Did I ruin it? - 2 weeks primary, then straight to fridge (in kegs)

[brewthunda]

I brewed 12 gallons of beer at a brew your own place 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was a Dead Guy clone recipe, plus 3 lbs of dry malt extract and pacman yeast. I just picked it up yesterday. I racked it to corney kegs, brought them home and put them straight into the fridge. One of them is carbing right now. At the store they said that it was ready to drink right now if I was force carbing.

When I tasted it when racking from primary it tasted nothing like Dead Guy. It was yeasty, a little rough and super dry. OG was 1.064. FG is 1.010. Of course it was warm and flat . . but I was expecting something a bit sweeter with a tastier flavor profile.

I think part of the problem is that the brew your own place keeps its fermenting room at 70 and I'm just learning that Rogue makes Dead Guy at 60. I think the Pacman (which normally attenuates at about 80%), plus nutrient, plus oxygen wand, plus 70 degrees temps made the yeast go a little overboard.

Now I'm reading up on conditioning beers and secondary fermentation and it's hard to figure out what I should be doing.

Did I screw up by putting the kegs directly into the fridge? Did I kill off the yeast that can help condition my beer?

What should I do now? Take the kegs out and let them sit at room temperature for a few weeks?

Thanks!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Well fermenting at a different temperature will have a big effect on your beer, as will the length of fermentation and conditioning. I would let those kegs cold condition in the fridge for at least another 2 weeks before you start drinking on them regularly. Next time, try fermenting at 60-64F and let it go for 4 weeks. Then keg, carb, and let it sit for another 2-3 weeks. The yeast will do their job of cleaning up the beer, and the extended conditioning will help the yeast drop out of the beer. This will remove the yeasty flavor and produce a cleaner tasting beer.

 

[dontman]

You say they are carbing now. How? Force carb? If so you could even leave it in the fridge for 5-6 weeks and lager / condition it. May not be perfect Dead Guy but it should be nice and ready to drink and most importantly not green.

If you want you can pull it and warm condition. It will happen quicker.

 

[brewthunda]

Ok, this beer is shaping up nicely. Once I got the beer chilled down, the yeast mostly all dropped out (I poured a full 19 oz glass of what looked like cafe o'lait . . now it's getting pretty clear.. The yeast flavor is gone. The rubbing alcohol smell is very much diminished, but I don't know why.

It's funny - when I said above that this "tasted nothing like Dead Guy" . . that night I went out and bought some Dead Guy for comparison. I hadn't drank any Dead Guy for about a month or so. I opened the bottle, poured a glass, took a big whiff and said, "wow, that's what my beer smells like (minus the rubbing alcohol notes, of course)" Took a big sip and thought, "hmm, actually that tastes a lot like my beer! (minus yeast and rubbing alcohol flavors)."

So I did my math . . and an OG of 1.064 and a FG of 1.010 (measured by both me and the lady who owns the brew store) works out to an ABV of 7.4% and apparent attenuation of 83.6%!!! That Pacman went to town!

Last night I had two large glasses of my brew and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a second 5 gal corney which I'm letting sit at room temperature for the next month, too - so it will be interesting to see if there's a difference.

Thanks for the supporting words!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Glad to hear it, good work! Time is a very important factor in making quality beer. Fusel alcohols, yeast flavors, and even some pretty nasty off flavors will simply fade over time as a beer ages. And even for a beer that it drinkable at 3 weeks, if you wait for 8 weeks it will be amazingly incredible! Good job and again, nice work.