First brew tastes funky.

My first brew was a kit from Northern Brewer called Vandal Eyes. It was a one gallon kit and it fermented for 2 weeks then I bottled it and tried it after a week and a half. The carbonation is decent but the beer has a funky sweet/cidery taste to it. Could this be from an infection? I fermented between 65 and 74 degrees.

 

I'm new myself, but 74 degrees is pretty high for most yeast... do you mean ambient temperature or wort temperature? Did you let the temperature bounce from 65 to 74 (like over the course of a day), or do you mean you fermented around 65 for about 3 days or so, and then let it rise to 74? Big difference between the two.

 

What were the ingredients? A cidery taste is usually associated with too much sugar. 74 degrees shouldn't be too high for most yeasts to cause major problems, but it is getting close. Really depends on what yeast you used. You may just need to let the bottles age for awhile. Probably not an infection.

 

The recipe called for 1.5lbs malt extract and 5oz priming sugar. The temp may have fluctuated from 68-74 within a day.

 

Oh and the yeast was Safale US-05

 

should only be 1 oz. priming sugar per 1 gallon

 

too hot and thats a bit to much priming sugar for most beers. I recommend using a priming sugar calculator next time and looking in to swamp coolers or other means of temp control.

 

keep US05 at 62 to 65 and nothing bad happens, another thing temps going up and down is bad and thats probably the issue here, you need to keep your wort at at least a 1 or 2 degree variance

 

better make a second one for comparison

 

5oz priming sugar seems like a whole lot for one gallon. That much isn't typically used in five gallons.

 

If you have 5 oz priming sugar in a 1 gallon batch and you have it bottles I would suggest you get em someplace safe... there is a very good chance of bottle bombs.

 

The priming sugar was adding to the wort at the start of boil with the malt extract. That was what the instructions with the kit said. The only sugar added to the bottles was fermenters favorite Fizz Drops.

 

First, you're drinking green beer. I assume you're following the directions in the ingredients kit. That's your problem. I always do 4 weeks primary ferment, no secondary and 4 weeks botle conditioning. Yes, the beer will reach FG after 2 weeks. However, the yeast also produce esters that are not desirable during primary ferment. During the remaining fermentation, they consume those esters. Think of yeast as really considerate frat boys. They come to your hhouse, eat all your sugar, poop, pee and copulate all over the place and then the next morning they scrub your house clean. You threw them out before they had a chance to clean up your house (beer).

If, like most new brewers you are anxious to taste your beer, by all means do so. In fact, sample a bottle each week to help you understand the effects of time on you product However, please set aside at least 1 6pak for the 4 weeks I recommended.

 

Woah woah,...did I read the correctly?? Granted I'm only a year new to this but I've yet to read directions that said add the priming sugar at the start of the boil. The priming sugar 'is' added after you boil water but this is done completely separately after the wort is ready to be bottled.

You pour the priming sugar in to the bottling bucket and then 'slowly' let your wort transfer to the bottling bucket. You then 'very slowly and gently' stir the wort so the priming sugar is evenly distributed with the wort. Then you bottle. I'd be very shocked if the directions actually said that. Sounds like you may have mis read the directions.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I just checked and the Northern Brewer instructions do say to add the 5oz of "priming" sugar to the boil.

That's a serious misnomer as the sugar is used as a ABV Booster, not for priming.

 

The recipe calls for 5 oz of "priming sugar" to be added to the boil. It's being used to boost ABV and dry out the beer presumably. It's NOT being used to prime the bottled beer. Instructions go on to say that the fizz drops are used for priming beer in the bottle.

So likely the higher fermentation temps with a recipe including some sugar is what is contributing to the cidery taste. Let it age out a bit and see how it fares. And next time try to keep the fermenter a little cooler and wait a bit longer before bottling.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

yep

 

Thanks for the advice. Going forward I'll be fermenting my beers for about 4 weeks before bottling and let them condition longer. Now that fall has settled in I don't think I'll have much of a temperature issue. There were a few days where the temperature one day was 80 out then the next was high 50s so it was hard to keep a consistent temperature even with a swamp cooler.