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meathead

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Just thought I'd share a recent experience to help us noobies
I recently put down a batch of Fat Yak clone which I've renamed Bloated Ox
After a week in the bottle I thought I'd give it a taste
It was very watery and straight away I thought I havent stirred the wort well enough
After a bit of research I find it may be the carbonation hasnt developed enough and this can take 3 weeks
Visited my LHBS and he confirmed this
Tasted again yesterday and its coming along nicely
 
i done a mex cerveza as my first kit, it was like soda water after a week in the bottle by week 2 i didnt have many left cause i just drank them... i actually found one the other day that would be 2.5 months in the bottle and it was heaps better, actually had some flavour to it.
 
Yeah, I was finding it hard to hold onto batch longer than a month so I bought a second fermentor and am now just getting ti the stage where I can age the beer a little before getting stuck into it! That said, I still usually crack one after a week in the bottle in the name of science :)
 
Bottle carbonation depends a lot on the method of priming used....in my first few brews when using carbonation drops they were all fully carbed inside of 5 days. Nowadays i'm bulk priming with raw sugar and they seem to take just under 2 weeks.

It's very hard not to drink your first few brews quickly, especially if they're any good after a couple of weeks. But if you brew a few batches quickly to get your stocks up, it should allow you to store some beers away for ageing. The hoppy beers in particular, those with high IBU's, definitely benefit from age. My weizen's don't seem much different at all between 2 weeks and 3 months old.

When you're new to home brewing, even if you do have the self-control to age your beer it's worth opening 1 or 2 each week to observe how the flavours and aromas change with time, even more so if you're doing your own boiling/hopping.
 
As Carnie said, it's good to have a taste test when your new, but try to hold off getting stuck into them for at least three weeks, four if possible. In my experience, at four weeks, your beer will taste fantastic.

Of course being a newbie, patience will not come easy...we've all been there. :lol:
 
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