Cider tasting at bottle...

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burningbushbrew

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So I bottled my Amber ale the other day and It had a very dry cidery taste and smell. The recipe called for 2 lbs of sugar and I think that is what did it, also it went from 1.080 to 1.020 gravity (as planned). Do you think this can mellow out in the bottle? Or am I forced to drink 55 sour beers? She a light if you would !! Thanks
 
burningbushbrew said:
So I bottled my Amber ale the other day and It had a very dry cidery taste and smell. The recipe called for 2 lbs of sugar and I think that is what did it, also it went from 1.080 to 1.020 gravity (as planned). Do you think this can mellow out in the bottle? Or am I forced to drink 55 sour beers? She a light if you would !! Thanks
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Generally, a cidery/apple off-flavor is more often a result of underpitching yeast than it is from using an excessive (>30%) amount of cane/corn sugar. You might be picking up acetaldehyde which 'can' dissipate over a few months of aging.
 
Is there a way to rectify this? We're trying to become good at brewing but *all* of our batches of beer come out cidery. We've tried about 4 different coopers LME kits with their recommended sugars. Not infected though, not sour, just tastes like fermented apples!!!!
Can we warm the wort and pitch more yeast if it's cidery again?
 
How long are you letting them ferment? Acetaldehyde is an intermediate product produced during the fast part of the fermentation and is reprocessed by the yeast when it is in its quiet phase. Leaving the beer in the fermenter longer can get rid of a lot of that.
 
Usually about two weeks, but we always check the FG is stable before bottling. The first batch stayed conditioning in the bottles for 3 months before we tasted them.

Is there any danger of spoilage if we leave the wort to sit longer? How long would you recommend? We are using a cheap fermenter bought at our HB supply store, all fermenting is done in the same container, but has a removable krausen 'collar' that gets removed 3-4 days in.
HB store insists we are using too much sugar, but we are using exactly what they recommend!! Slightly disheartening.

Thanks for the quick reply btw!
 
KatiePilsner said:
KatiePilsner said:
Usually about two weeks, but we always check the FG is stable before bottling.
Click to expand...

The sugar is not your problem.

Do you rack to secondary as the recipes say? I suggest leaving the beer in the primary for about 3 weeks or more. Yeast ferment the sugars to alcohol and create a lot of esters, acetaldehyde (apple) and diecetyl butter/popcorn) are a couple of undesirable products they produce. As fermentation slows, the yeast start working on reducing these esters. Often raising the temperature at the end of fermentation will help. If you rack off the yeast cake to secondary too soon, these esters will take longer to reduce if they do at all.
Click to expand...
 
KatiePilsner said:
Is there a way to rectify this? We're trying to become good at brewing but *all* of our batches of beer come out cidery. We've tried about 4 different coopers LME kits with their recommended sugars. Not infected though, not sour, just tastes like fermented apples!!!!
Can we warm the wort and pitch more yeast if it's cidery again?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I've found that every coopers LME kit I've tried has been sub-par and cidery. I think it's the quality of the kit. John Bull kits are just as bad.


You can try a different brand of beer kits, and I'm sure it'll get better. I would suggest NOT using the prehopped LME "no boil" kits where you add sugar- those seem to be the ones that have that cidery flavor to them.
 
Hmm maybe it is the kits then, as they have all been Coopers kits. Has anyone tried the all grain brewhouse kits?

I'm sure we have been contributing to the problem though as it sounds like we can let it sit much longer before bottling to even out. Will try that with our current batch
 
It's not the fact that they're Cooper's kits. It's part recipe & bigger part process. Here's an exerpt from draft mags off flavors; http://Rarely an intended component of a beer’s profile, acetaldehyde is an off flavor characterized by a green apple, pumpkin, paint or cut grass taste. Its most common cause is early removal of the beer from the yeast, before it has completed fermentation. Acetaldehyde is perhaps most famous as the component that causes hangover.
And this; http://A bacterial byproduct, sour-tasting acetic acid is common in sour beer styles such as Flanders red ales, which are open-fermented to welcome such funk-inducing compounds. In most styles, though, acetic acid is an off flavor; it’s detectable by a green apple, vinegar or paint aroma and/or flavor. Its most common cause is a contamination in the brewing process or your pub’s tap system.
 

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