Tasting my first brew

[BigRedOne]

I'm trying my first brew tonight. It's only been in the bottle for 2 weeks but I was impatient. It's not exactly what I expected, although it could very well be that the kit was not my cup of tea. It went flat pretty quickly after opening and it is a bit too bitter for my taste. It was the California Common kit from homebrewery.com. I know I made some mistakes as I actually saw stuff fall into my makeup water before I was finished brewing. It also included lager yeast and I could only keep the ambient temperature around 64 degrees. Next time I will be better prepared, and hey, it could get better with a little more time in the bottle.

 

[daksin]

California common beers are actually made with lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures, so you're good on that count. I've got one going as we speak! It went flat quickly because the CO2 hasn't had enough time to dissolve entirely into the beer, so it comes out real fast leaving flat beer. 3 weeks at 70F in the bottles should be plenty.

 

[DarthMalt]

Give it more time. 2 weeks is definitely too early to start worrying about off flavors and under carbonation. I'm sure Revvy will be along in a bit professing his knowledge. Wait a few more weeks, you'll probably find the carbonation levels adequate and the bitterness to have subsided a bit.

 

[BigRedOne]

I know I'm being a little impatient, but I wanted to try my first batch before I went on with the second. I have already made plans to correct some of my issues. I'm getting a few new pieces of equipment that will help, such as a bigger kettle for a full boil, and a temperature controller from work that I'll be using in an old chest freezer I have in order to maintain correct fermentation temps. I'm still enjoying drinking something I made. I'm definitely not complaining.