Extract Lager - Sweet and Yeasty

[vedant]

Just a question so that I can learn from it. So this was my first ever brew and I used an extract lager kit to make a brew. It was in the fermenter(primary) for about 8 days and then bottle conditioned. It's only been in the bottles for just over couple of weeks but I've already opened it to try it and see how it is. It tastes sweet(malty sweet) and yeasty and not crisp at all. It tasted similar a week ago too and hasn't changed much. Is it still too young? Is it going to condition more and change that much?

This being my first brew I'm not too bothered by it, the aim for this batch was to get familiar with the procedures of brewing(that's why I picked an easy boring lager kit) but just trying to figure out what's going on here.

 

[bucketnative]

How did you arrive at 8 days in the primary fermenter? That seems awfully short, especially for a lager. What were your gravity measurements and yeast used?

 

[Weezy]

List out what process that you used for us, step by step, so that we can help improve it for you for next time.

 

[vedant]

I went with the instructions with the kit plus waited for the air lock to stop bubbling? Do you think that's what happened, not long enough in the fermenter?

 

[vedant]

I basically followed instructions from the kit essentially. There's too much information on the internet to form my own procedures yet..
Cleaned everything, chucked the extract in the fermenter, topped it up with water mixing hot and cold till the whole 23L was at around 22C and then pitched yeast in there and left it alone for 8 days. Airlock stopped bubbling and I gave it another day and half before bottling it with some carbonation drops in the bottles.

 

[madscientist451]

You didn't mention a boil?
Did the kit include a Lager yeast?
22C is much too warm for Lager or most Ale yeasts.
I ferment my lagers at 10C or a little less for a week or so and when its 50% done, bring it up to 18-19C to finish it up,
then cold crash it down to 32F, OC to drop out the yeast.
After 8 days, your lager probably wasn't done yet.
There are several different methods for fermenting lagers.
If you're just starting out, try an Ale, its an easier process.
Search on line for the free E-book "How to Brew" by John Palmer

 

[Lefou]

Eight days with a lager yeast then bottling seems really short to me.
I give my fermentation at least two weeks. Eight days would yield a host of problems - sweet, under-attenuated beer with poor carbing would be an obvious result. If it was a kit with expired dry yeast, weakness and under-pitching could be a factor, too, especially with higher gravity worts.