Brew tastes?

First a little background.

My wife gave me a brew kit for father's day with an IPA extract. I started my brew immediately (I was pretty excited ). Things seem to have gone well so far, lots of bubbling/fermentation the first 2 days, now down to almost zero bubbles.

It's been seven days so I took out a sample to get my first SG reading ( OG was 1.069) and got 1.015. I'll be taking another tomorrow to see if it is steady. I then plan on transferring to a secondary fermenter.

My question is, as this point, how much should my sample taste like beer? I know there won't be any carbonation, but when I take my second sample tomorrow I'm going to taste it and wanted to know what to expect.

Are the certain tastes/odors I should be aware of?

This site is awesome by the way, tons of great info. Hopefully I'll be around for quite a while. I think my wife may have created a monster by getting me started in this hobby!

reedj24 said:

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I think my wife may have created a monster by getting me started in this hobby!

Click to expand...

She has no idea how big of a monster she created.

As for your question, I'll leave that for others to answer. I'm not an expert on what flavors to look out for.

I find it hard to draw many conclusions from the taste of beer-in-process, I always taste it, think it's interesting but can't say it ever gives me great insight - the beer needs to develop before my uneducated palate knows what to make of it. The other thing is not to get too concerned if you taste something awful. For example, I brewed a big malty French-style bier de garde and it was nasty tasting coming out of primary, nasty when I bottled it, nasty two months later when I opened a bottle. Now, five months after brewing it, it's fantabulous!! A great big complex malty beer made for sipping out of wine glasses or goblets.

It will taste like something between the most wonderful warm, flat beer you've ever tasted and the scrapings of a baby gorilla diaper. Really. Anything in between and your beer is fine. Before three weeks in the bottle it is way too early to be worrying about it. Relax, don't worry, etc, etc.

IMO you should not even check you FG for 2 weeks, give the yest time. Its good that as a new brewer your taking readings at all though. Now as for taste, it doesnt matter at all what it taste like. Its fine to taste it but dont judge the brew based on taste, especially an IPA, gonna be lots of bitterness there. Since its an extract might not be so bad. Let it ride in primary for 1 more week, then test the FG 2 days running. If its steady, you can go to secondary. Wait 2 weeks and you can bottle if you wish. i however nolonger secondary unless its a gift or for a copetition. I just primary for 4-6 weeks and then keg-bottle. Bottles will need to condition for 3 weeks.
Hope this helped.

PS there will be a guy named REVVY all over you shortly! He will bombard you with somuch info that you'll be reading for a month. He knows his ****e. His input on this should be similar.

+1 on leaving it for at least 2 weeks.

+1 on listening to Revvy

Lots of folks have given up on the secondary despite what the directions say on your kit. I have found my beer is better and clearer with a 3 week primary than it was with a 1 week primary and 2 week secondary. With that being said.... This being your frist brew, do what makes you feel comfortable. You will get good beer either way.

Taste away. It will taste like good flat beer most likely, if not do not worry as age cures everything.

And Welcome

Personally, for a first brew I would use the secondary. It gives you something to do to stop you getting too impatient, and it helps with the learning process to see what the yeast has done after a week and to see how much more yeast drops in the secondary. Plus you get a chance to taste it.....After that secondary or not is a personal choice. Both methods work fine.

I think that after time with a familiar brew you can get a rough idea of how it is turning out, but that's easy for me to say as I have been brewing the same darn thing with minor tweaks for months now! If I were brewing something new to me then I would be back to square one on the taste tests.

Welcome to HBT!

After some experience brewing, warm, green, uncarbonated beer can give you a hint of what is to come but it will not taste nearly as good as the aged carbonated beer.

Many times new brewers taste a sample and freak a bit because it doesn't taste like the beer they have had before. Do not get disappointed with the taste of your beer until it has fermented, bottled, and aged properly. As good as it tastes to you when you drink the first bottle, it will taste much better several weeks later.

+ a million on those that said let it stay in the primary at least 2 weeks. The yeast has more work to do after it has done its main fermentation. The yeast will clean up its waste (off flavors) and clear your beer if left in the brew for a while.

Thanks for all the replies.

It seems like the consensus is to let it sit for 2 weeks, so I won't even do another reading today like I had planned. I'll just wait until next weekend.

I'm still going to do a secondary ferm. because it will help me feel like I'm doing more in the process.


"It will taste like something between the most wonderful warm, flat beer you've ever tasted and the scrapings of a baby gorilla diaper."
^Ha, ha!

Thanks again for the tips!