How did I brew "apple juice"?

Around Thanksgiving, I had some hops left over from brewing John Palmer's Lord Crouchback Special Bitter, so I decided to experiment with a small (2 gal) batch in my old Mr. Beer fermenter.


Steeped 0.5lb Crystal 60L at @155 for 30 minutes in 1 gallon of water
Brought to "almost" boil - cannot get a rolling boil on my glasstop stove.
Removed from heat and stirred in 1 lb Marris Otter LME
Brought back to "boil"

Hop schedule
- 0.25oz Target hops - 60 min
- 0.25oz East Kent Goldings hops - 15 min
- 0.25oz Target hops - 15 min
- 0.25oz East Kent Goldings hops - 5 min

Cooled the wort to about 70* and added to LBK fermenter. Topped off to 2.13 gallons with very cold purified drinking water.

Pitched Safale-04 at about 58*

OG: 1.065

Fermented for the first week in a swamp cooler kept around 62*. After that, left fermenter out in room about 65* for another week and then more like 68* for an additional 2 weeks.

Bottled last night.
FG: 1.016 (6.4% ABV)

The flavor and aroma were pure apple juice/cider. This was not green apple tartness, but actually sweet like red apple juice. It's not at all unpleasant, but definitely not an ESB like I was intending.

So, what happened?

1) Should I have kept it at the 62* for the 4 weeks? (Incidentally, it stayed in fermenter that long b/c I couldn't find time around the holiday insanity to bottle.)
2) Does the lack of rolling boil have a hand in it? (One of my Xmas gifts is SQ14 burner on backorder from HomeDepot).

Any feeback/help would be greatly appreciated!

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--Edited--
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I added an additional 3lb Marris Otter LME at knockout and let it sit 20 minutes to pasteurize.

I'm not really sure. My in laws do the apple juice thing all the time. I'm not brave enough to try it but what i know is that they just leave it and let it sit and do its thing. I would give it more time and then try it. It's got enough alcohol to make you forget about what it tastes like after 2 lol.

Give it time to carbonate before you pass judgment. Un-carbonated/under carbonated beer doesn't taste as bitter, and the hops don't come through as well. Tasting along the way is valuable in that you can gauge how clean the final product will be, but you haven't experienced the final product yet.

Apple flavored acetaldehyde is usually converted to ethanol with enough aging time, assuming there is enough yeast. A common sign of young beer. Let it condition for a while longer and the flavor may fade.

If the off flavor is due to contamination, you might thoroughly clean everything and check your sanitation procedures.

Thanks! In previous batches, I've had unpleasant apple flavors and aftertaste. This one tasted just like apple juice, which was surprising, to say the least! I'm hoping that the conditioning time may help. After 4 weeks, I'm surprised at the residual sweetness, but the FG was right where brewersfriend thought it should be. In the meantime, I'll stop worrying, relax, and have a beer!

1/10/2014

Well, I have sampled the beer after two weeks of bottle conditioning. It's still quite apple-y and less pleasant than at the original bottling. I know that this is an early test, but not necessarily unreasonably early.

The bottle conditioning has taken place in relatively cool conditions (65-67 degrees). I have taken a six-pack up to the main floor to try to have it sit in slightly warmer conditions, to try to encourage the yeast activity. I will test one of those bottles in another week or so.

So far, I'm fairly certain that there is no infection. This was fermented with S-04 with reasonably low temps (initial fermentation was in low 60's in water-bath with additional weeks at 65-68 ambient air temperature.)

Can anyone comment on some process-level errors that might cause this type of apple-y flavor?

Could it have been caused by scorching the LME in the brewpot?
Is there anything I can do to further "egg-on" the yeast in the bottles to do more clean-up?

Thanks!!!

Wow. No takers yet.

I did some digging around here on the forums for "apple". I'm thinking that I need to put this beer in a slightly warmer place. I might even roll the bottles around a bit to try to "angry up" the little yeasties back into suspension. I am getting carbonation, so I know that a few of them are doing their voodoo.

Let's hope that helps.

Is it a green apple taste ?

Acetaldehyde
A flavor of green apples or freshly cut pumpkin; it is an intermediate compound in the formation of alcohol. Some yeast strains produce more than others, but generally it's presence indicates that the beer is too young and needs more time to condition.

I am trying to figure this out.

Is your recipe 1 pound Munich LME and .5 pound crystal malt? That's what I read in the first post, but then it can't be that the OG is 1.065. That just can't happen with that amount of fermentables. Where there more fermentables that would contribute to the OG? If not, the OG should be more like 1.020.

Generally, "apple" flavor comes from an intermediate compound produced by the yeast. That tends to go away with some age, but if the yeast was stressed or if there were a lot of simple sugars in the wort, it won't go away.

Are you sure someone isn't playing a practical joke and swapped your fermenting beer for Apple juice?

Yooper, I added 3 lb Marris Otter LME at knockout. I had forgotten that in the original body of the post and put it at the bottom...really easy to miss.

Total Volume: 2.13 gal
Boil Volume: 1 gal

Steeping Grains:
0.5 lb Crystal 60L @ 155*F for 30 minutes

Fermentables:
1 lb Marris Otter LME (beginning of boil)
3 lb Marris Otter LME (at knockout)

Hop schedule
- 0.25oz Target hops - 60 min
- 0.25oz East Kent Goldings hops - 15 min
- 0.25oz Target hops - 15 min
- 0.25oz East Kent Goldings hops - 5 min

Cooled the wort to about 70*F and added to LBK fermenter. Topped off to 2.13 gallons with very cold (~32*F) purified drinking water.

Pitched Safale-04 at about 58*F on 12/1/2013

OG: 1.065

Fermented for the first week in a swamp cooler kept around 62*. After that, left fermenter out in room about 65* for another week and then more like 68* for an additional 2 weeks.

FG: 1.016 (6.4% ABV) - 12/27/2013

Questions:
1) Should I have rehydrated the Safale-04 before pitching? I just sprinkled it into the LBK once I was up to 2.13 gal in there.
2) Is the lack of a really rolling boil a possible issue? My glasstop stove is wussy with BTU's, so the wort on this one never really went to a "rolling" boil...more of a simmer, really.
3) Is the fermentation temperature an issue? Was 62*F too low? Was a week at 62*F too little? Should I have waited longer to let the wort get to ambient temperature? Did I let it sit too long? I couldn't find the time to bottle with the holidays.
4) It was really apple-y at bottling. Is that something the bottle-conditioning can help with, or is it too far gone?

Full disclosure: I have had this problem before multiple times. In fact, I have only had one good batch so far. I'm definitely suspecting my process is not as good as it could be.

Crud, in doing some quick Googling, I think I may have an answer to how I stressed out the poor yeasts.

From http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_S04.pdf

Rehydration instructions:
Sprinkle the yeast in minimum 10 times its weight of sterile water or wort at 27°C ± 3°C (80°F ± 6°F). Leave to rest 15 to 30 minutes.
Gently stir for 30 minutes, and pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel.
Alternatively, pitch the yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20°C (68°F). Progressively sprinkle
the dry yeast into the wort ensuring the yeast covers all the surface of wort available in order to avoid clumps. Leave for 30 minutes, then mix the
wort using aeration or by wort addition.

I'm guessing dumping the little buggers into 58°F wort made them fairly unhappy and stressed out. Now I know another improvement to my overall brewing process.

Note: My one "successful" batch (i.e. less off-flavors, etc...) used liquid yeast. All the others have been dry yeast - coincidence? Probably not.

The first batch I ever brewed had an apple taste that hit your mouth before anything else. It didn't linger, and the beer was still enjoyable, but the taste didn't go away even with more time in the bottles. If anything, it may have gotten more prominent. I know for a fact that I aerated the cold wort on that batch due to poor racking technique. I don't know if that caused the off flavor, but I'm sure it didn't help.

I used the Mr. Beer spigot to pour the beer into the bottling bucket. I did my best to minimize splashing by running it down the side of the bucket. I wonder if I didn't do some impromptu aeration. In the future, I guess I will use the autosiphon to rack it.

Well, I've tried rousing the little yeasties in the bottle and storing the bottles in a warmer area. When I tried one last night, it was just as apple-y/gnarly as before. It isn't all that pleasant, but it isn't undrinkable either. Guess I'll chalk this one up to a learning experience. At least it was only a 2 gallon batch!