This is a bit embarassing...

[McCall St. Brewer]

I've been complaining for a couple of months about a batch I brewed that I was unhappy and disappointed with. I left it in the primary a little long and when I bottled it I got a bit too much of the yeast sediment in the beer. It was cloudy in the bottles and has tended to taste yeasty and possibly a bit off when I would drink it.

Oops.

The past couple of days I popped a couple open and a remarkable change has come over my beer. The beer is clear when I pour it, and it has a nice, creamy head. The taste is... well, I'm starting to think it's my favorite tasting beer that I've made so far.

Apparently it just needed a lot more time than I gave it. Unfortunately I only have one case left, because I drank half of it before it was ready.

A lesson well learned, I guess.

 

[rewster451]

Been there, done that. We brewed up a batch I called America $&#* Yeah! Brown Ale, and right off it had too much mollasses flavor and it was a bit thick and syruppy. It was ok though, and since I had brewed it under extremely drunken conditions I just thought well, it's beer, and drank most of it up pretty quickly. I recently had another one, and man what a difference! It was really, really good. The mollasses mellowed out and produced a very unique and tasty flavor. But like you, I didn't have much left.

Definitely lesson learned.

 

[Truble]

with every batch I brew, they get better with time. My problem is that I do not have enough of a stock to be able to age them out proper. I am trying to change that now, by brewing more often. I had a setback with my stout, as it doesn't seem like it will be drinkable for at least a couple months, if ever. It was screwed up from the beginning, and I don't think that it is going to survive. I have a batch in secondary, and I plan on brewing again next week, and then again the week after.

 

[Pumbaa]

same thing happened to me with my Wee heavy (11% ABV). When I first tasted it, it was WAY to sweet and very low carbonation. It tasted more like a Sherry then a beer. Since I had 2 other batches I tended not to drink it much unless I wanted a buzz FAST. 3 month later . . . WOW . . . what a change, it's like heavenly now and I only have 1 case left, which wouldnt be bad except I'm saveing 1 case of everything I make until I have 10 cases of beer then throwing a party.

I may have to remake that batch so I have some for myself

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

What's the old HB addage? "The best one of the batch is always the last one." That sounds right. Anyone have any idea how long this stuff will keep? I can't seem to make it past 5 weeks. ,'/

 

[casebrew]

I HATE French roast anydamnthing. But I made the mistake of putting two pounds of Chocalate malt into a batch of home brew. I hated it, French Roast beer. I though I would have to build a still in order to get anything out of it. But 3 weeks later, it had mellowed out to be quite good.

I guess "Time heals all recipes" eh?

 

[SteveM]

Yeah. Hard to say what the actual shelf life of this stuff is. It reminds me of the old Rodney Dangerfield joke: "My neighborhood was tough, real tough, I once asked a cop how far it was to the subway, he said 'I don't know, no one ever made it that far.'"

My Raspberry Ale (which I was REAL skeptical about, but made at my wife's request for the holidays) just keeps getting better and it wasn't all that bad in the first place. I am down to about ten bottles and I guess it will peak in a couple of weeks.