First brew, watery with unpleasent aftertaste

[ComusLives]

I've got my first brew on at the moment, almost finished as I'm aiming for an FG of 1.010 - 1.012 (it's a wheat beer), and it's currently 1.015. I know it's not done yet, but surely the final tastes have more or less come about by now. Right now the main flavour is fine, wheaty, but it's generally very water-y, with a lingering unpleasant aftertaste, kind of astringent and bitter, which really ruins the taste. I know a certain amount of this would be clear up through the fermentation process, but I'm kind of worried that this is close to what the final product will taste like. If it is then I'd rather not drink it.

Anybody else have a similar experience? Is it gonna clear up or am I stuck with this batch being 'meh' at best? If so, any ideas what may have caused it? As far as I could tell I did everything properly with it, although it may have gotten too warm during peak fermentation as I didn't get the chance to monitor it.

 

[JonM]

Fermenting beer tastes very different from finished, conditioned, carbonated beer, so the final tastes have certainly not come about by now. Conditioning cleans up many of the funny flavors that are present during fermentation, and carbonation adds a lot of mouthfeel.

Bottom line: Don't worry if your beer doesn't taste perfect while it's still in the fermenter. By the time it's really done and has been in the bottle for month or so, you'll have a very different beer.

 

[joe_four_strings]

Let it mature. Even after fermentation is "done" it takes the beer some more time to condition and clean. It will taste very different in time.