First time brewer. Did I mess up my English Brown Ale?

[Old_Skool]

As to secondary - thats up to you - I secondary every batch for 7 to 14 days. I feel it mellows the beer quite a bit and allows for some more yeast clean up activity. Its become pretty trendy not to secondary --- but to each his own.

That's because you are Old_Skool...

Old Skool is as Old Skool does ... The other reason I secondary is flexibility. I was going to bottle last weekend (at 7 days in secondary) but things went to hell as did our plans - so it just sat for a week and I'll bottle on Saturday. Yeah its an extra step - but with good cleaning and sanitation I see no issues

[the lizard king]

+1 to all the above information, I had the first problem with my first brew, except I let ti go longer than you, the finished product at a lot of astringancy. I drank it either way, but if you are unsure please send you beer to your local FBDU (farcelli's beer disposal union) for prober disposal and diagnosis. :