So I tasted my first homebrew yesterday...

[supercanuck]

I have been patient for a month now...I did the primary fermentation with anticipation then the secondary fermentation with patience, then bottled the beer and started get excited. That was a week ago. I am completely aware that I am supposed to let it sit for 2-3 weeks in the bottle before drinking, BUT, I was curious and just wanted to know whether or not I was on the right track.

I will say, above all, I was pretty relieved to find out that my first ever attempt at homebrew tasted like, well, beer! I really did enjoy the taste of it, I think it was what I was going for (i'm not 100% sure what i was going for, though). The only complaint I have is that I felt the aftertaste may be a little too bitter. But more on that later.

So, now that i have an idea of where it stands, I do have a couple of questions:

1) What will change in the flavor over the next 2-3 weeks as a result of letting condition in the bottle?

2) Where does the aftertaste flavor come from? Meaning, in the process of creating the wort and/or the dry hopping, I know that each step has some affect on taste. Either for aroma, flavor, bitterness, etc. If my primary complaint was the aftertaste of the beer, that it had a great initial flavor but the bitterness was a little too much at the end, what can I do in the future to adjust that, or, is that possibly what will subside after a couple of weeks in the bottle?

3) The beer was also a little cloudier than I had hoped. It wasn't full or particles or anything, but it just wasn't as clear as I had hoped. I'm really not worried about that at all, b/c it wasn't that bad, but just for knowledge sake, what is that a result of?

Thanks!!

[beerking]

1. The primary change will be a smoothing of the carbonation. After a month in the bottle, you should get a denser head, and the carbonation should feel smoother on the tongue.
2. It is hard to tell from your description. "Bitter" encompasses a range of flavors (tannic, astringent, hoppy...). It could be that your hopping was too high for your tastes (This will change. even if you are not a hophead, you will come to prefer a higher hopping level as you drink more craft beers, which includes homebrew.). It could also be that you boiled some grains, or otherwise extracted astringency from the grains, such as by over-rinsing. It could even be a wild yeast contamination.
3. After a week or two in the bottle, the yeast has not all had a chance to settle. Additionally, you may have roused some yeast from the bottom of the bottle when you poured. Then again, it could be a chill haze if you did not get a good rolling boil long enough to coagulate out the proteins. None of this will hurt you. In fact, yeast is good for you. More time in the bottle will settle most of this, and gentle pouring will help. As you advance, if it is really bothering you, you might consider either filtering or kegging, or both.

Welcome to the addiction...err, hobby! ;)

[vance71975]

1. The primary change will be a smoothing of the carbonation. After a month in the bottle, you should get a denser head, and the carbonation should feel smoother on the tongue.
2. It is hard to tell from your description. "Bitter" encompasses a range of flavors (tannic, astringent, hoppy...). It could be that your hopping was too high for your tastes (This will change. even if you are not a hophead, you will come to prefer a higher hopping level as you drink more craft beers, which includes homebrew.). It could also be that you boiled some grains, or otherwise extracted astringency from the grains, such as by over-rinsing. It could even be a wild yeast contamination.
3. After a week or two in the bottle, the yeast has not all had a chance to settle. Additionally, you may have roused some yeast from the bottom of the bottle when you poured. Then again, it could be a chill haze if you did not get a good rolling boil long enough to coagulate out the proteins. None of this will hurt you. In fact, yeast is good for you. More time in the bottle will settle most of this, and gentle pouring will help. As you advance, if it is really bothering you, you might consider either filtering or kegging, or both.

Welcome to the addiction...err, hobby! ;)

+1 Listen to Beerking, he knows his stuff!

[supercanuck]

Listening very closely :)

Thanks for that info, although it now leads to even more questions, haha. I don't think it was necessarily the hopping - I am a big fan of hops and would maybe consider myself a hophead, so I would appreciate that flavor.

I realize again that I tasted it prematurely, so I'll give it another week or so to see what happens. In the meantime, it wasn't bad enough to keep me from drinking it, so I may cheat and have 3 or 4 bottles tonight, as 'research' :)

[beerking]

+1 Listen to Beerking, he knows his stuff!

Thanks, Vance.

[HarkJohnny]

just reminiscing after reading your post Super... remember those days when there were so many questions... quite fun. thnx

[supercanuck]

Haha, hopefully I'll feel that way in a few years :). I feel like I've just entered a world of unlimited variables -- how to move forward!?!

[gestyr]

Haha, hopefully I'll feel that way in a few years :). I feel like I've just entered a world of unlimited variables -- how to move forward!?!

One variable at a time. :)

This site has lots of great folks who are willing to answer questions and are very patient with new brewers.

[Croesius]

My first homebrew was a Belgian ale, and I did the same thing! Cracked into my first one about a week in, definitely noticed a lotta sharpness in the flavor. I opened my last one about 2 months later, and it was amazing the difference, everything kinda smoothed into one unified flavor, instead of the bright contrast between hops, malt, yeast, etc...
Also cleared out a lot of the haze too!

[Mill Rat]

Patience, barleyhopper. Sanitation is king, if you get contamination, nothing else you did right will matter. Other than that, focus on your technique now. Get in your basic brewing practice like making laps of an empty parking lot in your Dad's station wagon. It'll be a little while before you're ready to do the brewing equivalent of going off-road through rocky canyons. At least you'll have plenty of good beer to drink while getting there.

[supercanuck]

Well I do appreciate all of the words of advice. I'm looking forward to the whole journey.

[vance71975]

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