Do I have to wait?

Patience is one of the hardest things to learn as a brewer, but the sooner it is learned, the better. You should not plan on really drinking a beer until a month after you initially brew it, at the very earliest. Usually, you'll have to wait at least six weeks for the beer to start tasting pretty good, and the longer you let the beer age, the better it gets. So the short answer is, YES!