into a very easy beer to drink and close to the expected qualities of a nut brown. What a difference. It went from something I would give back at a bar to something I'd gladly order a pitcher of. :rockin:

Yep its amazing. That is why I will never dump a bad brew. I had one batch that was drinkable after 3 weeks in bottles, but after about 1 or 2 more weeks it was excellent. I had another one that was absolutely horrible when I cracked the first one, but after a couple of months it wasn't bad. I haven't even been brewing a year, so I'm sure this is somewhat common.

I'll only dump infected batches. Actually, I have yet to dump my two batches that are infected...I try them every few months to see what it tastes like, but they always end up gushing like a shaken-up bottle of champagne, so it's silly.

I made a version of Papazian's Goat Scrotum porter last year...and added 1/2 bottle (1oz) of spruce essence at bottling time, per his recipe. It was undrinkable...tasted like bengay or something. Whew. But after 7 months or so, I had one last night, and it's getting better. Still super-sprucey, but definitely better than it was.

You could always dump your bad batches into a pressure cooker and then.....oops nevermind