Early Flavor is concerning!!!!

[leebrockney]

Hello, I just did my first batch of a Honey Cream Ale. After fermenting in the primary for about 15 days I reached a F.G. of 1018. I transfered to a priming tank and before I added the sugar I gave the beer a taste. It tasted pretty good. Well, as good as a noncarbonated beer could taste I guess. I added the priming sugar and mixed until it was all dissolved. I bottled the beer and placed in a dark closet at a temp of around 70 degrees. It has been in there for about 12 days now and yesterday I decided to move it to a cooler area but before I did I thought I would check the carbonation.

After putting in the fridge for a few hours I opened the bottle and hardly anything happened. A little co2 steam came up and a few bubbles appeared but no foam. There was also a thick sediment at the bottom of the bottle. I decided to taste the beer. It was pretty aweful. It was very tart, almost like a sour fruit drink. It tastes nothing like it did before bottling. Will that go away after more conditioning and how do I get more carbonation??

Thaknks, and sorry for the long post!!!

Lee

 

[Yooper]

It should be improving, not getting sour. How did you sanitize your bottling bucket and bottles? It sounds like it could be an infection.

Still, unless it grows hair, try to wait it out. It might just be green beer after all, and it might improve. If it's an infection, it'll get worse and within a couple of weeks you'll know for sure.

 

[bdnoona]

I'd wait 21 days at 70ºF before getting concerned about the lack of carbination. As for the taste, hopefully it will sort itself out. I think the sour fruity taste you are referring to is just because it's really green. I've got an IPA that tastes like apples because it's still too green to drink. Time will heal all (or most) wounds. Revy's got a thread around here somewhere about never dumping beers. Hopefully it'll turn around in another week or two.
Good luck.

 

[Zenman]

um shouldn't revvy have posted a 13 paragraph post to this by now?

revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise

Then the boxes go into a dark warm closet and I forget them for the next 3 weeks, trusting that they will be approaching drinkability and an adequate carbonation level by then.

So give it some more time, it is just green and not carbonated yet.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Time will mend all things....

Welcome to the group. Peruse the stickies at the top of each subforum for information on this topic and many more. There is a huge amount of knowledge to be had here. If you ever have questions, a good idea is to use the search function in the gold top bar. Don't use the regular search, but click on advanced search. Then you can use a bunch of terms and search within specific areas to get better results.

Hope you like our group and good luck with the beer!

 

[JoeMama]

Im voting for green beer here. My CCA tasted very nice at bottling time, but like utter ass at about a week. It tasted so bad at this time I feared that this beer might end up being a flop. I came back to it tonight (2 weeks later) and HUGE difference! I actually (might) like this beer after all. Im thinking 2-3 more weeks and it will end up even better.
Homebrew is funny like that sometimes.
-Me

 

[leebrockney]

Thanks everyone for the replies!!! I am going to just forget about it for a few weeks and see if time heals it. I have a nice pale ale that is bottled as well now so hopefully both turn out for me. Thanks again!!

I can already tell I am addicted to this hobby. Not sure why I waited so long to get into it!!!

 

[Revvy]

um shouldn't revvy have posted a 13 paragraph post to this by now?

revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise


So give it some more time, it is just green and not carbonated yet.

Actually at 5:31 I was on my long commute which culminated with me buying beer, Hops and Pizza....by the time I got home this thread had sunk like a stone....

Besides, I'm trusting that all you guys who have learned from my writings will answer on your own...OR quote me (like you did) or link to one of my blogs..

Like this one.

http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Of_Patience_and_Bottle_Conditioning/


I vote for green beer as well....

 

[Saccharomyces]

When you prime you get yeast growth, and many yeast strains taste quite awful. Once the carbonation finishes, the yeast will flocc out to the bottom, and the beer will taste like beer instead of like @#%&. Patience will be rewarded, even though I know it's hard on your first few batches to wait!

I bottled a batch for a friend I made as a gift a month ago, since it's a dark ale I will be waiting until 8 weeks after bottling to crack the first bottle so the dark malts have time to mellow out. Depending on how smooth the sample is I may wait one more month before giving it to him since I'm sure he won't wait to plow into it.

 

[DrugCoder]

the first time I brewed with honey, I had the same issue. I looked it up and in the book 'Designing Great Beers' it talks about how honey actually slows down the fermentation process and you should use some kind of yeast nutrient with it. I don't know about doing that at bottling time but for me, waiting closer to 4 weeks provided good carbonation.

 

[Dennis1979]

I don't know about the sour taste but I would definitely wait a while before getting worried. Things start to happen after you prime and until the yeast is done it doesn't surprise me at all that it might taste bad for the first few weeks. At 12 days it's just not done.

I just recently finished a brown ale and a dutch style ale (hienie kind of thing). I vowed to let them bottle condition 6 weeks before trying them. At week 6 the brown ale was good but a little too sweet, I was worried about it so I put it away. At 8 weeks it is the most kick-ass brown ale ever! 6 weeks should have been enough but I don't know if the brown sugar primer needs more time????? I have to say though that I am so happy with how it turned out I can hardly stand it.

Similar thing with the hienie, except it was pretty awesome at 6 weeks. Now its 8 weeks old too and I had a couple last night. It tasted so good I wanted to slap somebody!

Dennis