Sweet taste

I brewed an eba about a month ago. I let it ferment for 21 day and bottled it. Let that sit for two weeks and put it in the fridge . I popped one open last night. And it's way to sweet almost a citrus flavor. It's not bad not sour but my last two batches have come out tasting almost the same one was an American lager and now this one. I think it's my bottles. I clean them with oxy clean then sanitize them. I'm really pissed off by the way my beers have been tasting . I'm going to brew a brown ale but now I'm concerned .... I need to start keg'n

Switching to kegging won't help since if it is a brewing or cleaning/sanitizing issue, it will persist no matter how you package your brew.

Please go into more detail with your brewing/fermenting/cleaning/sanitizing routine so that we may pinpoint the problem.

Ace_Club said:

Switching to kegging won't help since if it is a brewing or cleaning/sanitizing issue, it will persist no matter how you package your brew.

Please go into more detail with your brewing/fermenting/cleaning/sanitizing routine so that we may pinpoint the problem.

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+1

If you have issues with your process, kegging isn't going to make them go away, I've tasted just as much ****ty beer from kegs as from bottles....Probably even more, since many keggers don't let their beer condition as long as bottlers do. SO they're not benefitting from any conditioning time.

Ok first I clean my fermenter with boil'n hot water . And oxy clean (I like the boil effect since bacteria can't hide from heat) then I sanitize it with star Stan. My bottles I do the same thing I boil my bottles then star Stan them. It's not a real bad flavor just not one I want. There's gotta be a better way to clean bottles. This is the second time in batches. I feel I can clean a keg better. Although I will admit this maybe I'm getting to much oxygen when I rack my bottles?

lazarus0530 said:

Ok first I clean my fermenter with boil'n hot water . And oxy clean (I like the boil effect since bacteria can't hide from heat) then I sanitize it with star Stan. My bottles I do the same thing I boil my bottles then star Stan them. It's not a real bad flavor just not one I want. There's gotta be a better way to clean bottles. This is the second time in batches. I feel I can clean a keg better. Although I will admit this maybe I'm getting to much oxygen when I rack my bottles?

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I have a feeling that the issue may be much simpler- probably the water you're using. Are you using tap water in your brewing? Some tap waters have ingredients like chlorine or chloramines that cause a certain "flavor" in the beer.

Can you post a typical recipe along with your technique, so we can see if this is a small boil/extract thing or a water issue? I doubt that this is a bottling issue.

Did you take gravity readings to confirm that the brews were actually done before bottling them up? Also, three weeks isn't all that long, IMO, to go from boil to bottle.

I go 4+ weeks in primary, check with a gravity reading to make SURE the brew is done before bottling/kegging it up. I also taste the gravity sample to make SURE it's actually ready for bottle/keg. Taking the gravity reading and tasting it can save you from what you're encountering. Provided there's not something else in the mix causing your issue.

Out of curiosity, what kind of sugar are you priming with? I've had excellent results using Dememera sugar (aka Turbinado, aka raw cane sugar). You can use a bit less than corn sugar too. Not that it matters. Also, are you weighing the priming sugar? Are you boiling the sugar in a cup, or two, of water before priming?

BTW, unless you ferment in stainless, using 'boil'n hot water' is not a good idea. Going above the listed temperature limits for glass, or plastic, fermenters can lead to a few issues. The least harmful is melting, the most is shattering (hurting YOU in a bad way)...

BTW, Yooper, nice to see the return of your 'fun' avatar... :rockin:

Maybe I'm asking the obvious, but what was your FG and what hops did you use?

All my gravity readings are fine. I always take a lil taste of my beer before i bottle and it's awesome the right taste (just flat) I use priming sugar (it's not corn it's the other one) the water I use is bottled (deer park or Poland springs ext. Ext.) it's something in the bottle'n process I can't get it right. I had two brews that would win contest now I cant even drink more then one. It gets the bitter citrus taste. Some one said I should use iodine drops does this work?

1Mainebrew said:

Maybe I'm asking the obvious, but what was your FG and what hops did you use?

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This batch my final fg was 1.002 I forget the name of the hops I used but I've used them before with success. I'm in my car now I don't have the exact recipe. But like I said coming out of the fermantor it tasted awesome pop'd open a bottle and was "F&$# ME!!!" it's tasted the same as my last batch.

lazarus0530 said:

This batch my final fg was 1.002 I forget the name of the hops I used but I've used them before with success. I'm in my car now I don't have the exact recipe. But like I said coming out of the fermantor it tasted awesome pop'd open a bottle and was "F&$# ME!!!" it's tasted the same as my last batch.

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Are they carbed up? Could be leftover sugar that hasn't been eaten yet...And u should figure out what type of sugar and post it later...could be less fermentable?

lazarus0530 said:

This batch my final fg was 1.002 I forget the name of the hops I used but I've used them before with success. I'm in my car now I don't have the exact recipe. But like I said coming out of the fermantor it tasted awesome pop'd open a bottle and was "F&$# ME!!!" it's tasted the same as my last batch.

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A FG of 1.002 is extremely low. If that is the actual FG, I would suspect one of two things- either an infection, or a high percentage of simple sugars. Either could cause the off-flavor you describe.

When you are able to post a recipe, we can take a look and see what the issue is.

Yooper said:

A FG of 1.002 is extremely low. If that is the actual FG, I would suspect one of two things- either an infection, or a high percentage of simple sugars. Either could cause the off-flavor you describe.

When you are able to post a recipe, we can take a look and see what the issue is.

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But it tasted fine in the fermentor something fishy is happening in the bottles.

Oh and the carbonation is outstanding, nice head and every thing. Pop it open it it's a nice hissssssss noise smells fine ... I don't get it.

This may sound stupid to some but I've had problems with beers being fine at bottling time and then too sweet once I let them carb up in the bottles. What I found was that when I would sample a bottle hot to check carbonation it would seem to have a really sweet flavor to it, same with a beer that only had less than a day of cold storage. It was only when I started making sure that the beers had at least 72 hours of cold storage before drinking that they mysteriously dropped the sweetness. Weird huh? Some may say that this is stupid and makes no sense but its been my personal experience. To this day I can drink my beers warm/no cold storage time and every single one will seem overly sweet. Its that good week of cold conditioning that brings my beers around.

I actually run my bottles through the dishwasher. I do not use a drying or jet clean type agent, just good old great value dishwasher soap. I always bottle brush them first to make sure all klingons are removed.

Maybe if it is the bottles running them through a dishwasher rinse cycle may do the trick. It could be simply bottles not rinsed enough.

I simply rinse out my bottles as I empty them of homebrew. A couple/few hot water fill/shake-drain does the trick. If I let someone try some of my homebrew, then I ask them to rinse the bottles when they empty them. So far, I've only had a couple come back that needed to be rinsed/cleaned out by me. Of course, I ran all of them through at least one hot water rinse.

I had one come back recently that wasn't rinsed much, if at all. I let it soak in a PBW solution overnight, then gave it the same hot water rinse treatment. It's pristine now.

Of course, I do this because I don't have a dishwasher where I live. Not sure I would run my bottles through one even if I did have one though. Especially since I get them really clean with my current method. Plus, I'm putting less into bottles since I'm kegging at least half of each batch now.

As for the OP... How long did you chill the bottle of brew before you tried it? If less than three days, let one chill for a solid week and THEN try it. I find that my brew is best when I let them chill for at least 4 days. With 5-7, or more, being preferred. It just means I need to plan a bit ahead and make sure I have enough in the fridge for X days forward. Or simply refill as you remove brews from the fridge.