Beer tastes sweet and flat

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06gixxer600

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I am very new at brewing, in fact this is my first batch. I have had my beer bottled in a dark room at 65-70 degrees for 4 weeks now. I decided to try one of my beers tonight (I should probably add that it's a porter) and it had a fairly good head on it but it smells a tad sweet and taste sweet, flat and there isn't much, if any bite to it. Just wondering what anyone's suggestion might be as to why it is like that. Maybe it just needs more time to age? Just curious I guess
 
If it's too sweet then the yeast didn't finish fermenting and you ended up with an under-attenuated beer.

Was it an extract kit? If so what did the instructions say you would end up with on a F.G.?
Also did you take a F.G.? It's highly possible your beer just may not have finished.

If it's a stronger style porter then that could explain the under carbonation. All of my bigger beers take at least 6 weeks to properly carb up in the bottle.
 
It's docklands porter kit. I used a hydrometer during the fermenting stages and bottled it when the reading was at what the box said it should be at in order to siphon it to a bottling bucket (1.014). It took about 8 days to reach the specified reading and the bubbles in the air lock had also stopped. I tasted it again and it taste more flat than sweet and there's no bite to it at all. I hope I don't have 40+ bottles of bad beer. Is there anyway it could get better the longer it sits?
 
14 days is really the shortest I would siphon off from the fermenter and start to bottle. I'm not sure what the OG was but with an FG of 1.014 it was probably finished. You did prime the beer with sugar? If so it's probably just not finished carbonating.
 
Your problem is probably that it is a kit. Maybe it just needed more hops to mild the sweetness and a little more carbonation for the bite.

Edit: or maybe it's a brown porter. (shrugs)
 
+1 on giving it more time. The porter I'm drinking now was a very different beer at 3 weeks than it was at 6 weeks. Much better flavor, carbonation, aroma, etc the longer it sat.

I hope it matures and tastes great for you!

Your best bet is to just brew the same recipe again, just to be sure ;)
Leave it in primary a while longer though...let the yeast clean up more.

:mug:
 
My very first brew I made the mistake of adding the VERY hot 3/4 cup sugar water solution to my bottling bucket and then siphoning the beer into it without letting the solution cool to yeast pitching temperatures.

I probably killed a bit of yeast. My beer took much longer that usual to really fully carbonate, but eventually it did and it was great.
 
I haven't brewed a porter yet but I think you bottled it way too quickly. I keep my beers fermenting for at least 3 weeks. Sometimes I go 2 weeks before starting to take hydrometer readings just because I know I want my beer to be in primary for a while to let the yeast do its work and to clear up the beer.
 
h22lude said:
I haven't brewed a porter yet but I think you bottled it way too quickly. I keep my beers fermenting for at least 3 weeks.
Click to expand...

Yup. Porter needs a lot more time than 8 days.

EDIT: a lot more time than 8 days in primary is what I meant. Leave that delicious nectar of the gods for at least 2 weeks.
 
As Revvy would say, time heals all things, even beer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

Darker beers, like porters and stouts, don't get really good until they condition for a couple months. Considering how early it was bottled, even though it probably had hit FG, it will probably be another 4-6 weeks before it's really good. Every stout I have done hasn't tasted really good until around 10-12 weeks from brew day.
 
hey KCBrewer...I noticed you have some Cherry Chocolate Stout on tap. I'm brewing a cherry oatmeal chocolate stout this weekend with some Monmorency tart cherry concentrated extract for flavoring in secondary. What did you use for the cherry flavor...cherries, flavoring, concentrate/extract?
 
kable said:
My very first brew I made the mistake of adding the VERY hot 3/4 cup sugar water solution to my bottling bucket and then siphoning the beer into it without letting the solution cool to yeast pitching temperatures.

I probably killed a bit of yeast. My beer took much longer that usual to really fully carbonate, but eventually it did and it was great.
Click to expand...

Your hot 3/4 cup of priming solution probably had zero impact on your beer carbonation. 3/4 cup of hot liquid quickly gets cooled down by the 5 gallons of beer. There is no need to cool your priming sugar.
 
Xaphoeous said:
hey KCBrewer...I noticed you have some Cherry Chocolate Stout on tap. I'm brewing a cherry oatmeal chocolate stout this weekend with some Monmorency tart cherry concentrated extract for flavoring in secondary. What did you use for the cherry flavor...cherries, flavoring, concentrate/extract?
Click to expand...

I used canned cherries. I will probably use a little extract as well the next time to up the flavor, as well as adding at least 1lb of lactose to the boil since mine came out very dry.

Here's a link to the thread from when I did it.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/recommendations-turning-stout-into-cherry-chocolate-175143/
 
I brewed the same kit in December, left it in the primary for 4 weeks and then bottled in early Jan. Now, after a little more than 5 weeks in the bottle it is just starting to taste OK.

So if you wait a bit longer, it will continue to get better.
 
I'll wait a few more weeks and try it again. Thanks to everyone for the tips. I'll be sure to let you know if it turns out better in a few weeks.
 
Legin said:
Your problem is probably that it is a kit. Maybe it just needed more hops to mild the sweetness and a little more carbonation for the bite.

/QUOTE]

+1....Probably just the kit. I think the biggest issue is that it probably doesn't taste like you were expecting it to taste. Assuming you had relatively fresh ingredients, and you followed the directions, it probably came out just fine. It's just not what you expected.

Also, if its got a decent head on it, its probably carbonated as much as it is going to be. You could try warming the bottles to 70-72F and wait a couple more weeks if you want, but I doubt much is going to change.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I followed the recipe step by step. This was my very first batch, so I wasn't going to stray from the steps.
 
As someone previously said, giving the beer a few turns in the bottles will put the yeast back into suspension. Also, in one batch I conditioned my beer around 60-65 degrees and it was flat after 3 weeks. I moved it to a room at about 70-73, gave the beers a little twirl upside down ride and the beer was carbed in about two weeks. You could try what I did and see what happens. I think a warmer bottle conditioning temperature might help you out - it did for me.
 
my first ales were the same way, tasted fine out of the fermenter, we primed according and after 3 weeks it was still flat. it being winter i think when they were bottle conditioned it kind of on the cold side so we let them sit for another 3 weeks and they had turned around and carbonated them selves.

Patience young grasshopper
 
Well I currently have the bottles sitting in my basement where the temperature is about 65-68 degrees. I will move them to a closet and give them a few turns. Thanks again for the help.
 
Well, after about a year I decided to try another one and I got the same taste. The first bottle I opened foamed up and out of the bottle everywhere so, I opened another one, poured it into a glass and took a sip and, it was still sweet and flat and tasted nothing like a porter, hell, not even like beer.

I just brewed the Brew Masters Whiskey Barrel Stout, it has been fermenting for 2 weeks tomorrow, so hopefully I have much better success with this one.
 
06gixxer600 said:
Well, after about a year I decided to try another one and I got the same taste. The first bottle I opened foamed up and out of the bottle everywhere so, I opened another one, poured it into a glass and took a sip and, it was still sweet and flat and tasted nothing like a porter, hell, not even like beer.

I just brewed the Brew Masters Whiskey Barrel Stout, it has been fermenting for 2 weeks tomorrow, so hopefully I have much better success with this one.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it could be a sanitation issue. Gushers are an indication of a wild yeast/bacterial infection that have continued to metabolize the long-chain sugars in the beer. This creates excessive foaming and thins out the beer, leaving a very water "taste". Usually there's other off flavors too.
 

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