How soon can you start drinking your brew

frazzles3350

Hi    I am new to all this.

how soon can you start drinking your home brew once you have bottle it, I can understand  the longer you leave it the better.

I have done a coopers english bitter bottled on the 2/12/12

any help be gratefull.

Cheers

HBO_Staff

The English Bitter is a good starting point, and a popular beer, it does vary with temperature etc, but as a general rule if you have left it at a good warm room temperature for a few days to help get the secondary fermentation off to a good start after priming the bottles with sugar, then moved it somewhere a few degrees cooler, then after a couple of weeks it will often begin to take shape. If using PET plastic bottles then they become hard to the touch, which is a good sign they are becoming carbonated. A good sign is when the beer is clear, so once you can see it has cleared in the bottles it will be getting there. It is best to wait a few weeks as in the early stages it wont taste as good as it could, so to enjoy it at it's best leave somewhere dark for another few weeks, but if you can't wait, you'll probably find it's pretty good fairly quickly.

If it lacks fizz or taste, or is still cloudy, then leave it longer to condition