Bottled beer dilemma and post-bottling SG

Hello forum of home brewers! Could you help me to determine the status/flaw or my beer?

Here is my situation: I have nut brown ale that has been in the bottle for two and a half weeks, but its flavor is very sharp, yet it doesnt seem over-carbonated. It's as though its a "sparkling" beer. It also tastes like it hasnt quite finished fermenting. Does this sharp sparkling beer flavor sound familiar to anybody?

I took no hydrometer readings before, because the guys at the brewing store said it wasnt a big deal for your first batch. However, Im taking one now, hoping somebody might know what a post-bottling SG might mean.

I shook up my beer in a large container to degas it, and the SG is approximately 1.090 (my hydrometer isnt graduated for very precise readings after two decimal places).

I've sampled a few bottles, and they all seem pretty consistent. The beer spent about five days in the primary, two weeks in the carboy, and the temperature has consistent been in the 22 - 25 degree range. Also, the flavor hasnt changed since I tried it last about five days ago (1 week, 6 days in the bottle). I was also quite diligent in the sanitation area, so am hesitant to think its a contamination issue.

Any thoughts?

It could just be a young beer. Getting a precise gravity reading of a carbonated beer is difficult. Despite your attempt to degas, I can almost guarantee you that your current gravity is not 1.090.

22-25 C is like 72 to 77 F. Carbonation temps seem good. But at only 12 to 19 days, they need more time.

It is pretty standard response to this sort of question to say '3 weeks at 70 F for typical gravity beers' (ie OG was like about 1.040 - that 1.090 you report I think you mean you are reading a 9 on your hydrometer which would translate to 1.009). Higher gravity beers take more time to naturally carbonate.

What you didn't say was if other than the week carbonation the beer seems ok. Beers which are infected often have a sharp distasteful flavor like being extreemly sour, plasticy or something.

Best guess is that you need more time to carbonate since you mention that as being 'sparkling' not foamy. I had one beer that took 4 weeks to carbonate, and when a friend tasted it 'green' and then later carbed, he couldn't beleive that they were the same beer. They tasted radically different - oddly I found both flavors appealing in different ways.

Give them another week. Also are you at a constant 22-25C? or are those the day time temps, and your beer storage could be getting colder over night?

Im fairly certain the temperature goes down at night in this house, especially with the windows getting opened all the time. Other than the weak carbonation, the beer does seem okay, other than it tastes as though I might have bottled it before fermentation was complete (it tastes under-fermented/worty, but tolerable).

Ill start by finding a place with a more consistent temp.

Shooter said:

It could just be a young beer. Getting a precise gravity reading of a carbonated beer is difficult. Despite your attempt to degas, I can almost guarantee you that your current gravity is not 1.090.

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I wonder if maybe that should have been 1.009 which still seems off.

Also, here is my hydrometer reading.

In addition to giving your beer more time, which would be my advice also, there are two other things you must do:

1. Brew another batch! You may not realize it, but you already know much more about the process than you did when you started. You will learn other things from your second batch, and more still from your third. Keep on going!

2. It sounds like the guys at your LHBS are a questionable source of information. "Don't bother taking gravity readings" - you gotta be kidding! Did your Drivers Ed teacher EVER tell you "Don't bother looking at the speedometer" - ?? You can always bring your questions to the experts here at HBT, but expect them to ask you what the gravity reading is, especially if the question is regarding bottling, or fermentation, or clarity, or anything along the lines of "is it done yet?"

Cheers!

Looks like it's around 1.010 or 1.011.

That picture looks like 1.012 to me. Good job!

Hehe, you're hydrometer is measuring 1.009, not 1.090

looks like 1.010 or possibly 1.009 to me (if it's at 60f). not really a bad fg.

That looks like 1.010 or 1.011

Okay, so the graduations after 1.000 start on the last decimal place than. This thing confused me for some reason.

Im also on my second batch actually. Colonial Lager. I just hope the ale is ready to drink by the time the lager is ready to bottle so I dont have to buy more bottles. I was under the impression that it wouldnt take much more than two weeks in the bottle. Oh well! Ill just have to invite some friends over I guess!

first all, why only wait 5 days? and why use a secondary? I usually let my beer sit for 4 weeks at least in primary and rarely secondary. and 1.009 is great but hard to believe after just 5 days.

nos33 said:

first all, why only wait 5 days? and why use a secondary? I usually let my beer sit for 4 weeks at least in primary and rarely secondary. and 1.009 is great but hard to believe after just 5 days.

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Those were just the instructions. The secondary to fit an airlock, and reduce sediment as far as I know. The 1.009 reading was after 2.5 weeks, and my only reading after bottling (or before). Also, after the the bubbles cleared and some input from some forum members Ive determined the reading is closer to 1.011

Edit:

Oh, and the five days I waited was after the first time I tasted it, which was after about 12 days. = 2.5 weeks

Im also on my second batch actually. Colonial Lager. I just hope the ale is ready to drink by the time the lager is ready to bottle so I dont have to buy more bottles.

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Are you sure you want to do a lager as your second batch? Lagers are fermented at about 33-36 degrees F for like 2-4 months, so the brown ale is going to be done a longggg time before the lager.

I hope you don't plan on fermenting the lager on an ale schedule. You'll end up with some not good beer. If you want, you could do the lager as a blonde ale, just use ale yeast instead of the lager yeast and follow ale fermentation instead of lagering.

You will find that gravity readings mean very little to you when you are new to brewing, but the more you learn and get into it, the more important they become. Take them, and record them, every time and little by little you will begin to understand their usefulness.

Yeah, Ive read before to read the hydrometer at the meniscus, though strangely enough the diagram on my hydrometer case shows that you read where the curve ends.

Topher, I already started the lager. Its a brewing malt by Black Rock Brewing, so it came with its own yeast. I dont mind if takes longer, cause than Ill have more time to drink my ale (unless you meant 2-4 months in the bottle).

Knowing now that its already on the go, do you have any suggestions, or should I just wait until the SG stays the same for a few days before I bottle it? Its been in the carboy for a week, and I was planning on checking it in about a week and a half.

ninjandrew said:

Im fairly certain the temperature goes down at night in this house, especially with the windows getting opened all the time. Other than the weak carbonation, the beer does seem okay, other than it tastes as though I might have bottled it before fermentation was complete (it tastes under-fermented/worty, but tolerable).

Ill start by finding a place with a more consistent temp.

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I think fermentation was complete, and the "worty" flavor is green beer. Let it condition more, and it will improve. By the way, when you take hydrometer readings, remove a sample from the batch and test it, don't put the hydrometer in the kettle or fermenter.

Ninja,

What temp are you ferementing your lager at? Room temp?

A lager MUST ferment at near freezing temperatures for 2-4 months. You are not using the correct method to ferment the lager batch. You are using ale methods to ferment a lager batch.

By fermenting at a temperature WAY higher then your lager yeast's optimal range, you are going to end up with very prominant ester and/or phenolic off flavors, so basically your beer is going to have fruity and spicy off flavors that are going to take a LONGGG time to mellow out. And even after you condition these off flavors as much as possible, your final product is not a lager, you just created some sort of belgian blonde/cream hybrid that probably isn't going to be good.

Sorry, but I think you may have really messed up by not properly lagering the lager.

TopherM said:

Ninja,

What temp are you ferementing your lager at? Room temp?

A lager MUST ferment at near freezing temperatures for 2-4 months. You are not using the correct method to ferment the lager batch. You are using ale methods to ferment a lager batch.

By fermenting at a temperature WAY higher then your lager yeast's optimal range, you are going to end up with very prominant ester and/or phenolic off flavors, so basically your beer is going to have fruity and spicy off flavors that are going to take a LONGGG time to mellow out. And even after you condition these off flavors as much as possible, your final product is not a lager, you just created some sort of belgian blonde/cream hybrid that probably isn't going to be good.

Sorry, but I think you may have really messed up by not properly lagering the lager.

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I hope not. Apparently all the Black Rock brew malts share the same brewing procedures. Perhaps the malt was designed to create something like a lager, but without the cold? Continuous fermentation, or something like that? All the Barons brew malt kits share the same instructions too, and they have a few lagers...