Why did my Blue Moon clone take 16 months?

I made AHS's Blue Moon clone in August of 2008. They gave me T-58 since they were out of Brewferm Blanche (I wanted a dry yeast for simplicity). I followed the directions and bottled with priming sugar after about 12 days in primary. It refused to carbonate at 68 degrees for months, so I opened them up and gave them each a few grains of yeast. It continued to refuse to carbonate for months. Through all this time it had a nasty phenolic aroma/aftertaste that really detracted from the beer in addition to the flatness. In the late summer of this year I popped one open and it was moderately carbonated, but had a nasty metallic aroma and aftertaste. I gave it up for dead. For the hell of it, I refrigerated one last night and popped it open today and it tastes pretty good. Carbonation is pretty good; the orange flavor is still there, but the nasty phenolic spicy aromas/flavors are gone. My only complaint is that it seems a little sweet. I am shocked that a moderate gravity light beer like this would be remotely drinkable at this point. Any explanations?

what did you prime with? you don't need to carbonate at 68F room temp is preferable so good call there.

the drinkability is normal at this point. homebrew improves over time. i'm glad to hear that it improved. but i am a little surprised it took this long to get good.

I'm betting your fermentation temperature was too high and you got fusel alcohols which have just taken forever to die down.

I primed with the amount of corn sugar that came with the kit. Fusel alcohols are a possibility. Don't know...

Maybe the priming sugar wasn't mixed. Are some carbonated but not othes.