Low gravity, apples apples apples?

I have a lager I batched together a little over 2 months ago. I placed it in the primary fermentation bucket, pitched S-23, threw it in cool box, and let it ferment. I got really busy with life and stuff and I didn't take it out of the cooler box (60F) for about two months. When I did get it out, I let it set at room temp (72-76F) for about 2 more weeks.

I finally got around to bottling this stuff yesterday. OG was 1.075 and FG was 1.005. When I opened the top I saw just a few places where it looked like thin pieces of wax was floating on top of the beer. Just a few. There wasn't any sign of a film or anything else that looked out of place. The aroma was fruity. The taste was like apples. But not a bad apple taste. It was very light and fruity tasting with a bit of a sour tart aftertaste. I found it to taste unusual, but not unpleasant. There was ZERO taste of vinegar. It actually tasted better than every apple-ale-beer I've ever tried on the market. But of course, there wasn't any apples used to make this.

So I bottle it.

The grain bill for this batch included copious amounts of rice and grits. I did it only out of curiosity. A batch I made previous to this with S-23 turned out fantastic. But it didn't sit on the trub for months. And the previous fermented a bit warmer too.

I'm certain fermentation completed. So what is up with all that apple flavor? No vinegar taste at all, but could it still be an infection causing it?
I'm going to let this bottle condition for 3-4 weeks. If it tastes ok, I'll pass it off to folks as an Apple Lager. Lol

It's possible it could be a little brett or lactobacillus, but these have more distinctive sour vinegar flavor. The flavor you're describing is probably acetylaldehyde, which is a precursor alcohol made by yeasts during early phases of fermentation. Some yeasts are more notorious for creating these flavors than others but there's a perfectly good cure for it. Time.

The good news is you still have some active, live yeast in your bottles/kegs of this beer. Granted, these yeasts prefer to consume simple sugars such maltose preferentially over other more complex food sources. But, when yeasts burn through the easy sugars, they start to look around for other food sources. One of these is acetylaldehyde, which originally was a waste byproduct of fermentation. Your yeast will eat it and transform it into more mellow esters more common to ales and some lagers.

So, just let your beer sit for another month and then taste it. If it's even more sour, then yes you have a brettanomyces and/or lactobacillus infection. But, i'm willing to bet the green apple flavor will completely fade out and you'll taste nothing but a great beer in a month.

Sounds like you under pitched a lager and then didn't give it enough time to actually lager. I think it's about 1 week for every 10 gravity points. You seem to have gotten the D-rest in but then din't bring it back to lagering temps. The yeast didn't have enough time to get rid of the acetaldehyde but it should fade over some time.

I forgot to mention. I put a small sprinkling of S-04 in the bottling bucket as insurance for bottle conditioning. But yeah, I agree with you folks. I'll know for sure if it's an infection in about a month when I pop the top on one and taste it.

BWT, I messed up and said I used S-33 yeast. I actually used S-23. I'll edit the original post to fix this now.

Chadwick said:

I forgot to mention. I put a small sprinkling of S-04 in the bottling bucket as insurance for bottle conditioning. But yeah, I agree with you folks. I'll know for sure if it's an infection in about a month when I pop the top on one and taste it.

BWT, I messed up and said I used S-33 yeast. I actually used S-23. I'll edit the original post to fix this now.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that lagers require much more yeast than ales due to the colder fermentation temperatures so be sure to consult a pitch rate calculator

UPDATE: I took a peek at one of these bottles today. No sign of anything (like a film) forming in the headspace at the top of the bottles. However, there is LOTS of floating yeasty looking stuff in the body of the beer. There is also a significant looking layer forming at the bottom of the bottles as well. Far more stuff than I've seen in the past with beers carbonating and bottle conditioning. I'm worried now that the touch of s-04 I added to the bottling vessel is taking off.

Lesson learned: Remember to take a FG reading rather than assume fermentation is simply finished after 2 1/2 months sitting in the fermentation vessel.

Question: Are these bottle-bombs in the making? I'm tempted to open one just to check...but I haven't done it yet. Should I?

UPDATE: Cracked one open today. Mild carbonation. That is good, the threat of bottle bombs I was worried about earlier is gone, at least I think.

Smell: Apples apples apples. That hasn't faded in the least.
Taste: Apples apples apples, but wait. There is something else now. Oh yes, that sour taste on the end is stronger. Wait.....dear lord, it's strong. OMG, it's actually a bit unbearable. My mouth feels violated. I rinse my mouth out with some water. I spit, I'm ok now.

Whew! I'm not sure what to make of that. Time to pour myself a SN Pale Ale and sit back and think about this. 10 minutes later I take a sip of my glass of Pale Ale. Ah, that is good. (suddenly freezes in place and makes a funny muscle tense face) WTH! That sour taste is back again! Ahhhh! Make it go away!

Ok folks, time to face the piper. My beer is infected. Time to pour it out. It's my fault. I should never have it sitting in the fermentation vessel for so long. I suppose those floaty things where not yeast after all.

Don't pour it out yet. It's not yet been 2 weeks since you first posted this question. Your beer is in the bottles so just let it set there for another 2 to 4 weeks and try it again. If it is still bad, then you can dump it but if it is decent, tell us about it and apologize to the beer gods for thinking about dumping it too soon.

If it really does turn out to be undrinkable, remember the joys of cooking with beer. You might also experiment with making malt vinegar.

I will also point out that S-23 is known to throw VERY fruity flavors at lower temperatures.

I have heard it described as wine cooler, fruity pebbles, fruit loops, passion fruit, and Hi-C flavor.

One of the times I used S-23, the main comment I got from tasters was "apples." All times since, I've used it at the top of the range with better results.

Give it a solid month (or more) at 70F in bottles before you make any final decisions.

Ok folks. I'll wait it out. I'll give it 2-3 more weeks. After that, it's gone if it isn't any better. I appreciate the responses. I want to brew a lager just for sake of doing a lager. This batch was really an experimental batch and I wasn't trying to make anything stellar with it anyways. I got a batch of Munich grains in last week along with some Hallertau Mittelfruh hops for my more serious lager attempt. I will be ordering a liquid lager yeast for when I do this. I just don't feel real confident in the dry lager yeasts at this point. However, that is for another thread.

UPDATE: I just finished de-labeling and sanitizing some bottles for a batch I'm going to bottle later today. I thought to give my sour apple/possibly infected another taste. Not expecting much, I didn't even bother to cool it. I popped the top on one and poured about half of it in a glass.

Tiny sip, the apple aroma isn't as strong. I'm waiting for the sour from hell flavor to appear. There it is, but this is faint. Not the devastating horror I experienced last time I tasted this. It tastes more like the Chinook I hopped it with than the puckering sour acid taste I got before. Folks, I think this beer might be alright after all. I finish the half glass and smiled. My goodness, this is a lousy excuse for a lager. But I think it will get better with age. It does have a couple of things going for it. The Chinook bite will fade in time. The color is a very clear and light golden yellow, which is rather pleasing looking. I'm going to put this in the closet and forget about it until spring or later. At least I'm certain now the batch isn't ruined.

For all those that encouraged me to not give up on it yet, Thank You! I sure would have drained it if not for your advice.

As more my future lager experiments. Well, I'm not confident I can control the temps properly to really do it right. At least not at this time. Moreover, I really always preferred Ales anyhow. I'm going to do a pseudo lager instead. German munich grain, German hops, pretty much everything to make a nice lager except I'm going to pitch US-05.