Beer gone bad in less than a week?

[RallyFanatic]

Recently, I bottled my second batch of beer. 1st batch was great, no problems. Now my second batch is acting a little strange. After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, the batch tasted great when I first started drinking it, then after 4-5 days its starting to taste odd. It tastes weak with an aftertaste like seltzer water. Color and head look the same, though the bubbles in the head seem smaller now. Some background:

Brewed a 'Brewers Best' kit of English Brown Ale. OG was a bit low at 1.040, FG was 1.011. Temp was 65 degrees and adjusted as such for both those readings. Bottled for 2 weeks in a closet at approx 65 degrees.

I sanitized my bottling bucket by filling it with a 'One Step' solution and letting it sit overnight. Soaked siphon equipment in the same solution for a couple hours before bottling. I always completely rinse my bottles with hot water after use, soak them in a 5 gal bucket with a 'One Step' solution, then right before bottling I run them through the sanitize setting on my dishwasher.

Since I have a Smithwicks clone fermenting right now, I wanted to find out what happened to this batch before I bottle that and have nothing good for St. Patty's day. Any thoughts??

 

[brewit2it]

Recently, I bottled my second batch of beer. 1st batch was great, no problems. Now my second batch is acting a little strange. After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, the batch tasted great when I first started drinking it, then after 4-5 days its starting to taste odd. It tastes weak with an aftertaste like seltzer water. Color and head look the same, though the bubbles in the head seem smaller now. Some background:

Brewed a 'Brewers Best' kit of English Brown Ale. OG was a bit low at 1.040, FG was 1.011. Temp was 65 degrees and adjusted as such for both those readings. Bottled for 2 weeks in a closet at approx 65 degrees.

I sanitized my bottling bucket by filling it with a 'One Step' solution and letting it sit overnight. Soaked siphon equipment in the same solution for a couple hours before bottling. I always completely rinse my bottles with hot water after use, soak them in a 5 gal bucket with a 'One Step' solution, then right before bottling I run them through the sanitize setting on my dishwasher.

Since I have a Smithwicks clone fermenting right now, I wanted to find out what happened to this batch before I bottle that and have nothing good for St. Patty's day. Any thoughts??

Hi, it's hard to say, but I'm guessing nothing really happened over the last 4-5 days. You made a low alcohol beer from extract kit that is intended to make a mild ale, so I would expect a light taste and dry finish. Also smaller bubbles are generally preferred since they give a smooth creamy head with lace retention, as opposed to a quickly fading soda pop like carbonation (think BMC). The same been can taste very different drunk at different times, different temp, with or without food, etc. Finally aromatic hops can start to fade pretty quickly but I doubt you would be able to detect this change in less than a week. If it's drinkable then I probably wouldn't worry that you did anything wrong. Maybe just make a bigger beer if you don't like the "seltzer water" finish you are noting.

 

[malkore]

4-5 days its barely carbed. leave it at least 3 weeks, then report back.

i suspect the carbonic acid being made during carbonation is overwhelming your taste buds with its funny, acrid aroma/flavor so you can't really taste the beer that well.

 

[jonmohno]

You may be tasting a sweeter beer because of unfermented priming sugar.Ive notice a gradual tartness the further along i try mine from the first week and every week after.
Carbonation varies depending on how long you had them in the fridge also.

 

[brewit2it]

4-5 days its barely carbed. leave it at least 3 weeks, then report back.

i suspect the carbonic acid being made during carbonation is overwhelming your taste buds with its funny, acrid aroma/flavor so you can't really taste the beer that well.

After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, the batch tasted great when I first started drinking it, then after 4-5 days its starting to taste odd.

I think you mis-read this. The beer has been in the bottles for nearly 3 weeks now. After 2 weeks in the bottle he liked it, 4-5 days later he felt it had changed.

 

[RallyFanatic]

After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, the batch tasted great when I first started drinking it, then after 4-5 days its starting to taste odd.

I think you mis-read this. The beer has been in the bottles for nearly 3 weeks now. After 2 weeks in the bottle he liked it, 4-5 days later he felt it had changed.

This.

For the record, it doesn't taste awful, just not as good as when I first started drinking it. I've sampled a bottle or two a day and no matter what I ate...etc, it always tastes the same. I seem to think it over-carbonated, just not enough for my bottles to explode or for them to erupt when I open them.

 

[ultravista]

I would forego the dishwasher and use a no rinse sanitizer instead. You'll know for sure that your glass is ready for bottling.

 

[phenry]

Did you drink it at the same temp as the ones you had earlier? To me, beer that's too cold has a bite like seltzer water and very little taste.

 

[ksbrain]

Did you do the one-step routine for your first beer that came out good? I haven't used one-step, so I am suspicious of it. Maybe it leaves behind some residue? I I like Iodophor or Star San for sanitizer.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

A lot of threads recently about off tasting beer and they all seem to use a dishwasher to sanitize. IMO I would only use a dishwasher to preclean old or really dirty bottles since it tends to leave a residue even without any spot free rise additives. The cheapest and easiest thing to try would be to skip the dishwasher and hand clean the bottles then sanitize with SS or Iodopher. I have used onestep in the past on items but felt that it left behind too much residue and that may me uncomfortable. Spending a few bucks on a different sanitizer and some good old elbow grease would be my first step trying to get it fixed.