early beer taste

ok guys I don't want to write down the whole recipe and bore you if I don't have to, so I'll just explain what happened first. Well I went with a recipe from a LHBS for my first beer, it was supposed to be a hoegaarden clone. Things went..... ok.... from the start. I freaked out A LOT but things eventually got going. My OG was on target at about 1.048 or so (notebook in basement). I posted last week about how I transfered early (after 3 days of fermentation and its been 6 days since then) and well heck I'm just about ready to throw it in a keg so I can clear up a carboy. I tasted a little bit today when I was going to check it with my hydrometer, which might I add is slippery when wet and apparently very fragile, and it seemed to A) lack body, B) taste to bitter for the style and have no sweetness to it at all and C) other than the bubble gummy smell have no real character to it. So lets hear some opinion, let it sit in a keg for a week or so and then carb? Let it sit in the carboy? Carb it ASAP and drink it till I forget about it? What the heck should I do with this stuff, its depressing me! add to that my nice wine kit may or may not have been messed up because of my poor autosiphoning abilities a little while back and I haven't been able to brew my IPA that I have all my ingredients for and I'm a sad camper I will throw a huge THANK YOU!!! out to edwort because his apfelwein and a second version of it made with a weizen yeast are the only things I have been able to do right!

That beer is way green, I would think. Give it time, give it time. It might not get better, but then again it could taste like a completely different beer. Some of my best batches tasted blah going in the keg.

whoa!!!!! hold on there pardner...

slow down.

3 days in primary!? 6 days in the clearing tank?! Those poor yeast! Give them time to do there work!

I am serious though. That is the most important lesson and hardest learned of brewing.

Patience. I am still working on it myself.

That an not worrying. RDWHAHB! Repeat.

Let it sit in the carboy for a few more weeks. Not days, weeks. Even if it turns out bad, which is possible with such an abrupt primary. You will learn from it so see what happens. Now, go have an apfelwein and relax

Oh yeah, and yes those hydrometers are quite fragile... oops. Broke my first one 5 minutes after getting it home! DOH!

yeah the fermentation started right back up and all visible signs have stopped (in the secondary). I think it stalled and the racking got it going again. so I figure its technically been going for almost 10 days worth of primary. maybe a week if you take out some time since the yeast had to work hard to reproduce some more and such. Seems like I hear so many people throwing their wits and hefeweizens right into kegs after a week or two in the primary, any thoughts on that?

*oh edited to add that the apfelwein is unfortunately still bubbling, my traditional one should be out of its carboy in about 3 weeks, the other needs just a little more.

*woops edited again to add some info from notes. Started on 6/26, fermentation went well till 6/29 when it seemed to stop. didn't have access to brew room (lost keys) till 7/3 (picked door out of anxiety, no joke), racked beer on 7/4 and activity restarted. so I guess its been 3 days initial primary action, and then about 13, I'd probably take 3 days off though because it probably took a while to get things moving again inside the carboy. This is a wit though, I thought it is supposed to be decent when green?

The 1-2-3 plan works good, 1 week primary, 2 week secondary, 3 week bottle condition.

FWIW, I do 3-3 now and have had better results. 3 week primary, 3 week bottle.

again, be patient. wits and hefs are meant to be cloudy, so they get to skip the secondary.
you are barely done with primary. I'd let it sit at least 1 more week, then you can rack to a keg or bottle it.

bubble gum flavor/aroma....how hot did this batch get during fermentation? sounds like you ended up with some serious esters.
relax and let it age a bit...it'll lose some of that flavor.

Don't judge the un-finished beer too critically. I found that when I started (I taste my beer whenever I check my SG) I had no idea what to be looking for in terms of taste. Even sometimes when it is finished, especially when you're new to this, you can't really tell how good it's gonna be until you reach a good drinking temperature and carbonation. Those bubbles really help accentuate different flavors and the psychological impact of a good mouthfeel is also undeniable.

Let it ferment a little longer, I know how hard it is to wait...especially with your first. Don't owrry about it 'cause they usually turn out better than what you buy at the store regardless!

smolakian said:

Don't judge the un-finished beer too critically. I found that when I started (I taste my beer whenever I check my SG) I had no idea what to be looking for in terms of taste. Even sometimes when it is finished, especially when you're new to this, you can't really tell how good it's gonna be until you reach a good drinking temperature and carbonation. Those bubbles really help accentuate different flavors and the psychological impact of a good mouthfeel is also undeniable.

Let it ferment a little longer, I know how hard it is to wait...especially with your first. Don't owrry about it 'cause they usually turn out better than what you buy at the store regardless!

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I'm pretty sure the beer is done now- the thread is 5 months old!

YooperBrew said:

I'm pretty sure the beer is done now- the thread is 5 months old!

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AHAHAHA, David the Greek, if you're still around, tell us how the batch ended up?

You stalled primary by racking after 3 days. DON'T DO THAT. 7 days is the bare minimum for primary.

malkore said:

7 days is the bare minimum for primary.

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QFE 567890

I echo hopleaf. I made a pumpkin ale and tasted before conditioning. My wife told me she didn't like it at all. 6 weeks conditioned and she told me that it's better then the hefe I made that she liked so much. Sit back relax and try it again in 4 to 6 weeks conditioned in the bottles.