first taste of first batch, disappointed

[zcaad9]

hi all,
I just tasted my first brew, and i was a bit disappointed to be honest. I didnt expect this to be a great beer considering the ingredients we used and it being my first time, but it seems off

The beer has quite an off taste to it though. It starts fine when you drink it, but all of a sudden it gets a bite of something that tastes really off, almost like a drinking a natty or something really nasty.

for a time frame it was left in the fermentor for about 12 or 13 days, and it has been in the bottle for a week.

is this a common taste for a young beer? will a couple more weeks mellow things out?

-the ingredients were just tossed together at the lhbs (all from brewersbest i believe), me and my friend made 10g and mixed 2oz of hops (not sure what kind), 1 can of some belgian malt extract, one can of american ale extract, and then some sugar. The lhbs guy helped do everything and recommended what to try for a first brew so im not too sure the specifics of everything

 

[Revvy]

Your beer is really green. A week is barely enough time for the flavors to come together.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

 

[Indyking]

hi all,
I just tasted my first brew, and i was a bit disappointed to be honest. I didnt expect this to be a great beer considering the ingredients we used and it being my first time, but it seems off

The beer has quite an off taste to it though. It starts fine when you drink it, but all of a sudden it gets a bite of something that tastes really off, almost like a drinking a natty or something really nasty.

for a time frame it was left in the fermentor for about 12 or 13 days, and it has been in the bottle for a week.

is this a common taste for a young beer? will a couple more weeks mellow things out?

-the ingredients were just tossed together at the lhbs (all from brewersbest i believe), me and my friend made 10g and mixed 2oz of hops (not sure what kind), 1 can of some belgian malt extract, one can of american ale extract, and then some sugar. The lhbs guy helped do everything and recommended what to try for a first brew so im not too sure the specifics of everything

10 g of what?

First and foremost: What kind of yeast did you use and what was the fermentation temperature?

 

[Germelli1]

My honest advice for you is to put the beer away where you forget about it for a month. Go get a predesined kit or follow a recipe on here and get brewing another batch.

This will help you resist the urge to keep drinking your beers while they are conditioning by focusing your excitment on another batch. I am not saying NEVER drink one...you should crack one open once a week to see how it develops!

This is the #1 advice I have to give to any new brewer from my experiences: Control your fermentation temperatures as well as you can! My first 3 batches had the same off flavor that went away when I started using a swamp cooler

 

[zcaad9]

not sure on the yeast to be honest. like i said, the lhbs guy literally said "why dont we mix some of this belgian lme and this american-ale lme". The yeasts came with the lme.

We just went along with it and figured it would turn out ok for our first brew, and his directions would be worth more than trying to figure it out on our own.

i figured it was really young - green - i just felt bad, we cracked one open to try the first sip and were both a little disappointed

I shall wait, see how it improves the next couple of weeks


on a side note:
I am going to brew northernbrewers 3 hearted ale kit in a couple of days,
as far as steeping the specialty grains go,
what temp should i keep the water at?
it just says "steep the grains for 20 minutes or until the water reaches 170deg"
should i keep it at 170 for the 20 minutes or what?

thanks

 

[zcaad9]

and the room i keep all the fermentation and bottles is pretty steady at about 70 deg (+-2)

 

[Germelli1]

not sure on the yeast to be honest. like i said, the lhbs guy literally said "why dont we mix some of this belgian lme and this american-ale lme". The yeasts came with the lme.

We just went along with it and figured it would turn out ok for our first brew, and his directions would be worth more than trying to figure it out on our own.

i figured it was really young - green - i just felt bad, we cracked one open to try the first sip and were both a little disappointed

I shall wait, see how it improves the next couple of weeks


on a side note:
I am going to brew northernbrewers 3 hearted ale kit in a couple of days,
as far as steeping the specialty grains go,
what temp should i keep the water at?
it just says "steep the grains for 20 minutes or until the water reaches 170deg"
should i keep it at 170 for the 20 minutes or what?

thanks

Either add them to the water when you turn your stove on and remove them when it reaches 170, or steep them at 150-165 for 20 minutes.

Also I reccomend checking out How to Brew by: John Palmer (availible free online at HowtoBrew.com)

 

[user 21663]

Either add them to the water when you turn your stove on and remove them when it reaches 170,

This is the way I did it before I went all grain.

 

[surreal_trip]

Also I reccomend checking out How to Brew by: John Palmer (availible free online at HowtoBrew.com)

Spend the money buy the book... Theres a welath of info and updates in the books that you will miss out with the online copy.

 

[johnnyspade]

Your beer is definitely green, as others have said. Generally, a beer will improve in the bottle, as opposed to getting worse, so I suspect things are going to get better for you.

The other flaw I see in your process is that you don't know what's in your brew. It may seem like a hassle, but writing everything down will help ensure you don't make the same mistakes next time. There's nothing worse than brewing up a beer you don't really like, only to make up the same brew sometime down the road. Make notes on your ingredients, your process, temperatures, gravity readings, timings, etc.