Finally my stout is drinkable

I made a newbie mistake and brewed a stout as my second batch. What ended up happening is that it was pretty undrinkable for a long time. Here I am dying to try my new brews and I have this stout that tastes too bitter, too toasty, and too alcohol-y all at the same time. This was 2 weeks in bottle, then 3 weeks, then 4.

Finally at 6 weeks in bottle I pour one and it everything has come together really nicely. Good balance nice hoppiness to offset the dextrinous body, warm alcohol has faded into the background.

The point is that I see a lot of people gunning for those porters and stouts and other big beers in their first couple batches and I bet a lot of people find themselves in the same position as me. Totally impatient and asked to wait even longer because I chose the wrong beers to start out with.

Contrast this the Ed Wort Pale Ale that I just bottled. I brewed it on 10/24, 15 days ago and just bottled it. It was already crystal clear and looked like it had been conditioned for a month. It also smelled ready to drink. It will be ready in 2 weeks. That's 4 weeks from grain to belly. I'm just saying I wish someone had advised me to pick this as my first batch.

One of the most important lessons we all had to learn as a newbie is, "Patience, Grasshopper!"

Judging by your signature, you've been a very very busy newbie with that many batches under your belt.

Good luck.:fro:

I pretty much had the same issue with a double choc. Stout. But after 6-7 weeks it was great! Even give it a couple more weeks in the icebox and it will be better! I was taught by some of the fine gentleman on here, that cold conditioning works wonders!!!!! Glad to hear ya good news! Peace

Porters don't take as long as stouts. Most porters are around 1.045 OG or so (unless you tweak them). I just made a porter last Thursday - 6 lbs. dark LME and I "added" a pound of clover honey the last 10 minutes (I also added about .5 oz of fresh clascades hops I had in the fridge to offset it a tad) and my OG still only came out to 1.047.

Should be ready to drink in a month or so, but I will probably hold a few bottles back for when the keg is gone.

dontman said:

The point is that I see a lot of people gunning for those porters and stouts and other big beers in their first couple batches and I bet a lot of people find themselves in the same position as me. Totally impatient and asked to wait even longer because I chose the wrong beers to start out with.

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Big doesn't refer to how dark the beer is, it refers to how high the OG is. Most stouts are in the 5% ABV range and so are not considered big. I had a stout with a 1.053 og and finished at 1.017 that was perfectly drinkable in 3 weeks.