2009 hop nog at 5 weeks, blech

[monty67]

Ok, i kept telling myself i needed to wait to even bother trying this since, one, it's an ipa and the hops need a little time to integrate, and two it's a bigger beer and as only just started clearing in the bottle at 2.5 weeks, it spent 3 weeks in the primary before bottled. I know that it's young but man, is it young.

The carbonation is good, the lacing is decent but the flavors are all off as to be expected. it ended up around 6.3percent alcohol. The nose has a little citrus but just really smells like most of the brews i've done that were this young. What gets me is how strong the hops are. dont' get me wrong as i've stated before i love the citrus bite that a lot of ipa's have but i hate it when it's so long that its just bitter and saturates your tounge.

Obviously this thing is real green. I was just wondering how long before i break another open when it should really start to tasting right. 1 month 3 months, 6 months. honestly, i can wait if it will turn out a product 10 times better than this. anyone who has made one of these before or ipa styles let me know. thanks

 

[tom777]

I did a HopNog 2008 kit and you're right, it's a "bigger" beer than many standard kits. Personally, I'd give this one another 3-4 weeks -- maybe more. It should come together nicely with a little more time.

 

[monty67]

appreciate that, now i don't have to keep coming down to the cellar and wondering if i should pop one open to try it. Now i just need to figure out the next beer, something for late spring early summer. hmmmmm...