John Bull Best Bitter query

[Zappa86]

Just racked my John Bull Best Bitter into secondary fermenter and it smelled really fruity. Not off but like a really fruity wheat beer, is that normal?

This is the first time I've done a kit, used a bag of beer enhancerinstead of the suggested table sugar, brewed it a little short to around 18L, kept it around 18C for two weeks and used S-04 instead of the kit yeast.

 

[terrym]

In my experience rarely does homebrewed beer taste or perhaps smell anything like the finished product when it's still in FV.
I would just carry on as you intended. The true test will be when you open the first bottle or draw off the first proper glass from your PB after you have allowed a reasonable time for conditioning which should be some weeks away yet.

 

[LarryF]

I've got a John Bull Best Bitter almost four weeks in the bottle and it'll be another four weeks when it starts to settle down into the beer it's going to be. I find they come into their own after four months so it's worth putting aside a couple of bottles of each brew for that long so you get to taste them at their best. It's a sort of ongoing process from tasting what's in the trial jar before you pitch the yeast and take your OG reading to tasting it again when you take your FG reading when you bottle. I then give it eleven days in the warm and two days in the fridge (so I get to try a first bottle on a Friday night) and you get a first real taste of your carbonated beer and although green at this point you can see where it's going to go right up to the four month point. Saying that though there's nothing better than finding a bottle of a brew you thought long finished apart from the fact that you curse your impatience for not having your first bottle at six months.