Green apple taste appeared after bottling

Must admit to being new to brewing beer, this was my first batch of lager that came with the Coopers Homebrew kit.

I followed the instructions to a T when making the wort. All pieces of the fermenter were cleaned, rinsed thouroughly, sprayed with sodium metabisulfite and rinse throughrouly again with clean cold water.

When I achieved a stable FG, at about 11 days, I tried the beer. It was clean tasting, slightly bitter, like you'd expect from a lager. No noticeable green apple taste. Seemed promising.

I bottled, added the carbonation drops and let them sit in my basement for 3 weeks. Temperature is around 15C. Tried a couple of beers and they developped a noticeable taste of green apple / cough syrup during the bottle fermentation.

Is this just a sign that my beer is too young after 3 weeks? Or could I have messed something up and have infection developped in the bottles? Should I move them somewhere warmer?

It could be a couple of different things. If your bottles or bottling equipment wasn't sanitized properly, you could have let something in(lactobacillus or acetobacter) which could cause a sour/apple taste. Also if you used more than the recommended amount of carb drops that could cause it too(too much sugar) although this is unlikely as you would have been over carbed with some possible blown bottles.

I vote that you let it sit for a couple more months, trying one per week to see what it is doing. You can learn a lot from doing this, and you aren't dumping your beer prematurely.

Good luck, and welcome!

At what temp did Cooper's tell you to ferment their lager... 21-27C? Are these the instructions you followed? http://www.makebeer.net/Portals/0/docs/microbrew_booklet.pdf

It's probably just acetylaldehyde. It's a very young beer and the yeasts could've produced it during carbonation. I'd just let it sit and bottle condition a few more weeks, then give it a taste test. I'm willing to bet it will taste better, but if not, I might start looking at my sanitation steps at that time.

magnang said:

Is this just a sign that my beer is too young after 3 weeks?

Click to expand...

Yes it is.

yeah, the corn sugar used for priming can produce a bit of a green apple taste, especially when the beer's young. i've switched to using DME for priming and really like the results better than corn sugar.

Thanks for the quick response everyone, much appreciate the feedback!

I did the primary fermentation in the furnace room which stays between 20-22C, but then moved the bottles to another room which was colder. Secondary fermentation must not be happening at the normal rate because of the cold. The carbonation level was low on all the beers I've tried. Some of the sugar from the drops must not be converted or is in an intermediate state (?).

I'll move them to a warmer room and give it another couple of weeks.

Cheers,

Guy

bottle conditioning should take three weeks at 70 degrees F at minimum. i've found 4 weeks to be the norm. cooler temps will make the beer take longer to condition.