BeerBorg

If you do taste tests....

When do you test? 1 week in? 2 weeks?

The only time I have tested was right before bottling.

Taste tests from hydrometer sample tube while bottling; then after 12-14 days in a bottle.

A lot of my recipes are dry hopped, so I take a hydro reading and taste test when I dry hop, which is usually 1.5 weeks into the fermentation. Then I take another hydro reading and taste test after the dry hop period (usually 5 to 7 days). Then it goes into the fridge for a cold crash. I also usually have a little left over that didn't fill a full bottle that I drink at bottling too.

I don't waste the beer to taste it, I take my hydro sample before cold crashing or bottling and drink that (actually at bottling I pour most of it in the bottling slimline and just taste a little). Then I drink whatever didn't fit into a bottle at the end.

I drink the last little bit that didn't fit in the last bottle. Then i will put one in the fridge at about a week and a half in and test that one as well.

I let my beers go for 3 weeks, and take a gravity reading a day or two before I intend to bottle, just to be sure fermentation didn't get stuck. After I get the FG, I pour the hydro sample into a testing glass and check for color and clarity, then I check out the aroma and drink the sample. This gives me a good idea of what the final product is going to be like, even though I know some changes will occur with carbonation and conditioning. Still, I can know if it's going to be good, average, exceptional, etc., and whether I accomplished what I had in mind for this particular beer.

After bottling, if there's any left in the bucket, I drink that, because beer.

Then I wait at least 3 weeks until I chill and drink a bottle, but I've also learned the longer warm conditioning, the better, in most cases.

I might be the anomaly. I only taste when the beer is ready to go. No samples on brewing day, no samples when I check gravity or bottle/keg. I like to be surprised when that first beer gets to the glass. I anticipate what it's going to taste like and prepare for it, but I like to wait.

I also open presents on Christmas morning, not Christmas Eve

Kealia wrote:I might be the anomaly. I only taste when the beer is ready to go. No samples on brewing day, no samples when I check gravity or bottle/keg. I like to be surprised when that first beer gets to the glass. I anticipate what it's going to taste like and prepare for it, but I like to wait.

I also open presents on Christmas morning, not Christmas Eve

Dude, you're a freak. You're scaring me, man.

+1.

I agree with Kealia in that I don't sample along the way. Maybe, just maybe on bottling day I'll shoot the jigger I pull off first to clear the spigot. On my brews that I've done before, I don't. On new ones like the St Pats Vanilla Porter where I wanted to make sure I hadn't created something nasty....I will do it.

Yup, I usually will take a small sampling on bottling day. I have never experienced cidery taste any time I have done that either. Just gives a nice example of what to expect in 2-3 weeks.

I taste every couple of days after I move it to the secondary, which is my bottling bucket.
Especially if I dry hop.
Love to smell the difference after a few days. And it may just be me, but it seems to enhance the flavor also!
I'll leave it there at least a week and gauge the changes in the flavor during that time.
My way of geeking on the brew!
I know, the secondary may not be necessary but I seem to have better results!

I do a taste test when I keg/bottle, then forget it exist for 2 weeks to 2 years, depending on what I brew up.

When I first started brewing and using LBK's I found myself doing a lot of "taste tests" the spigot and the anticipation was too easy to pass up. Now I use mostly carboys and sometimes I might sample when I rack but not usually, but I always sample out of the bottling bucket just before filling the first bottle.

BeerRust wrote:If you do taste tests....

When do you test? 1 week in? 2 weeks?

The only time I have tested was right before bottling.

Okay BR lets one up it for the new brewers and ask those that taste/when they taste to give an opinion on how it helps/helped them improve their brewing/process?

So instead of when or why how has it helped or changed something in your process?