Finish my first batch!! Why the slightly yeasty taste?

Hey everyone,

I just finished my first round of beer making and It tastes great except I have this yeasty after taste and can see sediment in the glass. Is this something that would be resolved If I was to filter it more effectively or is it something else.

If filtering is the issue does anyone have any hints on methods, equipment or something else.


Oh and the beer I made was a Pale Ale. Does anyone have any suggestions about a good next beer for me to make?


thanks,

Joe

First, congrats on your first completed batch!

Second, how long did you let it ferment before you bottled/kegged? You may have a lot of sediment due to a short fermentation period.

Are you using only a primary fermenter, or do you secondary as well? You will get clearer (and better tasting beer) if you let it age a bit before bottling (either 1-2 weeks in primary and another 2-3 weeks in secondary or just a flat month in primary). Once you've got it bottled/kegged, you should leave it alone for at least another 3 weeks.

I think this is more a training issue. What you will want to do is put your bottles in the fridge for 2-3 days. The yeast will settle to the bottom of the bottle and when you pour into a glass, do it gently. Leave the last bit in the bottle and you won't get all that yeast in your beer.

Everything jmulligan said about time is correct though.

Well I'll echo what was said about time.
The longer you let your brew settle, up to a point, the better your brew will taste.
The yeast taste is the taste of either young beer or the fact you actually have yeast in your glass. Have a bit of patience, and let your brew condition a few weeks if you can, and in the meantime put another brew on.

Your choice of APA is a good one as it is a forgiving and relativly easy brew to make well. It's one of my house ales ( the other is my HobGoblin clone ).

What to make next? Well you have to decide on what you like. I see you like hops as your choice of APA would suggest. Why not try another for now, and then try a different one. This might help dial in a recipie for you that you really like.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the help. I was following a receipe from that said I should be able to bottle the beer after a week but I guess this has to be a typo. Anyway, it seems to be a good first try and I think I might go for either another Pale Ale or maybe a Porter. We'll see. I need to drink enough of them so I have the bottles for the next round.

It's not a typo, lots of recipes/kits say it's ready to bottle in a week but don't believe it. Most beer will be much better if you wait 2 weeks, and even better yet if you wait 3. I've only made 6 batches and I'm still more impatient than I should be but I've definitely noticed a difference by waiting 2-2.5 weeks instead of one.

Try letting your brew "condition". I let my brews sit in the primary for a month, skip the secondary, then bottle as usual. Huge difference. The yeast needs time to clean up after itself.

+1 on time. 3-4 weeks primary, 4-5 weeks conditioning(for average ABV beers). The higher the ABV the longer the conditioning. Time is your friend during the mash too. Voraluf, voraluf, and then again. This wont help the yeast taste but it will keep grain flour and hulls out of your boil for a clearer cleaner beer.

This is a bit of a noob question but.... how long is too long to let it sit in the fermenter? I hear and read that you don't want your brew sitting for too long on top of all the spent yeast sediment, hop residues, and coagulated proteins, etc that just sit on the bottom of your primary?? How much truth is there to that?

My LHBS wrote their own directions that say you MUST rack into the secondary or bottle within 10 days, 14 max or risk off flavors.

I'm only doing single stage right now for my first few brews, and it was this advice that led me to believe I should bottle as soon as my FG stayed consistent, so I bottled my first batch after only 4 days in the fermenter. That batch has a lot of sediment, and I even had a gooey ball of sediment floating around in one of the bottles I sampled after a couple weeks.

I'm assuming that had I left it in the fermenter longer a lot more of that junk would have settled out, but how long is too long to leave it sitting there? I would really like to know

goodbyebluesky82 said:

This is a bit of a noob question but.... how long is too long to let it sit in the fermenter? I hear and read that you don't want your brew sitting for too long on top of all the spent yeast sediment, hop residues, and coagulated proteins, etc that just sit on the bottom of your primary?? How much truth is there to that?

My LHBS wrote their own directions that say you MUST rack into the secondary or bottle within 10 days, 14 max or risk off flavors.

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So annoying. (not you! them!)

You can leave it for a long time. Months, even. Don't listen to them.

Read my blog on bottle conditioning, there is also a nifty you tube video linked in there...

http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Of_Patience_and_Bottle_Conditioning/

If you do a search you will find some good info on why many of us leave our beers in primary for a month before bottling....

Much thanks, I'll let my Pale Ale go at least another week then, my hydrometer samples are tasting pretty good but its cloudy as heck.

You might be able to clear up the cloudiness by cold crashing. Drop the temp to 30-35* for a week before transferring to keg or bottling bucket. The cold helps drop out suspended solids.

beerthirty said:

You might be able to clear up the cloudiness by cold crashing. Drop the temp to 30-35* for a week before transferring to keg or bottling bucket. The cold helps drop out suspended solids.

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Hmm, I would have to put my fermenter in the fridge to achieve that, which would make the yeast go dormant wouldn't it? Would that affect carbonation when I bottle it?

goodbyebluesky82 said:

Hmm, I would have to put my fermenter in the fridge to achieve that, which would make the yeast go dormant wouldn't it? Would that affect carbonation when I bottle it?

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That's a very good point I'm using bottles not a keg. Would cold crashing leave enough yeast to carbonate the bottles.

Sorry just saw this was from 2008

Why the slightly yeasty taste? Because there is yeast in it. [emoji28][emoji28][emoji28]

Jdmelton said:

Sorry just saw this was from 2008

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Lol! Necromancer!