beer tasting yeasty

[fishinfur1]

So I brewed my first 4 batchs of homebrew in the Mr Beer setup and they all turned out with a yeasty aftertaste. I'm guessing that's because I couldn't get the beer off the yeast cake. I just jumped up to a 5 gallon setup. Do I have to do a 2-stage fermemtation to eliminate the yeasty flavor or is it just because the MR. Beer is a starter setup?

 

[AJBrew710]

I've not used the Mr. Beer setup, so I'm not sure about its contribution to the yeasty flavor you were getting. Regarding your other question, no, you don't need to do a 2-stage fermentation in your 5 gallon setup. After reading about what a lot of folks on these forums do, I stopped doing a secondary fermenation stage and left the beer in the primary fermenter for a longer period of time. Even though the fermentation may be done in 1-2 weeks, if you leave it in the primary for another couple weeks the yeast will actually cleanup after themselves and start removing some undesirable compounds and flavors released during fermentation. Since I changed over to just doing a single 4 week fermentation, my beers have turned out a lot "cleaner". Just my 2 cents from the changes I've made. Cheers.

 

[hopsalot]

many people make great beer on the Mr. beer setup. Maybe you were not letting it sit long enough. You do not need to use a secondary to make great beer; many brewers leave the beer in the primary for a month ton keg or bottle it with great success.

 

[frazier]

My experience was very similar to AJBrew's. The MrBeer instructions promote an accelerated timetable, to the benefit of their business but the detriment of your beer.

Give your beer the time it needs.

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

Often, a "yeasty" taste is due to using poor quality yeast, or stressed yeast.

I'd suggest a good quality yeast strain (dry yeast strains are fine) like Safale S04 or S05. Fermentation temperature is crucial, so make sure the fermenting beer stays on the cool side as much as possible. Ideally, an ale would be fermented at 62-68 degrees. That would give the best flavor.

Stay away from junk yeast strains like Munton's and Cooper's. They are cheaper, but are noted for off-flavors and sometimes incomplete fermentations.

 

[BigB]

^^^^^This^^^^^^

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Often, a "yeasty" taste is due to using poor quality yeast, or stressed yeast.

I'd suggest a good quality yeast strain (dry yeast strains are fine) like Safale S04 or S05. Fermentation temperature is crucial, so make sure the fermenting beer stays on the cool side as much as possible. Ideally, an ale would be fermented at 62-68 degrees. That would give the best flavor.

Stay away from junk yeast strains like Munton's and Cooper's. They are cheaper, but are noted for off-flavors and sometimes incomplete fermentations.

x2

Sometimes yeasty flavors are just due to young beer. Sometimes they're due to they're due to removing the beer from the cake before it's finished since the few yeast left will work very hard to complete their task. Many times it's due to improper temps, pitch rates, or as Yooper said because of $hitty yeast. Always use fresh yeast, reputable brands and buy from reputable sellers. Always pitch enough yeast, consult MrMalty for that info. And always make sure you ferment in the yeast's temp range, usually the middle to cool side will produce a clean beer. Make sure your FG is stable over 3 or more days before removing the beer from the yeast cake. If you do those things, the 'off' flavors that yeast can impart will be drastically limited.

 

[1KD1]

I started with the Mr. Beer kits. I also noticed a yeasty smell and flavor. I had already started 5 gal batches so I left most of the mr. Beer bottles "conditioning" for an extra month or so. This seemed to get rid of most of the yeast smell and all of the yeast flavor.

Let your bottles sit a couple weeks longer and try one. You might notice the yeast flavor deminishing.

 

[fishinfur1]

Thanks guys. I just joined the beer a month club threw midwest supplies and the yeast packet they sent looked alot better then the plain generic yeast that comes with the MR Beer. I have my last batch style bottle conditioning so hopefully that will help it also(been conditioning for 2 weeks, I will give it atleast another week.) The instructions that came with the beer a month kit says it should take 2 weeks to ferment, how long do you guys ferment your 5 gallon setups??

 

[Draken]

Best thing to do with MrB yeast is toss it in the boil and pitch a pack of US 05 instead.

 

[tre9er]

The instructions that came with the beer a month kit says it should take 2 weeks to ferment, how long do you guys ferment your 5 gallon setups??

typically 2-3 weeks minimum but I'd invest in a hydrometer to check gravity a few days in a row and make sure it's stable. That means fermentation is done, and then I'd wait another week or so to let the yeast clean up byproducts.

Then I typically cold-crash (put in a fridge) for at least 24 hours (longer is better) to let everything settle out to the bottom. Then carefully rack above the bottom, leaving all sediment behind, into your bottling bucket or keg.

Then pour what's left in the bottom (all but the thick sludge) into a sanitized mason jar and seal it up in the fridge. That's yeast you can bring up to room temperature on the next brew day and use again!