I'm new...and I need some reassurance

[theo1069]

Hi Everyone!

I’ve Been lurking for a while, and have learned a lot from this forum. Thank you to everyone for this great site! Being new to this hobby, it is great to learn from others experience / mistakes. I am already addicted.

I am hoping for some reassurance or advice. I recently brewed up my first extract beer. It is a highly rated Autumn Amber kit from Midwest. I think this will be my last kit purchase, as it seems like I paid a premium because they pre-measured and threw the ingredients in a box for me. Anyway… The kit came with LME and I opted for the liquid White Labs yeast. (No starter on that one, but have started making 1L starters for my second batch which is 2 days into the primary.) The airlock started bubbling after about 12 hours, which (I think) is about right? I let it sit in the primary (Ale Pale) for 8 days, then transferred to glass carboy for another 8 days. My starting and final gravities fell into line with what the recipe called for. I bottled last Monday 8/23.

I have been trying to taste the beer at each stage of the process to better understand exactly what is happening and how each stage affects the brew. So for the sake of research, and because I couldn’t wait any longer, I chilled a bottle last night (one week after bottling) to try it out.

I am extremely happy with how it is turning out! It poured beautifully, with about an inch of head. It seems fairly well carbonated, although it seemed a little flat toward the bottom of the glass. It was still better than I was expecting after only a week in the bottle.

My main question is this... The flavor profile seemed pretty spot on and well balanced for the style. It is darker than I was anticipating and it has almost a syrupy feel / aftertaste. I don't even know how to describe it. It’s not bad, just heavy. Otherwise it is damn near perfect.

I am thinking that this is because it is still young and not fully carbed? I have researched through these forums and found that the darkness may be due to adding the full amount of LME at the beginning of the boil. I am going to experiment with a later addition in the next batch. I have also heard that using a DME might help with the syrupy feel. I’m not so much worried about the color as the mouth-feel.

So I turn to the experts for reassurance. What should I expect after another week or two in the bottle? I would be ecstatic if it lost the syrupy / heavy taste.

Thanks again for all the guidance so far!

Theo

 

[IrregularPulse]

Darkness will be from boiling liquid extract. Look into late extract additions to help and also start using DME instead to lighten things up.

Give it 3 weeks in bottle before you really judge it. Sounds like everything went well.

 

[celticcolorado]

As Irregular suggested, give it more time and it should balance out. The additional carbonation will help with the syrupy mouth feel.

 

[carrotmalt]

If it's only been in the bottle for week, I bet you see a night and day difference between now and say 2 more weeks. I bet it gets even better!

 

[Gridlocked]

Hey theo,
Congrats on the first beer, it sounds like it went really well. I was just reading a bit in Designing Great Brews last night that talked about extracts and the variations in product and the affect of aging. I'm no expert and I was pretty tired, but the text mentioned that the longer the syrup extract is in the package, the darker it gets. It also mentioned that some malters include different amounts of non-fermentable sugars into their extracts, so your results may or may not be a combination of those things.

I do, however, agree with these guys in that the beer will change quite a bit as it spends more time in the bottles. Keep tasting it every once in a while, though - that tactile information will be helpful as you become a more experienced brewer.

 

[cenla]

My first brew was that kit as well. I'm currently on brew #3 so I'm still pretty new.

I still have a few bottles from that first brew sitting around. The flavor has changed significantly. It changed the most over the first three weeks in the bottle, but the flavor is still changing and it's about two months past the bottling day now.

Let it sit some more.

 

[ChshreCat]

+1 on full carbonation helping the heaviness and mouthfeel. Give it a few more weeks before worrying at all.

 

[tvtoms]

I just bottled that brew last night. I modified it by adding 500 grams of sugar, but yeah it was basically just 6 pounds of Gold LME and specialty grains. I added half the LME early, and half with 10 minutes left in the boil. I used bags for the hops and strained into my bucket.

I brewed it on the 7th and left it in primary until last night. My kit came with the wrong yeast, so I pitched coopers yeast on it. Kept it nice and cool during fermentation. Sample tasted good, very mild on the hops. Should be nice after conditioning.

It still should come out like 3 cents an ounce which is pretty cheap by the way. I used to buy Labatt Blue at about 7 cents an ounce, or Sam Adams for 11 cents an ounce in 6 packs. But yeah, going bulk on grains could be the way to go. Before long, you'll have a brew shop though, so you have to usually draw the line somewhere reasonable. Have fun!

 

[northernlad]

I regularly check at the one week mark. I like to track how the flavors and hops change and develop. It is expected that it be not quite right that young.
I made an IPA recently that I really did not care for at the one week stage. At 3 weeks it unbelieveable.

 

[Homercidal]

Taste can change drastically from between 1 to 3 weeks or more (Depending on teh beer and your brewing method).

So RDWHAHB! Looks like you're doing pretty good!

And +1 on the Late Extract Additions.

 

[theo1069]

Thanks everyone! Thats what I was hoping to hear!