I'm still pretty new to this hobby, and have packaged four batches so far. Of those four, I've been able to drink three - the fourth is still conditioning.
Two of those batches have been a pale ale, and the other a wheat ale. I started to drink the wheat ale two weeks after bottling. It tasted great, and has continued to taste great.
The two pale ales I have bottled using the same technique, but have been less consistent. I've found that they taste pretty good at two weeks, but at some point between two and three weeks some or all of the bottles develop a strong acetaldehyde flavor that makes them undrinkable. If I wait another week or two then start drinking them again, the acetaldehyde flavor seems to get cleaned up. Since I'm unwilling to pop open a bunch of bottles to test for acetaldehyde, and prefer to just wait an extra week or so in the hope the flavor goes away, I'm unsure if all the bottles are going through this transformation, or if I've just been opening the bottles that have had that flavor all along around the two-three week mark.
Is it common practice to leave some beer in the bottling bucket? My theory is that the last couple of bottles that are filled are exposed to more oxygen than the rest, due to sitting in the bottling bucket for longer, tilting the bucket, and some bubbles making their way into the bottle filler as the bucket nears empty.
I opened one of my pale ales a few days ago that had both acetaldehyde and was way over carbonated. I dissolve the corn sugar in water before adding it to the bottling bucket, allowing the whirlpool action of the siphon to mix the sugar into the wort, but I'm wondering if it's not completely dissolving, leaving a concentrated layer of sugar at the bottom of the bottling bucket that makes its way into the last couple of bottles and overcarbonates them. I don't want to stir the wort and risk introducing more oxygen however.
I'm just trying to figure out if I simply need to wait longer for my pale ales to bottle condition and for the yeast to clean up the acetaldehyde, or if I need to start leaving some beer in the bottom of the bottling bucket to avoid extra oxygen/priming sugar in the last few bottles.
Cheers!
Two of those batches have been a pale ale, and the other a wheat ale. I started to drink the wheat ale two weeks after bottling. It tasted great, and has continued to taste great.
The two pale ales I have bottled using the same technique, but have been less consistent. I've found that they taste pretty good at two weeks, but at some point between two and three weeks some or all of the bottles develop a strong acetaldehyde flavor that makes them undrinkable. If I wait another week or two then start drinking them again, the acetaldehyde flavor seems to get cleaned up. Since I'm unwilling to pop open a bunch of bottles to test for acetaldehyde, and prefer to just wait an extra week or so in the hope the flavor goes away, I'm unsure if all the bottles are going through this transformation, or if I've just been opening the bottles that have had that flavor all along around the two-three week mark.
Is it common practice to leave some beer in the bottling bucket? My theory is that the last couple of bottles that are filled are exposed to more oxygen than the rest, due to sitting in the bottling bucket for longer, tilting the bucket, and some bubbles making their way into the bottle filler as the bucket nears empty.
I opened one of my pale ales a few days ago that had both acetaldehyde and was way over carbonated. I dissolve the corn sugar in water before adding it to the bottling bucket, allowing the whirlpool action of the siphon to mix the sugar into the wort, but I'm wondering if it's not completely dissolving, leaving a concentrated layer of sugar at the bottom of the bottling bucket that makes its way into the last couple of bottles and overcarbonates them. I don't want to stir the wort and risk introducing more oxygen however.
I'm just trying to figure out if I simply need to wait longer for my pale ales to bottle condition and for the yeast to clean up the acetaldehyde, or if I need to start leaving some beer in the bottom of the bottling bucket to avoid extra oxygen/priming sugar in the last few bottles.
Cheers!