First Brew - Tasting

Some of you may remember my 'smelly fermentation' freak out earlier, but I didn't go nuts, kept my cool, and kept on going.

We bottled last Saturday, and decided to do the 1 week test, knowing full well that it's not done yet, but we thought we may have sunked it by racking to bottling bucket then bottling in the kitchen where it was a bit warm and near a window with horizontal blinds.

We split a bottle and went over it sip by sip. To recap, we did a Brewer's Best Red Ale kit which didn't make it to the final gravity (stopped around 1.018 or so after repitching a 2nd dry yeast).

Here's the notes, maybe you guys can give some tips:

No 'pssht' when we opened the bottle. After 1 week, I'm not 100% concerned. It also tasted a bit light on the carb, but I could feel the little bubbles as I rolled it on my tongue.

Frothy/creamy head, but disappeared quick. Could be the glasses coming out of the diswasher, could be that it's just not 'up to carb point' yet. I'm still OK with that.

Interesting 'buttery' taste, with a very banana aftertaste. It's not bad, per se, but isn't great in a red ale.

Very sweet, and can barely taste the hops. Recipe called for IBU was 35-40, but I don't taste a 40. Maybe mid 20s (but I'm not a pro beer judge).

All in all, it's not a bad brew. I think it ended up at only 3.1% or so ABV, which is a bit light. I wouldn't purchase it, but I aint gonna pour it out.

What do you think?

I wish I could tell you what went wrong but I'm drinking the Brewers Best Red Ale now and it's the most crowd pleasing brew I've made. Mine finished at 4% with a finishing gravity of about 1.010. I would be surprized if bottling in the kitchen with some light would make a difference. I'm no expert but I would say give it a couple of weeks and you may find it tastes much better.

To me it sounds like a combination of incomplete fermentation and fermentation at relatively high temperatures. I would say your best bet is to set it aside and let it condition in the bottles for a month or so. It will probably lose some of the buttery taste over time, although the banana taste might linger.