What does green beer taste like?

How would you describe a green beer taste? I know this is a general question, but I have a difficult time describing tastes. The IPA I just opened has a harsh bitter after taste. It's been bottle conditioning for 2-1/2 weeks and was very well carbonated. It was still cloudy and I'm thinking it's just green. The only thing I can compare it to is an unripe fruit maybe chalky and bitter. It was on the bitter side when I bottled it

Any though?

It may still be green, a bitter taste is a good indication, give it another two weeks and try again.

Or you can have two in one sitting and see how much more gas and bathroom trips you make.

If it's not good to drink leave it 2 extra weeks and it will be a different beer.
It's good to taste one a week and use it to learn how the taste develops. That way you'll know for yourself what green beer tastes like and how it mellows. Guaranteed, the last bottle will taste the best.

For a complex beer with lots of hops or complex flavours then 4 weeks should really be considered a minimum for the conditioning.

Green beer tastes like Kermit the Frog...

Sorry, I'm drinking...

Mine usually taste sour and bitter. The mouthfeel is a little watery too.

I would also take cloudy (if its not haze) as a sign of green beer. It means not everything has settled out in the bottle yet.

Having just tasted a green IPA that I bottled 3 weeks ago, I would agree with harsh and bitter, but mine is crystal clear and undercarbonated. (It's been conditioning at about 50 - 55 degrees, so I think I'll bring it up out of the basement for a couple of weeks to get a bit more carbonation.)
I know that the harshness will mellow out shortly, and the bitterness is just what I intended.

-a.

"Unripe fruit" is one of the indications. Harsh bitterness is another.

Harsh, in my experience. Just cracked a pale ale that had only been bottled a little more than a week, it definately still needs time to mellow. It's bitter, but not in a good way - and oddly, more bitter than I remember when I bottled.

Thanks all, Great info. Very helpful.

I'm a little concerned that an IPA still tastes green after three weeks. I just transferred one to secondary yesterday, and that means it has five weeks to go based on the 1-2-3 rule. I take it IPAs need more time than that?

Just a follow up. I opened one of those IPA's yesterday and WOW, How it changed. I've read how beer mellows in the bottle (or Keg) but I was amazed at how all those harsh flavors just mellowed and meshed. Patience pays.

Mutine Bullfrog said:

Just a follow up. I opened one of those IPA's yesterday and WOW, How it changed. I've read how beer mellows in the bottle (or Keg) but I was amazed at how all those harsh flavors just mellowed and meshed. Patience pays.

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Another characteristic I find in green beers is lack of flavor balance: instead of a pleasant balance of flavors, I can distinctly taste the hop bitterness, the roasted malts (if any), etc.

Mutine Bullfrog said:

Just a follow up. I opened one of those IPA's yesterday and WOW, How it changed. I've read how beer mellows in the bottle (or Keg) but I was amazed at how all those harsh flavors just mellowed and meshed. Patience pays.

Click to expand...

One of the things you are sure to discover if you brew for awhile is that sometimes if you let your beer age even longer-- say 2-3 months-- you will really be amazed at what happens. It's not true of every batch, but some of them can blow you away by how much better they get. The worst part is when you discover that you have created brewing nirvana and then realize that you only have about 6 bottles left! A lot of people make it a point, though, to set aside a six pack or so from every batch for longer aging.

I sometimes suspect that when they tell you it's ready to drink after 2 weeks in the bottles, it's really just so prospective new homebrewers don't get discouraged from taking up brewing. Yes, you can drink it that fast, and some batches are actually pretty good that soon. Others, though, really benefit from some patience.

ayrton said:

I'm a little concerned that an IPA still tastes green after three weeks. I just transferred one to secondary yesterday, and that means it has five weeks to go based on the 1-2-3 rule. I take it IPAs need more time than that?

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When I made an IPA I waited 9 weeks from brewing to drinking. It was also over 6% ABV though.

Buford said:

When I made an IPA I waited 9 weeks from brewing to drinking. It was also over 6% ABV though.

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My IPA was 8.5% ABV.

cweston said:

Another characteristic I find in green beers is lack of flavor balance: instead of a pleasant balance of flavors, I can distinctly taste the hop bitterness, the roasted malts (if any), etc.

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This is a really good reason not to adjust recipe parameters before a considerable amount of time has gone by. One cannot fully judge just how the flavors are going to play out, until the beer is actually ready. I am still amazed at the permutations of flavor profiles some beers go through.

One thing I am trying to get more organized about is for each of my recipes knowing roughly when it is at its best. What I try to do is on a new recipe I taste one roughly once a week from at least 5 weeks after it was created and on. I take notes and this gives me a rough idea of how things progress with the recipe. My conditioning area is roughly 50 °F so that is not really a variable but a constant. I also try to take good notes on time and temperature and what results it produces.