First brew

[Senza]

Hello.

I think I might have a problem. Before I discovered this wonderful forum, I started to brew impatiently, I bought 2 coopers cans, and well.. Mistakes were made.
I started the brewing process on 15.02 with basically no knowledge about it. The aforementioned cans were Coopers lager and English bitter.
My problem: English bitter is... Well, Bitter. It does have very distinguishable alcohol smell, and an aftertaste like medication...Really-really bitter. Like undrinkable bitterness
Lager I think turned out normal, if not a little on the sweet side (Tasted before botteling, after batch priming, so I think and hope that the sweetness will condition out in the bottles)

My process:
I went with the instructions on the can, although temp. was in the 20-22C range. All was well and yeast was happy, it seemed.. Lots of krausen and airlock activity
I used 1 KG of plain table sugar and the kit yeast, nothing more.
I cleaned all my equipment with PBW, I now know it's just a cleaner not sanitiser. The store where I bought my Kit from recommended PBW.
(The bottles and all equipment I used were sanitised on botteling day with proper sanitiser)
I Bottled when FG was 2 days the same. On lager I used batch priming with 90g sugar, and on the English bitter i used 2 muntons carbonisation drops per 500ml bottle. I havent tasted the bitter after adding drops.


My question: Should I wait on the English bitter for it to mellow out, or is it a lost cause? I'm Starting 2 new brews soon, and I'm in shortage of bottles. Should I just dump the batch?

New brews will be 2 mangrove jack's golden ale's. this time I'm using proper sanitation. I'll be doing 1 brew with dextrose and 1 I'll brew with beer enhancer to see for myself, what I like best.

 

[cactusgarrett]

For one, if you're going to continue to brew, you'll need WAY more bottles than what you have now if you're considering dumping one of those batches to have enough bottles for the third.

Can you identify if the flavor you don't like is simply bitterness, or is it an off flavor? Solventy, chemically, etc.? If it's simply hop bitterness/profile you're not caring for, that should mellow with time. A lot of people recommend drinking bitters and IPAs as soon as possible, but in my opinion those styles benefit from a conditioning period of a couple weeks for them to really shine - let the flavors come together.

Depending on what yeast it was, it might be pushing the limit on the high side. Was this a can of extract with hops already added to it? How old was the kit?

 

[Senza]

Hey. Thnks for answering.

I know, I need more bottles, just it's a tedious process to get them, where I live.
There is no specialized shop that I'm aware of. I collected most of my bottles from friends, and started drinking more out of bottle, rather than can. Just takes time, I really don't want to keep my current stock locked with a beer that is not drinkable.
The aftertaste is most akin to chewing a tablet of ibuprofen I think.. In the beginning it feels quite nice, but the aftertaste ruins it.
I forgot to add in the original post, I did not know I had to cool down the wort quickly, I just used tap water, that I boiled, and added the hot water to the wort and let it cool overnight, under a lid before piching the yeast. Added an airlock filled with vodka, that was almost empty by morning (vaccum) Maybe that might cause something?
The hops was already in the kit i think. I atleast did not add anything. Unfortunatly I cannot tell what was the age of that can.

 

[cactusgarrett]

To me that sounds like it's overly bitter, and potentially chalky. To start, I might suggest getting a better kit - one where the ingredients are separate; specifically the hops from the extract. Also, ensure the next kit is FRESH. Stale malt (especially liquid) and old hops (likely not stored properly) are a good way to ruin a batch.

 

[RM-MN]

If your water is chlorinated (usually city water is, either chlorine or chloramine) 1/4 of a Campden tablet will clear it out. Chlorine in the water will make your beer taste medicinal. Fast cooling is nice but not your problem. A number of us do an overnight (no chill) cooling and it works fine. However your fermentation temperature is too high. 16C would make better tasting beer. Another factor that hasn't been mentioned is the time the beer spent in the fermenter. Bottling beer too soon will leave a lot of yeast suspended and that doesn't taste very good. I do not bottle until at least 10 days has passed and most beers will spend 14 to 30 days in the fermenter. Once bottled it still takes some time for the beer to mature. We suggest you wait 3 weeks. That lets more yeast settle out and the heading on the beer improves. Always pour the beer into a glass to drink, leaving the gunk in the bottom of the bottle behind. Rinse out the bottle as soon as you can so that gunk doesn't dry.