yeasty taste

I bottled my first homebrew made from a kit about three weeks ago. It was a simple kit (Woodfordes Wherry Bitter, the sugar was already in), I just emptied the can into a bin filled it up with luke warm water, added the dried yeast, bottled it when it ceased being active putting a teaspoon of sugar into each 500ml bottle.

If it wasn't for a strong yeasty taste it would be quite nice. I've noticed this same yeast taste in homebrews before.

When one drinks beer in the pub there is no trace of the taste of yeast. How do you avoid it in homebrew? Will it go if I wait another month or so before opening the bottles?

There are several things you can do. First is to rack the beer from the primary fermenter to a secondary vessel once it's stopped fermenting, leaving the "trub" at the bottom of the primary fermenter. This cuts down on the amount of yeast in the finished product.

The second is to age the bottles upright for 3 weeks or more, and be careful when pouring---leave that last little 1/4" of crud in the bottle.

Good luck. My very first beer tasted yeasty after 5 days in bottle, but that subsided after aging...so there is definitely hope.

Thankyou.

I did use a syphon stick, with an inch extension, so as not to disturb the sediment/trub, the SG was about 1.005 or so. Should the beer be syphoned into another bin and then left to settle again for a day or two?

If I use less sugar in the bottles, say half a teaspoon, would it make a difference to the yeast taste?

You could try to siphon it to another holding vessel or secondary fermentor as some call them. that would help i suspect.

chromium said:

Thankyou.

I did use a syphon stick, with an inch extension, so as not to disturb the sediment/trub, the SG was about 1.005 or so. Should the beer be syphoned into another bin and then left to settle again for a day or two?

If I use less sugar in the bottles, say half a teaspoon, would it make a difference to the yeast taste?

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I would actually leave it in a secondary container for at least a week. You will be amazed at how much stuff will settle on the bottom of the secondary.

Also, what kind of sugar are you using in the bottles? If you are using table sugar it will give a cidery off taste. Rather than having to place sugar in each individual bottle, try boiling 5oz of corn sugar in 2 cups of water. Then thoroughly mix this into your 5 gallons before bottling. This will save you a bunch of time in bottling.

Thank you.

I realise that I may have put too much sugar in the bottles, which is why it tastes so yeasty. I've put a heaped teaspoon into 500ml fizzy water bottles. Is that a lot and is there any chance the bottles could split? Is it a good idea to let the pressure off, if so will the beer continue to evolve afterwards?

A heaping tsp seems like too much sugar to me... Most people use around 5 oz of corn sugar per 5 gallon batch, which would work out to a little over half a tsp per bottle. Too much sugar would get more yeast multiplying and more yeast in the final product.

Chromium, so far you did two Good Things:

1) you brewed a batch of beer!

2) you came here for help! This is one of the best resources for homebrewers, bar none.

Now, study up on brewing. Buy some books, or read a step by step book on line at: http://howtobrew.com/intro.html Technique is very important in this hobby. Like having a home brew from your first batch while studying up on making the second batch. Like letting the excess yeast settle out in a secondary. Or mixing the priming sugar evenly into the bottling bucket instead of dumping a supposed spoonful into each bottle. Have fun!

I'll say technique is what you need to work on at first. Stick with extract kits so you don't have to concentrate on ingredients, but rather techniques. Once you get the "bug," that's all you'll be thinking about......how to brew better and reading everything you can. There is a TON of good stuff on the internet and best of all, it's free.