First really off taste. Will it improve?

Howdy,

I did Midwest's Belgian Honey. Made to spec with 3+ weeks in the primary and 10 days in the bottle. The only thing I wish I could have changed was fermentation temp at an ambient of 68 or so.

I tried one after a day in the fridge and it was very alcohol tasting with a severe bitterness that wasn't hoppy, just....bitter. I really couldn't finish it.

I know it's still pretty green, but given that it tasted pretty good before it went into the bottle I'm wondering what happened and whether it will recover.

Thanks,

Merkwürdigliebe

If there was real honey in it, then I think a lot of the harsh alcohol will mellow out. I've brewed beer with honey and wine with honey, and both started off tasting very harsh and fiery. Both mellowed out over time, and the honey flavour increased.

The aging seemed to happen at both room temperature (for the beer), and fridge temperature (for the wine), and was probably more than halfway done after 6 weeks or so.

Stick it in a closet till Christmas, then try it again. If its still bitter, give it another month. If it isn't better by Groundhog Day, then you might CONSIDER giving up on it.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, whenever you think you want to dump something, you're better off hiding it away and forgetting it exists for a while.

What you tasted is the harshness from undissolved CO2. Kinda jumps out and bites your tongue. Was it fizzy too? Give it more time - we generally say 3 weeks at 70 degrees in the bottle for proper conditioning. Just because you have bubbles doesn't mean it's totally dissolved - it takes time to dissolve. And, because more dissolves at cold temps, give it at least a full day in the fridge to fully dissolve. At 68 ambient your beer will probably be fine.

So yeah, what DMartin said in far fewer words

if the ambient temp was 68f then you might be tasting fusel alcohol which in my experience did not diminish very much after 4 months but there is no harm in waiting it out anyway.

Thanks for all of your replies. Looks like I'll have to just hang in there. Luckily I can drink the pumpkin ale I bottled in August, otherwise I'd have nothing to drink. The horror...the horror...