11 days in

[S.R.S]

Thank you for all your advice and the plan now is to leave in the FV for 3 weeks with dry hopping for the 3rd week.
Today is the 11th day, the brew is still cloudy and a small taste earlier reminded me of that home brew taste and smell from years ago.
There still appears to be some bubbles coming up through the FV but the taste really was not very pleasant - bitter and potent, perhaps yeasty.
Should I be worried or just patient?

 

[mongoose33]

Thank you for all your advice and the plan now is to leave in the FV for 3 weeks with dry hopping for the 3rd week.
Today is the 11th day, the brew is still cloudy and a small taste earlier reminded me of that home brew taste and smell from years ago.
There still appears to be some bubbles coming up through the FV but the taste really was not very pleasant - bitter and potent, perhaps yeasty.
Should I be worried or just patient?

Will worrying help anything? That leaves you with just patient.

Instead of Schrodinger's Cat, you have Schrodinger's beer. The beer will be either good or not, and the only way to find out is allow the process to proceed to a conclusion.

Beer almost always needs to condition for a period of time before it becomes good. A 3-week conditioning period is not unusual, and longer than that can be beneficial. I just kegged an amber I brewed after sitting in the fermenter 2 weeks. It's pretty good now, but I know it'll smooth out more.

Further, your beer is neither carbonated nor cold. That will change how it tastes.

So, be patient, try to avoid oxygen exposure, and wait and see.

 

[kh54s10]

When I started almost all of the recommendations on fermentation time was either 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary or at least 4 weeks in primary. That recommendation has come into question. Many say that 2 weeks is plenty and some say even that is longer than necessary (depending on style). I was doing all my beers for 3 weeks (longer due to procrastination) then ran my pipeline dry. So I did 3 successive brews at 2 weeks primary then package. They were indistinguishable from beers fermented for 3 weeks or longer.

The exception is heavier beers, they need time for the flavors to meld and take longer for the beer to clear. You also want to look at clarity. If the beer is not clear, leave it in primary longer. I never do secondaries, the beer will clear in primary so there is no need to secondary (in most cases)

Bottle conditioning on the other hand, I find that carbonation can happen in 1-2 weeks, but the beers always taste better at 3 weeks or longer. That is not to say that I don't start drinking some of them sooner.....

 

[morbster]

There still appears to be some bubbles coming up through the FV but the taste really was not very pleasant - bitter and potent, perhaps yeasty.

Most of the beers I make are bitter and potent, perhaps yeasty.

Sounds like you're going down the right path. No need to worry.

 

[histo320]

My first few beers were 2 weeks and then in had gushers so went to 4 weeks.

Now it's 3 weeks unless I'm dry hopping then it is 4 weeks.

I have found that 3-4 weeks results in a cleaner beer unless it's a big one.

 

[Dland]

I make and store lagers at low temp, many of my brews do not reach their prime for 7-8 weeks after brewing, between cellar work and lagering, although they are usually quite drinkable at 5-6 weeks.

Seems to me my ales benefit from at least half that time till prime.