Beer Tastes bit like cider

[wt23]

Hi,
I've just tasted my beer and don't get me wrong it's still nice,however it has a cider taste to it.
Is there anyway I could prevent this from happing again?

 

[Yooper]

Hi,
I've just tasted my beer and don't get me wrong it's still nice,however it has a cider taste to it.
Is there anyway I could prevent this from happing again?

Sure, you could prevent it from happening again.

It could be recipe related, fermentation temperature related, yeast strain related, etc,.

What was the recipe, the fermentation temperature, and the yeast strain used?

 

[Mysticqc]

What kind of water dis you use? Tap water may also havw an impact on the final taste

 

[wt23]

Hi,

The temple true was around 23 degrees. It was a Mexican larger kit. Last time I experimented a bit but could it be that I had to add more sugar?

 

[wt23]

Yeah it was tap water. Suppose that could be it.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah it was tap water. Suppose that could be it.

No, that's definitely not it. Tap water doesn't cause "cider" flavors, unless your tap water is full of vinegar or lemon juice.

The cause is too much sugar usually, at too high of a fermentation temperature (over 19C).

I bet there was added sugar, instead of malt extract, in this beer and it fermented at higher than 19C. Yeast strain quality matters too, so it may have been a poor quality yeast strain (like Cooper's or Munton's) that would cause it.

 

[wt23]

This is my second time brewing and I've never used yeast extract before, but I have heard its better so I think I'm gunna use that next time. Also you seem to know what your talking about, I get a lot of yeast sediment in my beer. Do u reckon I could use a coffee filter to stop this happening again.
Thanks

 

[zx2tuner]

www.howtobrew.com

 

[RM-MN]

The solution to both your questions is enough time in the fermenter. One of the intermediate products of fermentation is acetaldehyde which has the taste of cider or green apples. Given enough time the yeast will break this down into alcohol for you. given enough time the yeast that makes the sediment layer will settle out too. I find that 3 to 4 weeks from the time I pitch the yeast until I bottle solves both problems. With good temperature regulation during the fermentation I can reduce that time a bit but it doesn't hurt a thing to go longer either.

 

[wt23]

The solution to both your questions is enough time in the fermenter. One of the intermediate products of fermentation is acetaldehyde which has the taste of cider or green apples. Given enough time the yeast will break this down into alcohol for you. given enough time the yeast that makes the sediment layer will settle out too. I find that 3 to 4 weeks from the time I pitch the yeast until I bottle solves both problems. With good temperature regulation during the fermentation I can reduce that time a bit but it doesn't hurt a thing to go longer either.

Hi,
I didn't know it was ok to leave it in primary that long. Sorry if I sound stupid but I'm not even amateur rank yet lol

 

[RM-MN]

Hi,
I didn't know it was ok to leave it in primary that long. Sorry if I sound stupid but I'm not even amateur rank yet lol

It usually isn't mentioned in the kit instruction because of a mistaken idea that the yeast would cause off flavors if you left the beer on it too long. It does happen if you have hundreds of gallons of beer in a conical fermenter but not on the amount that a home brewer works with. The kit instructions haven't caught up with this current knowledge.

I personally have left a brown ale in my primary fermenter for 9 weeks and the results were good, the beer was really smooth with only a week in the bottle. One of the people I correspond with reported he left his beer for 8 months one time with good results.