Worried about my Beer!!!

[jmgbrew]

I just bottled a Belgim Wit beer. Looks great, smells great, but I tasted the beer and it tastes awful. Zero flavor and not a good taste. I allowed it to primary ferment for about 5 days and then siphoned it into a secondary and left it for about 7 days. I waited until the SPG was consistant for about 48-72 Hrs and then bottled. The SPG was 1.014. I cant even discribe the taste. Do I need to wait for carbonation before the taste is okay? or did I just waste my beer? If so, what did I do wrong and can do to learn from this experience?

Thanks alot for your time and happy brewing.

 

[Zen_Brew]

That is a very young beer. Give it some time to age. You said it was 1.014 when you moved to bottle. Ideally you want to allow fermentation to come to completion in the primary. What was the starting gravity?

Most important, I really think you need to give it a couple weeks in the bottle to develope. If you want more relative feedback you'll have to post more about your recipe and brew process. Extract, partial mash, all grain, etc.

 

[arturo7]

img, welcome to HBT.

Please, allow me to be the first to say to you RDWHAHB.

 

[justinh85]

Green beer. RDWHAHB. Give it time to mature. Patience is a virtue in this particular practice.

 

[flyangler18]

Witbier is best fresh, moved to packaging as soon as the ferment is complete. You'll have to give us some information regarding recipe and process before any evaluation is made.

 

[jmgbrew]

Ingrediants:3lb Wheat Dry extract
3.3lb Briess Light Extract
1lb Wheat
.25lb Aromatic malt
1oz Goldings Hops (60min)

Then added Cascade, coriander seed, orange peel (zested) around 15min and then again at 5min.

Starting SPG was 1.053 and finish is 1.014

very bland taste, burns the tongue, not to mention the taste buds

Process: I allowed primary for about 6 days, then secondary fermentation for about 8 days just bottled yesterday and decided to test on the pallet. I had to spit it out Will carbonation in bottle improve the taste, or should I start dumping bottles now?

thanks for the warm welcomes all!

 

[Munsoned]

Never start dumping bottles--time can heal a lot of problems in this hobby!

Give them time to develop. Personally, I don't think you gave the beer enough time to condition in the primary and secondary. I typically let mine primary for 30 days minimum. Then secondary if it's a really heavy or strong beer, or if I need the primary space.

I'd make up your short fermenter conditioning time by letting it sit in the bottles for a while. Pop one in a month and see if it's improved. If so, great. If not, give it another month...

Edit: Also, wait for Revvy's 'leave it alone for awhile' post... It will be informative.

 

[theguy]

I just bottled a Belgim Wit beer. Looks great, smells great, but I tasted the beer and it tastes awful. Zero flavor and not a good taste. I allowed it to primary ferment for about 5 days and then siphoned it into a secondary and left it for about 7 days.

For your next batch, leave it in the primary for longer. I used to leave it in the primary only for 2 weeks, but got some good advice on HBT to leave it in longer (normally a month). My last few batches turned out awesome without any off flavors.

 

[The Pol]

It burns?

What was the ferment temp? Not the room temp, but the actual ferment temp of the beer?

 

[snailsongs]

Yeah, everybody says wits should be consumed as fresh as possible, but my (albeit limited) experience is that the wit yeast needs a few weeks to clean up it's partially- digested-zuccini-baby-vomit smell......at least, the first time I used it it took a few weeks. I pitched WLP400 on a wit last tuesday and it's still throwing krauesen out of the blow-off here and there today at 72F.....I'm not even going to touch this thing for two more weeks. I have read several accounts of this particular yeast requiring patience to fully-attenuate, and if I followed your schedule I'd have transferred to secondary yesterday.....so, I think you bottled way too early, and hopefully you've dodged bottle bombs.....let it sit for a couple weeks before you try it again. I bet it will be better.

 

[Zen_Brew]

very bland taste, burns the tongue, not to mention the taste buds

Burning sounds acidic. How much orange peel/zest did you use? Fermentation temp?

Don't toss the beer!

Start another batch and let this one sit a couple weeks in the bottle before you sample again. Time heals many brewing mistakes.

 

[jmgbrew]

i definitely will let it sit...probially for 4 weeks before tasting again. Don't know the fermentation temp, or how to figure that out. It sat at 66 degrees the entire time on the thermometer that sticks to the outside of the bucket. i put in almost 1oz of orange peel from the store and zested about 1/4 of an orange for freshness. I should've kept the primary fermentation in longer, however the SPC is within .001 of the estimate on the recipe. The beer doesn't burn literally (sry bad choice of words) just my ego

 

[jmgbrew]

Just started a new batch yesterday. it is an american pale ale. Do I need to let that one sit for a month too before bottling? What I am hearing is that each style of beer/yeast has it's own character and timing. Is there a general rule of thumb for how to discern the timing of each style?

 

[DeathBrewer]

General rule of thumb = let 'er sit. There are some beers that are best fresh, but there is NO BEER that won't benefit from an extra week or two in the primary.

I generally ferment in the primary for a month and then go straight to keg...start drinking that night. I also rouse the yeast often so that I get a nice fast, full fermentation. The extra time allows the yeast to clean up after themselves and makes for a much cleaner beer.

 

[Zen_Brew]

Just started a new batch yesterday. it is an american pale ale. Do I need to let that one sit for a month too before bottling? What I am hearing is that each style of beer/yeast has it's own character and timing. Is there a general rule of thumb for how to discern the timing of each style?

The general rule of thumb is the more complex and heavy the ingredient bill, the longer the beer must age. Most beers benefit from aging several weeks. If the APA you are brewing has a light ingredient mix ie. not a lot of specialty grains and a light hop schedule you could get it into the bottle in 2-3 weeks if you are pushing it a bit, and another 2 weeks or so to carb up and age in the bottle.

This is where kegging can be beneficial (time wise) You can omit the 2-3 weeks carbonation/aging time for bottle and have the beer ready to drink rather quickly with forced carbonation. It gets the beer into the glass quicker, but the beer still benefits from more time in the keg. I can taste the greenness of a 3 week old beer in the keg, and it gets a little nicer each day as it ages. It's not undrinkable at 3 weeks old, just not entirely pleasant yet. By 4-5 weeks the average light bill APA tastes about where it should be to me. YMMV