Opened beer at 1 week in bottle....so good!

Alright good folks, talk me out of drinking another one quick! I just opened a bottle of my second batch I've brewed and it was actually good!! This was a brewer's best Imperial nut brown ale. SWMBO helped me bottle it a week ago, and was a little disappointed I wasn't going to open one today. I told her it would probably not be carbed and it would probably need some further conditioning.. ie green beer. Well, it was mentioned more than once so I put one in the fridge to chill a bit. After 3 hours or so, I opened it. I went with the flip-top bottles and expected nothing more than the *pop* from the stopper coming out when I flipped it. What happened was more pronounced like that of a champagne cork. I was a bit shocked! Then I poured it in a glass and the nicest head began to appear! The taste is way better than my first brew, a coopers diy lager. I like this....alot! Now the hard part....waiting. So please tell me it will be way better in a few weeks and to just wait, so I don't start drinking it this week!

I'm more of the "drink it if you like it" camp, so I guess I'm no help if you want to be encouraged to wait. Sorry!

It will be better if you wait, but if you like it go for it. When my pipeline is low I drink plenty before their prime. If it's between a young homebrew that taste ok and store bought I will take the hb usually unless I just want a style I don't have.

Only thing that really helps is getting a good pipline so you have plenty of styles that are ready to go

Actually there is an upside to drinking it now and over the next few weeks. I can help justify this by you taking tasting notes every time you have a "sample". Being its your second batch this is a good exercise to show how a beer matures as it ages.

I check one every batch almost a week in fact i did tonight, but i could just telll it will be better in a few more..

Yeah, you've really gotta go with your taste over what you read, if you're brewing mostly for yourself. Most people say russian imperial stouts are undrinkable until after 6 months or so, but I find mine amazing at 3 weeks in the bottle, up until about 3 months when they lose a little magic and taste more boring. I mean don't go drinking ALL of them without finding out what they could be after more time, but no reason to hold back. If I just went by what I read I would have missed my personal window of awesomeness in sweet russian imperial stouts, and that would just be a sad, sad thing.

The more you brew the easier it gets to wait.

mux said:

The more you brew the easier it gets to wait.

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No it doesn't, you just have other things to drink

Thanks for the feedback, I am glad I had one tonight. I will prob have one next week, again for research. may start. I would love to get a pipeline going, that is my goal. I had this in my primary for four weeks, and my, first bottle went way too fast!

I brewed this same exact kit back in January. It was my first brew ever and it turned out great. I'm down to about 12 bottles left. I since decided it was so hard to let it bottle condition for the appropriate length of time I can never go without brew in the pipeline. I have 2 going now and another waiting on deck.

I always test one at one week just to see. After that i will have one or two but I try to let it bottle condition for at least two weeks but it is almost impossible. As long as you like it pound it