Alcoholic-tasting "bite" in the finish of my first homebrew

Hey everybody - just drank my first brew the other night! I posted a while back about a possible infection, but you all quite rightly reassured me, and thank you for that.

My beer turned out fairly well. It's a Munich Helles that I brewed as an ale in a secondary. Smells great, good light brown color, decent taste. My only issue is with the finish. The aftertaste finishes with an alcoholic-tasting "bite" that's somewhat unpleasant (to me, at least). Are there others who have had this type of problem? Is there a easy fix for my next batch, or do I just need to keep experimenting?

Overall, though, I had a great time brewing and I can't wait to get started again. Very glad I picked up this hobby/obsession. Happy brewing!

Recipe?

What was your pitching temp and fermentation temps?

What yeast did you use? Need more info.

You may be sampling it a bit early. How long did you let it ferment, age, etc?
Most likely you just need to wait a week or two to let it mellow (this is truly the hardest part of brewing).

what is the ABV?

The alcohol bite could be fusel alcohols, a sign that your fermentation temperature was too high. If that's the case, you can fix it by making sure you keep your fermentation at around 68°F next time.

It could also be that you're just sampling too early. A lot of harsh flavors will mellow out in time. 3-4 weeks in primary and then another 3-4 weeks in bottles is my usual schedule.

But I'm just speculating. If you can give a few more details in response to some of the questions here, we can get a little more specific.

I used a Brewer's Best Munich Helles kit. Ingredients were 3.3lbs Pilsen LME, 3.3lbs Munich LME, 4 oz Honey malt, 4 oz Vienna malt, 8 oz Carapils, 0.5 oz bittering hops, 0.5 oz flavoring hops, and lager yeast.

Pitched my yeast when the wort was about 60 degrees (give or take). Had the wort in the primary fermentor for 13 days, racked to my secondary for 13 more days. Bottled, and tried my beer 18 days later. All of this took place in my basement - I don't know the exact temperature, but I believe it stays at about 65-70 degrees all the time.

The ABV is about 5% solid. I know that this is a lager yeast and supposed to be a lager beer, but the recipe claimed that I could ferment my beer as an ale (because I didn't have fridge room) as long as I allowed the beer some additional time to ferment.

Hope that helps. And hope that as time goes on, the beer mellows out. Any more suggestions with the info I provided?

Lager yeast at room temperature tend to be not that great. If you ever are in that position again, use a clean well attenuating ale yeast for better results.

Fermentation temp too high. I think it's happened to everyone. Dodge any yeast if you can't keep it within a reasonable range of it's capabilities.

Double post

They seriously should not even sell lager yeast in the newb kits. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Or they should at least put a warning label like cigarettes. If you can't keep fermentation temps down around 50*F, don't use lager yeast. If you do not know how to calculate proper pitch rates, do not use a lager yeast. You hate to hear about good ingredients not making good beer. Something like US-05 or Nottingham would be a MUCH better option with this kit. Next time...

The good news is that some of the harsh alcohol flavors might fade wih aging. The damage is done and nothing to do but see if it gets better with time. In the meantime start planning your next batch. Make it an ale though.

ledzeppelin295 said:

I believe it stays at about 65-70 degrees all the time.

Click to expand...

Need to keep that Lager yeast ~55-60*. Yeasties are funny little critters - they REALLY don't like certain temperature ranges outside of the type. We think they are just stupid one-celled little pieces of ****.They aren't. They are SMART one-celled little pieces of ****. There are some lager yeasts that like the warmer temps - like WLP810 (San Francisco Lager), which is the quintessential yeast for California Common). You HAVE to read what the producer puts on the label for temp ranges. Get outside of that, and it anyone's game. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't.

I currenly have about 9 gallons of high alcohol pale ales that were my first 2 batches and fermented a little too warm and both have that harsh alcohol aftertaste you're describing. The good news is that they are both getting better every week they sit at room temp in bottles. Once I built a ferm chamber and controlled my ferm temps my beers have improved immensely. Don't give up, just control ferm temps better.

Either way if you have a temp swing like that, I'm willing to bet the wort temp was prolly around 73-75 during active fermentation. Which is still too warm for your average ale yeast.

unionrdr said:

I was just wondering if the op's yeast was like that cooper's one that is a mix/hybrid of lager & ale yeast? Maybe that's the reason they said ale temps would be ok?...

Click to expand...

According to this, Brewers Best Munich Helles comes with W-34/70. Definitely a lager yeast.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll give it some time, hopefully the taste will improve with age. In the meantime, I'll stick with ales. Brew on, brewers.

I could be wrong, but doesn't lager yeast pitched and fermented at ale temperatures create a "steam" beer?

I bought an Oktoberfest kit at my LHBS and was concerned about lagering. The owner informed me that while layering is the preferred method, doing it ale style is fine. Just won't have that nice crisp lageryness.

motleybrews said:

I could be wrong, but doesn't lager yeast pitched and fermented at ale temperatures create a "steam" beer?

I bought an Oktoberfest kit at my LHBS and was concerned about lagering. The owner informed me that while layering is the preferred method, doing it ale style is fine. Just won't have that nice crisp lageryness.

Click to expand...

Nope. You would have to use the proper "hybrid" yeast to make a steam beer. However, hybrid yeasts can also be fermented low to make lagers.

motleybrews said:

I could be wrong, but doesn't lager yeast pitched and fermented at ale temperatures create a "steam" beer?

I bought an Oktoberfest kit at my LHBS and was concerned about lagering. The owner informed me that while layering is the preferred method, doing it ale style is fine. Just won't have that nice crisp lageryness.

Click to expand...

i just used wyeast 2112 for the first time. results are awesome. fermented around 65 degrees. it was a northern brewer cali common kit.
i did 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in secondary. bottled for 4 weeks.

2nd batch of it in primary now. going to try to keep it in low 60's see if theres a difference

bernerbrau said:

Nope. You would have to use the proper "hybrid" yeast to make a steam beer. However, hybrid yeasts can also be fermented low to make lagers.

Click to expand...

Yooper and a few others on here told me that using lager yeast (in my case safelager s-23) and fermenting it at ale temperatures is the definition of a steam beer. I just brewed a California common (steam style beer) and that's the advice I was given. Didn't mean to intentionally pass on misinformation if I did. I was just going by what she and others have told me

motleybrews said:

Yooper and a few others on here told me that using lager yeast (in my case safelager s-23) and fermenting it at ale temperatures is the definition of a steam beer. I just brewed a California common (steam style beer) and that's the advice I was given. Didn't mean to intentionally pass on misinformation if I did. I was just going by what she and others have told me

Click to expand...

The thing is, lager yeasts will throw tons of esters when fermented warm, and these flavors aren't always pleasant in large amounts. I could ferment a beer with German Bock yeast at ale temps and it would come out tasting overwhelmingly like cloves and bananas. You could call it a california common if you wanted, but in general, the lager yeasts selected for california commons are chosen for a very specific ester profile.

bernerbrau said:

The thing is, lager yeasts will throw tons of esters when fermented warm, and these flavors aren't always pleasant in large amounts. I could ferment a beer with German Bock yeast at ale temps and it would come out tasting overwhelmingly like cloves and bananas. You could call it a california common if you wanted, but in general, the lager yeasts selected for california commons are chosen for a very specific ester profile.

Click to expand...

cool. thanks for the clarification