Taste tests of my first brew

[Cimerian]

I've been experimenting with taste tests of my first beer. It is an American light ale from a kit. I tried one 1week into bottle conditioning. Had a, best I could describe, fresh hoppy flavor. 2 weeks into bottling I put a 6pack in the fridge. I had 1 on Sunday and it had that same flavor. Not really any less or worse. I let the rest of the 6 pack stay in the fridge until today. I just popped one open after an easy day at work and that flavor is much less pronounced but still easily noticeable. Right now it actually tastes like a light version of a Sam Adams Boston lager.

I was going to leave the rest in the closet for another week to condition longer but would it be better to let them chill for a full week before drinking? My brew times were pretty close but I did not measure out my water for the wort exactly I just approximated the volume of water. Possibly I used more than 2.5 gallons and got more IBUs and that's why it is more hoppy? Or is it just my impatience doing it to me and I just need to let it sit longer?

Don't get me wrong I like the taste of it. It's just not what I was expecting. I figured an American light ale would be more like a Budweiser. I'm just trying to figure out if I need better recipe control or just more patience or shoot maybe it was supposed to turn out this way and I was just expecting differently.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Hard to say unless you have some basis off weight and or measurements. I would mark on my primary bucket from the outside where each gallon would be for future brews. From what you are saying I would guess that you didn't meet your batch volume.

Did you take an OG reading? You could take a sample of your beer wait till it goes flat and take an FG reading to find out how much you undershot generally.

 

[nanop]

You're comparing a light ALE (kit) to an American Lager (Bud). It sounds like your expectations may have been off. Hop flavor does fade with aging though.

What was the recipe?

 

[Cimerian]

Recipe was

IBUs 13-16
OG 1.037-1.041
FG 1.008-1.011

3.3 lbs LME pilsen
1.0 lbs DME pilsen
8 oz corn sugar and 8 oz rice syrup solids.
.5 oz bitterg hops and .5oz aroma (I don't remember the alphas or types but I'm pretty sure one of the hops was a cascade)

LME boiled 40min, added the rest boiled 15 more min. bittering at the start and aroma for last 10 min. I know I hit my OG and FG almost perfect.

I didn't think about bud being a lager while I made an ale.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Well... if you hit your OG and FG then you must of had the right batch volume or else you would of gotten a higher OG reading. If the recipe is for say a 4.5% abv beer (guessing) and you didn't add enough water than you could have anywhere from 5-6+% abv

 

[Faseel]

One note, remember that bud is 80% rice sugars, 20% malts, and they ferment with lager yeast on a huge bed of oak chips at lager temps. Just check around on the forums for a good extract bud clone and that should zero you in a bit more, if that's the taste you are going for.

 

[Cimerian]

I think my biggest thing was what I was expecting and my mis-classification of beers. Just to be sure I think I will test just one more. I do want to be absolutely sure.

 

[brewd00d]

before revvy gets in here with a thread longer than my (well, you know) about conditioning, 3 weeks is a MINIMUM for proper carbonation.

 

[Cimerian]

before revvy gets in here with a thread longer than my (well, you know) about conditioning, 3 weeks is a MINIMUM for proper carbonation.

I'm only having a couple and it is uh strictly for research. Well it is good too but I am cutting myself off now until next week for the next stage of "research"