Bad Yeast? Wild Yeast?

[mcorban]

Hello. I am a noob. I had a strange expierience with my second batch of beer. Both batches were a Brewers Best American Cream Ale kit. The first batch went exactly as it was suppost to. The second batch fermented oddly.I started seeing bubbles within an hour after pitching dry yeast. I kept seeing bubbles in the airlock for almost 2 weeks. After it finally stopped bubbling, I took a hygrometer reading. 3 days later, another reading, and it was the same. put in secondary for another week, used knox for fineing and let set 3 days before bottling. the beer was a bit clowdy when i bottled, but hygrometer reading was the same as when i put it in there. I let the beer carb on the shelf for 3 weeks, then put in the fridge for 1 week. I tasted it this past saturday, and has a very strong yeast flavor. After reading the post about never dumping beer, and age fixing most flavors, i havent given up on it, I am just curious if anyone has any idea what happened. OG was 1.049 FG was 1.010 fermentation and carbing temp was between 70 and 72 dergrees F.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Some beers need to sit longer than two weeks. You obviously had a lot of yeast in suspension still and thats why it tastes like yeast and it's cloudy. Give it a few more weeks and make sure when you drink one you stick it in the fridge for a few days before opening it.

 

[Justibone]

+1

Give it time to let the yeast settle, another week or two. If you like, while the rest of the beer settles at room temp put a couple bottles in the fridge for a week or two and see if that helps.

How careful were you to not siphon up the yeast cake before bottling? If there is too much yeast in the bottle it could have come from that point in the process.

I've never used a fining agent on a beer, but then again, I'm not much for clear beer. The problem is that some fining agents can actually make clarity problems WORSE, if they are the wrong type. Not having used yours, I couldn't say.

Definitely do NOT pitch these beers... this is a relatively minor problem.

 

[mcorban]

Thanks guys! If thats all it is i can live with that. Thinking back i may have sucked up a little bit of yeast cake. The thing that worried me was how different fermenting went the second time with the same ingredients. I'll just put it on the back shelf for a while.I gotta say, this home brewing is a blast!

 

[Justibone]

I'm glad you're having fun!

Each process will be a little different, but as time goes on you'll get the common stuff (boiling, siphoning, bottling, etc.) really consistent. You won't get a strong idea of how you actually brew until your fourth or fifth batch, if you're the same as I was.