Mysterious Wheat Beer

OK, I'll give you all of the history on this one and see if you can tell me what has happened.

Extract kit, off the shelf, Morgan's Golden Sheaf wheat beer.
followed directions exactly, with the exception of substituting a "Better" yeast, and adding about 1 kilo of ice halfway through filling the fermenter to bring the temp dow to a decent pitching temp. Started my yeast and it was doing very well

Had bubbles in the airlock for a 1 day in total, left it for another 2 days with no action, so I dry pitched the yeast packet that came with the kit. 3 hour later, I had fermentation again for 4 days. I checked the FG 1.010 which equated to 4.47% ABV. I tasted the sample and wasn't at all impressed, it was cloudy and thick, bland and still tasted a bit sweet.

I kegged it and force carbonated it and tried it again after 3 days. Same... bland a bit sweet, very cloudy. I decided it wasn't going to get much better, so I left it on tap and drank one every other day or so, because I refuse to waste alcohol. Every time I tasted it, it was the same sickly, bland sweet cloudy concoction. I didn't prime this keg

2 days ago, I tried another glass. This is 3 weeks from start date and 2 weeks since I kegged, cooled and carbonated it. Something amazing had happened! the beer has cleared up, not at all cloudy like it was, it has gone very dry, nearly sour! and I love it!

It's now a crispy, dry, light coloured, clear brew that is great for drinking in the heat.

WHAT happened to it in the space of 36-48 hours? Only thing I know for sure is that it is definitely colder and less carbonated than before.

I was convinced that I would never make this again as I just didn't like it, but if this is going to happen every time, I will most likely keep one on tap in the summer, and one kegged and ageing.

Nothing mysterious about it. What happened is that you finally stopped trying to make the beer ready on your time table and let it come into its own.

Beer cannot be rushed. Trying will just leave you dissatisfied. I can't even imagine drinking ANY beer until at least 3 weeks in. And I can't imagine any beer really being good until at least the 4-6 week mark. So, basically, you drank a lot of bad beer when all you really had to do to drink good beer was wait awhile longer.

Every experienced brewer knows the importance of time and patience. Chalk this up as a lesson learned and hopefully you won't make the same mistake again.

Cheers!

I kind of thought that might be the answer!

I know they all get better with age, but patience is not one of my stronger points.

Fortunately, I am going away for a week, so the poor fresh brews get a rest. I have been trying to make as much beer as I can, as quickly as I can, so I can get some one reserve and let it age more. Trouble is, I am now spoiled, and with very few really nice beers here in AUS (the ones that are nice cost in excess of $50 a case...and the rest) so I hate buying BMC beer for $40 a case to drink it and not enjoy it. Even my young beer is better than most of the commercial beers here. Don't get me wrong, Australia does produce some very nice beers.

I guess the good news is that I still have most of it left. I will be brewing another one of these soon!

Thanks for confirming that my impatience is my own worst enemy when it comes to beer.