Torchiest
Well-Known Member
Hey everybody,
I brewed my first batch about a month ago. It was intended to be a trappist. I let it ferment for 11 days around 73 degrees, then I bottled it after racking to a bottling bucket. It has been conditioning for 21 days.
I tried my first bottle after one week of conditioning, knowing that it wasn't ready but still curious to see how it was progressing. It smelled really sweet like honey, and had a really sweet honey-like front, but it finished really harshly, with a strong alcohol taste. I wasn't concerned.
I tried another bottle a few days ago, and it seemed much improved for the wait. However, when I poured that bottle, in my excitement I got some yeast in there, and it was a bit funky. I thought I could distinguish the yeasty flavor from the rest of the beer, though, and it seemed to be coming along nicely.
I tried another bottle today, and took pains to avoid getting any yeast in the glass. The aroma is pretty nice, but the beer itself seems not quite right. It's decent, but it has a mild sourness to it that isn't so great.
So my question is, do I still need to wait a few more weeks for this beer to condition? Is it just in another transition phase before it gets where it needs to be? Or is this a sign that something has gone wrong? I used Lallemand Nottingham yeast, which I read pretty good things about, but someone on another forum told me that he thought Nottingham gave a sour flavor to the beer, and recommended moving on to liquid yeast ASAP. Any help, advice, or information would be greatly appreciated!
I brewed my first batch about a month ago. It was intended to be a trappist. I let it ferment for 11 days around 73 degrees, then I bottled it after racking to a bottling bucket. It has been conditioning for 21 days.
I tried my first bottle after one week of conditioning, knowing that it wasn't ready but still curious to see how it was progressing. It smelled really sweet like honey, and had a really sweet honey-like front, but it finished really harshly, with a strong alcohol taste. I wasn't concerned.
I tried another bottle a few days ago, and it seemed much improved for the wait. However, when I poured that bottle, in my excitement I got some yeast in there, and it was a bit funky. I thought I could distinguish the yeasty flavor from the rest of the beer, though, and it seemed to be coming along nicely.
I tried another bottle today, and took pains to avoid getting any yeast in the glass. The aroma is pretty nice, but the beer itself seems not quite right. It's decent, but it has a mild sourness to it that isn't so great.
So my question is, do I still need to wait a few more weeks for this beer to condition? Is it just in another transition phase before it gets where it needs to be? Or is this a sign that something has gone wrong? I used Lallemand Nottingham yeast, which I read pretty good things about, but someone on another forum told me that he thought Nottingham gave a sour flavor to the beer, and recommended moving on to liquid yeast ASAP. Any help, advice, or information would be greatly appreciated!