Off flavor in first 3 brews

[lindebeast]

My first 3 brews have not turned out the way I had envisioned, yet I'm still trying. They all had common factors: An overly "yeasty" taste that covers up the flavor of the beer, and poor head that fizzes up and down like a glass of soda. My brews spend 1 week in the primary, 3-4 weeks in the secondary, and 3 weeks in the bottle. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Yooper]

Can you give us a sample recipe, so we can see what you're working with?

 

[Dogphish]

if you are drinking bottle conditioned beer, and there is a layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle, you should not drink it.

slowly pour the entire beer into a glass or cup. stop pouring when you see the yeast beginning to pour out. i always leave at least half an ounce in the bottle.

 

[lindebeast]

The 3 recipes that I've made are all from Midwest: Blonde Ale, Lemon Coriander Weiss, and Irish Red Ale. They were all made with White Labs yeast.

 

[Daybis]

I'm not sure about the head retention, but what were your fermentation temps? I've had two batches that fermented in the mid to hight 70s and both had a very yeasty green flavor that didn't go away, even after two months of conditioning. It got better with time, but never went completely away.

 

[lindebeast]

70-72 degrees

 

[Daybis]

Was that ambient temps or the actual temp of the wort? I ask because wort will be several degrees above ambient tempt when fermentation is most vigorous. Also, what kind of yeast did you use?

 

[lindebeast]

During vigerous fermentation, the temp was in the mid seventies and cooled back down when transfered to the secondary. All kits used White Labs yeast.

 

[ultravista]

I'm going to say too little time in the primary; in other words, racked off to the secondary too soon. The yeast didn't have to completely do its thing.

 

[jmo88]

poor head that fizzes up and down like a glass of soda.

That's classic bottling infection. The bottling process is a great time to introduce nasties into your beer. I'd try to be more careful not to expose the beer to the air too much during bottling and be really meticulous with sanitation.

 

[atgunning]

That's classic bottling infection. The bottling process is a great time to introduce nasties into your beer. I'd try to be more careful not to expose the beer to the air too much during bottling and be really meticulous with sanitation.

I think the nail was hit on the head.

I would soak all of your bottles in PBW/Oxy Clean, and make sure to use a bottle brush. Rinse thoroughly. I also run my bottles through the dry cycle of the dishwasher to sanitize. Keep a bucket and a spray bottle of star-san handy at all times, and remember to soak your caps in star san for a few minutes while bottling. There are probably more ways to screw up sanitation during bottling than at any other time.

 

[Daybis]

Good sanitation practices is always a must. I spend more time and effort cleaning and sanitizing than I do anything else. Plus, I'm paranoid, so when I'm in doubt, I soak and clean again.

I would also reduce your fermentation temps. If your fermentation temps were in the mid 70's, then that is a bit high. Every yeast strain will respond differently, so this is really dependent on the strain.

Also try staying in primary fermenter for a bit longer. I leave all of my batches in the primary for four weeks unless I'm dry hopping. For your current brews, try aging them for a few more months and the yeasty flavor should subside a bit. I haven't tried the yeast batches I brewed this summer in about 4 months. I might toss on in the fridge and give it another try.

Anyways, I think if you follow the advice everyone has given you on here, I think that should correct some of your off flavors and head retention problem.

 

[bowiefan]

A couple suggestions:
As has been mentioned earlier, refine your pour so you don' stir up the sediment layer at the bottom. That will give you the flavor you mentioned and affect head retention.
How do you clean your glasses? Jet Dry in the dishwasher will leave a film on the inside of your glass that will almost instantly flatten your beer's head. I wash all my glasses by hand with the hottest water possible and little to no soap.
What do you primary in? If you primary in a 5 gal carboy with a blowoff, look at that stuff leaving via the blowiff, that was your beer's head (along with a lot of yeast and particulate matter).
Do you aerate yout wort before pitching? Yeast need some suspended oxygen in the wort for the initial growth phase. If the oxygen is not there they will not be healthy and will also switch out of growth mode early causing you to have a weak stressed yeast population that can produce all kinds of off flavors.
Spend more time in primary, at least three weeks (longer for bigger beers), give the largest available yeast population time to FINISH fermenting. Do NOT use an arbitrary schedule for determining the end of primary fermentation, use a hydrometer. By transferring to secondary early you force a weak, undersize population to finish the hardest part of fermentation, which then takes a lot longer and will affect your beer's flavor.

Also, I seriously doubt you have a bottle infection. Classic bottle infection would be gushers or bottle bombs, foul smell and vile bitter taste, none of which you mentioned.

 

[Waunabeer]

My first 3 brews have not turned out the way I had envisioned, yet I'm still trying. They all had common factors: An overly "yeasty" taste that covers up the flavor of the beer, and poor head that fizzes up and down like a glass of soda. My brews spend 1 week in the primary, 3-4 weeks in the secondary, and 3 weeks in the bottle. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am with you on those aspects. My first 3 beers just didn't taste right and I strongly believe that it all came down to improper wort cooling before pitching the yeast and/or too high of fermenting temps (mid-upper 70's).

I made many modifications to my process: a 30-plate chiller with thermometer and a fermentation chamber. I just kegged my last brew with this new process and even though it is still green it already tastes better than the last 3 batches.

I would concentrate on that part of your process as well.