Multiple Questions: Temp after bottling + Apple taste

OK, so tonight I was able to bottle my first batch of beer. I had a lot of fun doing it too! But I have a few concerns hopefully you guys can help me with.

First issue: How important is the storage temperature of your bottled beers (before you can drink them)? The closet that I store them in can easily get 75-80 degrees if I don't pay attention. Should I take extra steps to keep the bottles cooler while they get carbonated? Or is temperature not as important as it was during fermentation.

Next issue: On this first batch of beer that I ever attempted, I made a few mistakes. The initial 36-48 hours of fermentation was at much higher temps than what it should have been (the room temp was 75-80 degrees) and the intense fermentation activity died down by the end of the second day (shortly after I made a water bath for the fermenter). After that I kept the temperature in a proper range.

On sunday I went to take my first hydrometer test and I used a turkey baster to draw a sample and I accidentally dropped it in the wort. (it was sanitized, and I think I was able to pull it out without a problem). I also accidentally spilled some water that was sitting on the fermenter lid into the wort (probably not good at all). After taking my reading, I sampled the beer and everything tasted fine (though flat obviously).

Though today when I went to bottle, all of a sudden my beer tastes like apple juice almost. When I took my previous sample, I wasn't able to drink more than a few sips of the flat beer because I didn't enjoy the taste at all, however this apple flavored beer, even though it was flat, I was able to drink my entire testing sample. However, now I am concerned that my beer changed flavors so quickly. Why did my beer change flavors, and will the flavor get worse?

Summarize:
1. How important is the storage temperature of your bottled beers (before you can drink them)?
2. Why did my beer go from tasting like normal beer, to having a distinct apple flavor in two days?
3. I actually liked how the apple flavor beer tasted, but should I be concerned with the flavor further deteriorating?

Thanks guys. No matter what happens with this batch, I have sure learned a lot and I can't wait to get started on my next batch of beer!

1. Storage temp isn't that important; however, you dont want extreme cold or extreme hot. I believe they saying is 21 days at 72 degrees... could be wrong.
2. Your beer is green. RDWAHAHB.
3.IT will only get better.

Octang said:

3. I actually liked how the apple flavor beer tasted, but should I be concerned with the flavor further deteriorating?

Click to expand...

A "green apple" smell is VERY often detected coming out of the airlock, and is a result of a compound called acetaldehyde. This is a bi-product of fermentation, produced by the yeast during early stages of fermentation as a precursor to ethanol. Typically, healthy yeast during a normal fermentation "cleans up" after itself and this acetaldehyde is converted to ethanol. I can't say for sure that the apple flavor you're tasting is acetaldehyde, but it IS the most likely possibility. Some brews (Bud Light I believe?) have a small amount of this remaining which actually contributes to the flavor. IF the apple flavor is acetaldehyde, it will likely diminish as the beer bottle conditions.

Thanks for the help guys.

One more quick question. My airlock is dirty on the inside from Krausen coming up through it and it has since dried on. What is the best way to get the inside of an airlock clean (it is an airlock that is shaped like the pipes under your sink)? I'm having a hard time with it.

Soak the airlock in hot water with a little OxyClean. You'll wave to jiggle it to get the soapy water through the tubing. I use a little less than a quarter scoop in five gallons unless I am soaking labels off free bottles. Leave it a day, rinse, repeat, probably take two or three days total since the crud is dried on.

The apple taste will probably condition out as eloquently explained above. Kudos for tasting your beer through the various steps. Keep doing that, even if you only taste a little.

Conditioning temp is less critical than conditioning time. You don't want 90 degrees and direct sunlight obviously, but if 80 is what you got in the coolest part of the hosue, so be it.

Second issue, your process was not ideal but your beer is likely to be really really good. Don't sweat it.

Vid in sig is why you wait three weeks, that batch was conditioned at 70-80F according to my log. At lower temps in the winter time bottle conditioning will take even longer.

I also run strings through stuff like that and add a piece of paper towel tied at the end to wipe crud out, but getting the string through an S lock can be interesting.
I vote for the oxyclean for now and set up a blowoff tube, you will be glad you did very soon.