I started my first kit probably eight or nine weeks ago, a honey blonde ale by Brew House. I was as excited as any newbie to taste my first homebrew, so I opened a bottle after maybe ten days in the bottle, thought it was just okay, had another bottle maybe a week later, thought it was better, and started to drink it regularly after the presribed three weeks in the bottle. It was a nice beer.
In the interim I had bottled a few more kits and had a few more on the go. I was mostly drinking my second batch (a honey brown that came with liquid malt extract, grains I boiled, three types of hops, etc.) and sort of ignoring the honey blonde. Well...last night I cracked one of the honey blonde bottles and could not believe how much it had changed. Absolutely wonderful; significant honey flavour coming through that was not present before. It was a completely different beer. The kicker was later last night when I went to a buddy's house who had made the same kit about two weeks after me and we cracked a bottle of his. It tasted like mine USED to--good but not yet fully developed.
So now I know that when the voices of experience here on HBT say HAVE PATIENCE, they are right. When they say three weeks in the bottle is a MINIMUM, they are right. Of course I am left lamenting the fact that I have maybe 15 of 60 bottles left. Mind you, it will be easier to wait on stuff now that I have a decent stock of beer built up.
In the interim I had bottled a few more kits and had a few more on the go. I was mostly drinking my second batch (a honey brown that came with liquid malt extract, grains I boiled, three types of hops, etc.) and sort of ignoring the honey blonde. Well...last night I cracked one of the honey blonde bottles and could not believe how much it had changed. Absolutely wonderful; significant honey flavour coming through that was not present before. It was a completely different beer. The kicker was later last night when I went to a buddy's house who had made the same kit about two weeks after me and we cracked a bottle of his. It tasted like mine USED to--good but not yet fully developed.
So now I know that when the voices of experience here on HBT say HAVE PATIENCE, they are right. When they say three weeks in the bottle is a MINIMUM, they are right. Of course I am left lamenting the fact that I have maybe 15 of 60 bottles left. Mind you, it will be easier to wait on stuff now that I have a decent stock of beer built up.