Lots of yeast in the bottles....

My first few brews involved a steep learning curve. Doing the brewing at a brew on premises place (where they did lots of the work) and doing it at home with limited equipment, are different ballgames!

One issue with my process was that I stirred up the yeast cake while bottling and the bottles got a LOT of yeast in them. Most everything I brewed tasted like crap (well, barely drinkable) with lots of weird flavors. Trying them 5 months later, they're not much better.

Any chance excess yeast in the bottle muddied up my flavor profile?

I also had a temp spike on day 3 or 4 where it got up to 85deg for probably 8hrs, so that could have contributed as well...

BrewOnBoard

I would say that it was the temp spike more than anything else. I have had between a ¼" and ½" of trub (yeast) at the bottom of my bottles, and after 2 weeks, they were easy to pour into glasses... that was with me swirling the fermenter so that I would get enough yeast to carbonate the bottles (silly me)

Yeast will settle out. The sediment in the bottles is not that big of problem. Consistent temps for the first three days are very important. My efforts in temp control have probably had the best impact on my beers quality.

Canned kits will always be caned kits. Extract and steeping grains are every bit worth the extra effort.