Will the taste of this improve? :(

I had my first bottle tasting of my first beer (Black Rock lager with 1kg sugar) last night.

I have to remember that technically, according to kit instructions, the beer is not ready yet - it has been in the bottle carbonating for 5 days and now has another 7 days to condition. General advice then is to refrigerate it for 24-48 hours before drinking. So yesterday’s taste was skipping that 7 days and the 24-48 hours chilling - I quick chilled it in the freezer.

Carbonation was good - I’d been worried we’d put too little sugar in - but first impressions of taste were, well, rather underwhelming! There’s a taste as the beer hits the tongue, but then emptiness drinking the beer down, and an aftertaste of sweet and bitter at the finish.

Why so empty in the middle? And that sweetness in the aftertaste just doesn’t fit with the bitterness.

Is this just “Lager with sugar” kit taste? Or can I expect that this will improve to be yummy? Save for the carbonation, it tastes pretty similar to when I bottled it 5 days ago.

Perhaps one of the reasons for being underwhelmed is the strong beer smell. It’s not a bad smell - it’s just a really powerful beer smell - and it leads you to anticipate a strong flavour that isn’t there.

I hope that the next 7 days will improve the flavour of this beer a lot. But can it?

Let it condition. After trying my first brew after 5 days of bottle conditioning (it is so hard to wait, i know) it tasted awful. Now two weeks later it's pretty darn good. I'm hoping my next batch that is fermenting will be better, but I am not disappointed.

I know it's tough, but give it time.

Suggested time in bottles before it's ready is 3 weeks.

It should improve after conditioning, but I haven't been impressed with the "lager and corn sugar" kits. I've only done one, mostly because it was cheap, but my friend has done a few. She likes them, though- they tend to be thin and dry with much less flavor and that's really the way she likes beer. (Her favorite commercial beer is Corona Light) I ended up giving her that finished kit I did about 3 years ago and she eventually drank it all.

That said, it's not like it's bad or anything. It's just not as good as some of the craft beers I've become accustomed to drinking. It'll be very drinkable, and it won't be bad at all for a first try. In two weeks conditioning time, you'll be able to enjoy it.

The flavor will change over the next 6-8 weeks. You might try a bottle once a week and record your impressions.

david_42 said:

The flavor will change over the next 6-8 weeks. You might try a bottle once a week and record your impressions.

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Or drink 10 bottles and type out your perceptions in Drunken Ramblings and Mindless Mumbling - Home Brew Forums