apple cider taste and smell

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hopalotamus

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brewing a honey ale smelled like apple cider when racking into secondary and when bottleing. Chilled a sample beer after only a week after bottling and it smells and tastes cidery. Dose it just need to age longer or is something wrong.


Brewed from a extract kit no added sugar.
 
That's acetaldehyde. In my experience it's a killer. I find it repulsive. And it doesn't go away completely.

I think the yeast might take care of this if you leave it in the fermenter, but once in bottle is doesn't completely go away. Ive dumped batches because of this.

Source? Incomplete fermentation (bottling early), infection, maybe warm fermentations.

I hate the stuff. I dump when I detect even a hint of it.

My suggestion is brew again as soon as possible. Me, I'd dump that batch. You could give it more time, if you want, but I don't think it is going away.
 
That's acetaldehyde. In my experience it's a killer. I find it repulsive. And it doesn't go away completely.

I think the yeast might take care of this if you leave it in the fermenter, but once in bottle is doesn't completely go away. Ive dumped batches because of this.

Source? Incomplete fermentation (bottling early), infection, maybe warm fermentations.

I hate the stuff. I dump when I detect even a hint of it.

My suggestion is brew again as soon as possible. Me, I'd dump that batch. You could give it more time, if you want, but I don't think it is going away.


whoa whoa, dont dump just yet,all my beers have a hint of cideryness to them at first. give it a week or two and it might be mostly gone. four weeks and it should be perfect.
 
You can't diagnose an issue with a beer if it's been 1 WEEK in the bottle.

I respecively disagree with my brother 'passed on this matter, you don't make a decision to dump if you haven't given the beer enough time.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

And even carbonation doesn't mean that they will not still be green and need more time to condition. Which it sounds like the beer needs to do.

I usually wait til it's been in the bottle 6 weeks before I try to "diagnose" what went wrong, that way I am sure the beer has passed any window of greenness.

If you are sampling your beer before you have passed a 'window of greeness" which my experience is about 3-6 weeks in the bottle, then you are more than likely just experiencing an "off flavor" due to the presence of those byproducts (that's what we mean when we say the beer is "green" it's still young and unconditioned.) but once the process is done, over 90% of the time the flavors/smells are gone.

Of the remaining 10%, half of those may still be salvageable through the long time storage that I mention in https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

And the remaining 50% of the last 10% are where these tables and lists come into play. To understand what you did wrong, so you can avoid it in the future.

Long story short....I betcha that smell/flavor will be long gone when the beer is carbed and conditioned. Read my blog;

Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)


So come back in another 4 weeks, then we'll talk.....
 
Me, sure I'd wait 3 weeks. In fact, I have a barleywine with a hint of acetal that I've been waiting a year on. But I've never seen it go away completely from any beer. When it was present at 1 week, it was present at 10.

That barleywine was REALLY bad when first bottled. It is drinkable now, but the acetal is still there. I'll wait for it because it is a barleywine, but I sure as heck am not waiting a hear on a mild (which I did dump after about 3 months of patience).

Anyway, brew another beer right away. Most beers will be very drinkable in a week, and will really shine in 3. Try a hefeweisen kit.
 
I've got the same issue. my first basement batch (a coopers australian lager extract kit) fermented 3 weeks and in the bottle for just about 3 weeks. tasted one last night, had a nice head and body but tasted like apples. yuck! I'm so bummed :(
 
just a update chilled and tried another one after a week (2 Weeks total) and much improvement dosent smell or taste like cider but has a cidery after taste going to wait a few more weeks
 
I bottled a blonde that had the apple taste and smell at the three week mark..........It has been bottled for about 10 weeks now and it is awesome. Not a hint of apple to be had. Let it ride and see what it becomes :)
 
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