cidery beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

hoss450

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
My first beer did not turn out so well. I made Brewers Best American Nut Brown Ale. It looks fine but has a cider taste to it and is flat. The aftertaste lingers. I cant seem to find much in the way of help in reading books. It says I possibly had too much sugar in the wort. That doesnt make sense to me since I used a mix. I followed the 1,2,3 method. The only area I felt like I did not do very well in was queitly siphoning the beer from the secondary to the bottling bucket. It did not go as well as the primary to the secondary, but I would not consider it to have been a sloppy job. I also had a fair amount of trub in the primary, but I have read that is not a problem. Did I try to difficult of a beer for my first time? Any help would be appreciated.
 
It was a complete beer in a box. All the ingredients were included. I used to cans of malt extract.
 
I've used BB kits in the past, although not that particular one. Usually they are quite good. I wonder if you bought an old kit off the shelf. How did the liquid malt extract (LME) look? And how were your fermentation temperatures?
 
even 5oz of priming sugar won't cider a beer. I've used a pound of sugar without problems (other than beer with not enough body).

contamination and infections can cause cidery flavors too.

or it might just be too green to judge.
 
I did not use the priming sugar until the end. I gave the beer a 4th week in the bottles, and noticed no change. I really dont know how I could have been much cleaner, I was sure to sterlize everything. When I took the beer from the primary my hydrometer reading was at very top of my range. I am looking for more info on acetaldehyde right now. Thanks for the help.
 
hoss450 said:
I did not use the priming sugar until the end. I gave the beer a 4th week in the bottles, and noticed no change. I really dont know how I could have been much cleaner, I was sure to sterlize everything. When I took the beer from the primary my hydrometer reading was at very top of my range. I am looking for more info on acetaldehyde right now. Thanks for the help.

I am thinking the fermentation temps were too high. Ale yeast can throw all types of esters/phenols when temps get warm. That sugar was for the bottling, not the boil though...
 
And you dissolved the corn sugar into some boiling water, and then put that in your bottling bucket, and racked the beer into it, and then bottled? And that was 4 weeks ago?

And the beer is still flat? That's very weird.
 
hoss450 said:
yes, i used the priming sugar while bottling.

It was probably the temps then. I used an English ale yeast a few months ago that got to warm. All I could taste was green apples...
 
yes, that is how I bottle it. I thought only Lagers needed cold temps for conditioning. What is a good temp to ferment at? How often do you get a poor batch? Is it possible it is some fluke thing? Do seasoned brewers sometimes have a poor batch?
 
Soulive said:
It was probably the temps then. I used an English ale yeast a few months ago that got to warm. All I could taste was green apples...
Why do you think it was the temps? He said his room temp was 65°. Does the fermenter heat up that much more than the room temp?

I ask this because I've been fermenting my first beer in a room that is 65° to 68°, now you have me worried.
 
hoss450 said:
yes, that is how I bottle it. I thought only Lagers needed cold temps for conditioning. What is a good temp to ferment at? How often do you get a poor batch? Is it possible it is some fluke thing? Do seasoned brewers sometimes have a poor batch?

Try to ferment at an internal temp of 65F. The yeasts usually have recommended ranges, but mid 60s is good. I don't usually have that problem, but I got lazy on one batch. I consider myself lightly seasoned and I don't doubt I'll have more poor batches at some point...
 
Jesse17 said:
Why do you think it was the temps? He said his room temp was 65°. Does the fermenter heat up that much more than the room temp?

I ask this because I've been fermenting my first beer in a room that is 65° to 68°, now you have me worried.

Don't let me worry you, but I've found that my primary can range from 2-5 degrees warmer than room temp. That's the reason I mostly brew weizens/Belgians in the summer...
 
I have the same taste in my first batch of beer. I think it's the temperature. We went to the LHBS and brewed down at their site, and it was a warm day, mid 80's, last sept. The fermentation took place at the LHBS, and I'm not sure what the temps were, but I think they must have been a bit warm. We brewed 2 different beers (4 of us) and both have the apple taste to them. I'm about ready to dump them all, I've choked down a few to see if the taste was just "green" beer but it hasn't gone away. Plus, it's in both brews, a Kolsh, and a Belgian Ale. It's been in the bottle for about 3 months now, and I doubt it'll improve much.
 
I can't imagine any significant acetaldehyde production with an ale yeast at ambient temperatures under 70F (and I have trouble even considering it at ambient temps under 75F) barring something like really cruddy yeast, wild yeast contamination, or wide temperature swings. I can easily believe it if the beer fermented up in the 80s, like jonbeck mentioned, but not in the 60s.

Oxidation might not show up this early and, if it did, it would more likely be a papery or stale oxidation flavor, rather than a cidery or sherry sort.

Cidery flavors could come from old extract, like Yooper said, and that's something you have no control over once you dump it in the kettle. Old extract is my favorite guess right now.


TL
 
Back
Top