EPA, watery brew, first time kegging.

Im at the point of attempting to mod some kits. So I picked up an EPA kit and told the guy I would like to up the gravity a bit and get some more floral hop flavor. He suggests I add about two lbs of honey to the wort at flame out, so I did. He also sold me on some pellet hops (forget what kind exactly but 6 %AA). So The beer is about two and a half weeks old, and I kegged it today. So its still flat. I took a little taste when things cooled off, and the beer seems watery tasting, and the hops is sort of lame. Also a slight alcohol taste that seems just a little off. Im thinking that the beer may just be a little young, but IDK. Will it improve over a week or two? Or should I add more malt extract next time instead of honey?? I used bottled water as always, and it fermented in a basement around 65 degrees.

Oh and another question. Will beer exposed to O2 recover over time? I got curious about how the young beer would mature over time, so I opened the fermenter and took a little taste last week. Was wondering if I broke it.

Looking around abit, it looks like the honey could be the culprit. How would one go about adding some body and ABV content without just using a simple sugar???

If your beer is flat It's going to taste watery. Just relax until it's properly carbed.

uglysofa said:

If your beer is flat It's going to taste watery. Just relax until it's properly carbed.

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Ok, I was hoping that was it. tnx

BeerMe82 said:

Oh and another question. Will beer exposed to O2 recover over time? I got curious about how the young beer would mature over time, so I opened the fermenter and took a little taste last week. Was wondering if I broke it.

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Opening the fermenter for a taste shouldn't cause any problems so long as anything that touches your beer is sanitized. If you did break it, as you say, you'd be getting a funky taste from it, not a watery one. Did you take an OG and FG reading?

mnixon said:

Opening the fermenter for a taste shouldn't cause any problems so long as anything that touches your beer is sanitized. If you did break it, as you say, you'd be getting a funky taste from it, not a watery one. Did you take an OG and FG reading?

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Cool, things were sanitized, I did get readings but they are written on the bucket, which is at the rents, where I do all of my brewing (no room in the apartment).

Im am at aprox 5.5 ABV, but idk what the start and end were.

1. adding honey reduces the body of the beer, because it ferments fully (unlike malt extract). So, yeah, your final beer will have less body, but more alcohol, than the original recipe/style intended. Note: you got bad/lazy advice from the brew store guy...don't ask him any more questions except "how much is this?"
2. you're over-worrying about oxygen. splashing the finished beer gets oxygen into it, and causes oxidizes flavors (which do not get better over time, quite the opposite). but an undisturbed surface isn't soaking up much air, so peeking and taking a little taste isn't bad at all. poor racking after primary is usually when any oxidation problems are created.
3. relax! beer will damn near make itself, and do it properly, without much intervention. even if this one's a bit thin bodied, its still going to be better than budweiser!

So this beer is kegged and I have been drinking on it for about two weeks now. The taste and aroma start out fine, but an strong acidic taste takes over after that, and makes this thing really hard to drink in quantity. I am trying to figure out what may have caused that. The only thing I can think of was that guys advice. It must have created a beer with a strong bitterness from using a hops with a moderately high AA as aroma hops. That combined with lowering the gravity by using honey in place oh ME created and unbalanced beer. Or im way off and something else caused this beer to become very acidic.

Can hard water cause a strong acidity? Or perhaps pitching at too high a temp?

Pitching too high can cause several different off-flavors, so that might be what you're detecting. Carbonation also tends to add a certain acidity to it, in my experience. Did you force carb or prime?

smagee said:

Pitching too high can cause several different off-flavors, so that might be what you're detecting. Carbonation also tends to add a certain acidity to it, in my experience. Did you force carb or prime?

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Forced, but idk, this is different than that carby taste. I tried the beer before it was fully carbed, it hast changed much. I actually thought this beer was infected for a while, but since it hasn't changed character in so long I ruled that out. Its not over carbed, I only have it at 10 psi and for the most part everything seems normal on the carbonation.

I brewed one batch (a long time ago) that tasted like a lemon had been squeezed into each bottle. I attributed that to infection, which would stop changing the flavor of the beer after the alcohol content is high enough.

wow, well if it stops changing after a while, then thats probably what the problem is.

So after about three weeks in the keg things have improved nicely. The beer seems smoother and better balanced. To my surprise the bitterness is suddenly gone, or barely noticeable. Which makes things much better. Its very drinkable now. So i guess some time in the keg is what it needed. I was just surprised at how fast it disappeared. I had some just the other day and it was bitter, then bam, today it was gone.