Can beer taste off if priming sugar isn't fermented yet?

Hi all,

I made an IPA I few weeks back and bottled 5 days ago. Out of curiosity I put a bottle in the fridge yesterday and opened it up today. It wasn't carbonated at all (to be expected) but there was something not quite right about the taste. Nothing funky, like off flavors, but it didn't have the dryness a beer should have. I'm thinking it may have been because there was still all the sugar from the carb drop that hadn't yet been fermented, since there wasn't carbonation. Thoughts?

The beer's still green after only 5 days,& you'll likely taste the sweetness of the priming sugar as well. And if they were 12ozs & you used cooper's drops,then they'll be fine in 3-4 weeks at 70F or so. Then a week in the fridge to get co2 into solution & clear any chill haze you might get.

there is no point in trying to figure out if something is wrong with 5 day old bottled beer.

All you'll do is start inventing issues that may not be there.

^ nicely stated.

Yes, it will taste off. No, you shouldn't bother trying to diagnose a flat, green beer. You'll be amazed what carbonation and a little age can do to a beer.

My spouse and adult daughter are used to me handing them part of a gravity reading and saying "what do you think?" It tastes very different flat and young. I've asked my daughter's opinion enough that her last response (after I handed her a glass of pre-yeast wort was "oh that's an oatmeal stout. That's gonna be good."

The point is it changes throughout the process. I bottle 102 bottles this weekend and am going to try to stay out of them till the end of May. Then, "the proof will be in the pudding." I'm sure I would be disappointed if I started drinking them today.