Last two beers have an apple taste

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h22lude

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I made a Fat Tire clone and Yooper's cream ale. The Fat Tire clone had a real apple smell and taste to it. That one I know fermented too high. Yooper's cream ale I though I did a good job at keeping the temp low. I used a yeast starter and kept temps down in the lower 60s. Both brews I did use my buddy's tap water. I tasted the water itself and I couldn't taste anything bad. I drink that water all the time.

The cream ale isn't all that appley but you I can definitely sense a little.

Besides high fermentation temp, what would cause this off flavor?
 
Like Hex said, acetaldehyde. Controlling your fermentation temps, avoiding oxygen exposure, and leaving the beer on the yeast until it is cleaned up often is all you need. Most of the time just leaving the beer on the yeast several days after gravity stops dropping will clear this off flavor up, although I did find I had a less than clean beer line once that was imparting this taste to a beer as well.
 
Zen_Brew said:
Like Hex said, acetaldehyde. Controlling your fermentation temps, avoiding oxygen exposure, and leaving the beer on the yeast until it is cleaned up often is all you need. Most of the time just leaving the beer on the yeast several days after gravity stops dropping will clear this off flavor up, although I did find I had a less than clean beer line once that was imparting this taste to a beer as well.

Both beers were left in primary for at least 2 weeks. The apple taste in the fat tire clone did go away slowly as it sat in the keg but even after a month or so i could still taste it. The cream ale isn't nearly as bad.

Even though I kept the cream ale in the low 60s, it would fluctuate up or down 5 or so degrees. So it never really stayed constant. I would say between 59 and 64/65 degrees.
 
Most of the time just leaving the beer on the yeast several days after gravity stops dropping will clear this off flavor up.

Totally agree with this. I've had beers go in a 3 or 4 week primary have no detectable "green-ness" at all.

OP: maybe with future similar beers you could let it ferment out at those low temps then raise to a higher temp like 68/70 to help speed up the yeast clean-up. Temp control matters most during the first parts of fermentation. Might also consider that you could be really sensitive to that flavor. See if any of your beer drinking friends can detect it.
 
Hex23 said:
Totally agree with this. I've had beers go in a 3 or 4 week primary have no detectable "green-ness" at all.

OP: maybe with future similar beers you could let it ferment out at those low temps then raise to a higher temp like 68/70 to help speed up the yeast clean-up. Temp control matters most during the first parts of fermentation. Might also consider that you could be really sensitive to that flavor. See if any of your beer drinking friends can detect it.

I could let it sit for another week but after 2 weeks at those temps it should be done. The fat tire clone was definitely longer than 2 weeks too.

They can definitely taste it too. I had them sample these two beers.

I just can't figure it out. My brewing process and sanitation is pretty good. The fat tire I figure was the higher temp but the cream ale I just don't know.

I have a hefe in primary right now sitting between 60 and 62. I used my tap water this time. If this tastes like apples too then I will be stumped.

I could raise the temp for a few days after the 2 week primary. I might try that with this hefe.

I did also make a DFH60 clone with my friends water and that came out good. No apple at all. I screwed up the OG so it didn't out exactly like I wanted but it is still very good. So I'm almost positive it is my ferm temp
 
Wayne1 said:
What yeast did you use, how much did you pitch and did you aerate?

Each beer was different. DFH60 was liquid will starter. Fat Tire was liquid with starter. Cream ale was 2.5 gallons using dry. Hefe is 2.5 gallons and I used liquid no starter.

I shake the crap out of them for a minute or two.
 
Acetaldehyde is most commonly described as having green apple aroma.

The possible solutions from the BJCP Beer Fault list are: "Make sure fermentation is vigorous using healthy yeast. Allow full attenuation. Leave beer on yeast longer. Oxygenate
wort fully. Try another yeast strain. Make sure sufficient yeast nutrients are available. Let beer age longer."

As you are saying the taste is common across different strains of yeast, perhaps the age of the yeasts can be looked at. The amount of yeast pitched is another thing. Just making a starter may not be enough. How big a starter did you make? How long before pitching did you make the starter? Did you use the liquid or refrigerate the starter, pour off the liquid and just use the slurry?

A very rough rule of thumb is to try to use around 1/4 lb of slurry for a 6-7 gallon primary. You may have to build up your starter over a couple of generations to achieve this amount. Pure O2 oxygenation will help the liquid yeasts get going quicker and attenuate fully.

Dry yeasts do not need additional O2. It does help to rehydrate them 15 min. before pitching in clean, filtered water at about 80F.

Good luck in working through your problems.
 
Wayne1 said:
Acetaldehyde is most commonly described as having green apple aroma.

The possible solutions from the BJCP Beer Fault list are: "Make sure fermentation is vigorous using healthy yeast. Allow full attenuation. Leave beer on yeast longer. Oxygenate
wort fully. Try another yeast strain. Make sure sufficient yeast nutrients are available. Let beer age longer."

As you are saying the taste is common across different strains of yeast, perhaps the age of the yeasts can be looked at. The amount of yeast pitched is another thing. Just making a starter may not be enough. How big a starter did you make? How long before pitching did you make the starter? Did you use the liquid or refrigerate the starter, pour off the liquid and just use the slurry?

A very rough rule of thumb is to try to use around 1/4 lb of slurry for a 6-7 gallon primary. You may have to build up your starter over a couple of generations to achieve this amount. Pure O2 oxygenation will help the liquid yeasts get going quicker and attenuate fully.

Dry yeasts do not need additional O2. It does help to rehydrate them 15 min. before pitching in clean, filtered water at about 80F.

Good luck in working through your problems.

When I made my starters it was always at least 24 hours before pitching. I dumped it all in. I believe both were 1.5 liters. I used Mr malty to calculate the correct size based on gravity and yeast born date.

I could probably shake it more for O2. I do want to get an O2 system at some point.
 
Are you kegging or bottling? If kegging are you sure your beer line is clean. Like I said, I had that taste come from an unclean beer line once. I had a beer throwing the taste pretty bad. I was using a line with a cobra tap on it. I brought a different beer on line and moved the tap from the apply beer to the new one and got the same taste from the new beer. I tried a different beer line and both beers tasted fine wihin a pour or two. It may have been a coincidence, but I don't think so.
 
Zen_Brew said:
Are you kegging or bottling? If kegging are you sure your beer line is clean. Like I said, I had that taste come from an unclean beer line once. I had a beer throwing the taste pretty bad. I was using a line with a cobra tap on it. I brought a different beer on line and moved the tap from the apply beer to the new one and got the same taste from the new beer. I tried a different beer line and both beers tasted fine wihin a pour or two. It may have been a coincidence, but I don't think so.

I do keg but I clean my lines with line cleaner then water then sanitizer after every kicked keg. I could clean them to see.
 
Update...it has to be my kegs or lines because my hefe now tastes like apples. This is very discouraging. I kept the fermentation temps in the mid to low 60s and keep it on the yeast for 3 weeks (also took readings to make sure fermentation was complete). When I kegged the beer it smelt exactly like a hefe and the sample tasted like a hefe. Now after 2 weeks in the keg it is starting to get an apple smell and taste.

I cleaned the line after that keg was kicked. Before I hooked up the hefe I ran starsan through the line. I don't think I can clean the line any better than I have been. I think I'm just going to reclean every line and every disconnect.

I did use this bucket to make apfelwein but I have cleaned it a handful of times since then...but then again it smelt and tasted like a hefe at kegging and a week after so I don't think it could be that.

If it still tastes like apples after another week or so then I will bottle half my next batch and keg the other half to see if there is a difference (just brewed a Belgian White using the same bucket).
 
Yes because I have used that equipment with another batch i have kegged and that tastes fine. I keep all my equipment very clean.

I am going to clean all my keg lines and faucets tonight just to make sure. The line I'm using now was cleaned but then it hasn't been used for about 3 weeks but I wouldn't think that would do anything especially since I ran starsan through it.

Like I said i did make apfelwein but I have cleaned everything a few times and it all smells like beer now. I could just buy a new bucket and lines as they are cheap enough.
 
Does it have this taste pulling it right out of the fermenter or only after carbonation? I know I was dealing with carbonic bite for a while and kind of had the same taste of apples. Once I figured that out, everything is now back to normal. Also had a pumpkin ale that got infected that tasted like apples BAD!
 
CoalCracker said:
Does it have this taste pulling it right out of the fermenter or only after carbonation? I know I was dealing with carbonic bite for a while and kind of had the same taste of apples. Once I figured that out, everything is now back to normal. Also had a pumpkin ale that got infected that tasted like apples BAD!

This one definitely after carbonation. I tasted it from primary and it tasted great.

What did you have to do?

If this makes a difference, I carb between 14 and 10 psi. Usually I try to keep it at 12 but my reg seems to wonder a few psi.
 
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