Just tasted my 1st batch after 3 weeks in the bottle

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kerklein2

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and its not bad. Not good, but not terrible. I brewed the American IPA from AHS the result is a little sweet. Almost like the sweetness of a barleywine, but not good. Where is this sweetness coming from? Will it subside with age?
 
Sounds like you have an incomplete fermentation if you can taste a definite sweetness. Gonna need more information on your OG vs. FG and your recipe.

Case in point: A buddy of mine brewed a Ginger Ale a few weeks back. After kegging it, he tossed the keg (not literally :D ) into his 40F garage. Well needless to say the yeasties did not like that and stopped working for him. 2 weeks later he goes and tries it - the "beer" tastes like high octane fructose syrup with vodka and some grains tossed in for good measure. Ick. So I tell him to take his keg of the bottle and put it in his warm house and vent it a few times a day. Hopefully his brew will reinvigorate and eat all the sugars. I secretly hope that the yeast do wake up because I am NOT looking forward to tasting that beer again :D :D :D
 
I don't have a FG reading but the OG was 1.070. The beer spent two weeks in primary and 2 weeks in secondary. I had very vigorous fermentation and I even blew the top off my 5 gallon carboy. Rookie mistake. Any other problems that may cause the sweetness?
 
I've read that high fermentation temps can leave a fruity taste, but I'm not sure if that's the taste you are tasting....

My first batch was really really fruity tasting when it was 2 weeks in the bottle... by 3 weeks it was better.. and at four weeks the fruity is pretty well gone and the beer tastes pretty darned good....
 
High fermentation temps were definitely not the problem. If anything, the temps were low, dipped down to 65, maybe 62, for a while. I need to turn my mini-fridge into a fermentation chamber.
 
I say give it a couple more weeks in the bottles then..... or drink it like crazy until the taste starts to grow on you!
 
What fermentation temp did you pitch at??? That's the real question.

It sounds to me like if you had aggressive fermentation off the top, created tons of CO2, and you had a sweet taste... all those signs point to too high a pitching temp.

I did the same exact thing on my first batch. Just cool the wort down by putting your kettle in the sink with some ice water for 30 mins.
 
I don't have a FG reading but the OG was 1.070. The beer spent two weeks in primary and 2 weeks in secondary. I had very vigorous fermentation and I even blew the top off my 5 gallon carboy. Rookie mistake. Any other problems that may cause the sweetness?

If you did not take an FG you have no idea whether it was done fermenting. Any residual sugars from an incomplete fermentation would definitely come through as sweetness on the palate. The problem is that if they got stirred up with the yeast and finally get fermented in the bottle you could get even more undesirable results. If your beer starts getting overcarbed as it ages refrigerate it or burp the bottles.
 
I know its off topic, but I'm just impressed that you waited three weeks to taste your first batch. I lasted maybe a week before I cracked that first bottle.
 
Well I tasted one after a week, but then waited two more weeks before tasting again. As for the pitching temperature, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was below 80°F. I guess I just assumed it was done fermenting because I had left it sit so much longer than the recipe stated.
 
I tried my last batch after 3 weeks and it was definitely over sweet. Another three weeks and it was perfect.
 
How is the carbonation in this beer? If it is still undercarbed, you could also be tasting the bottling sugar.

It made a nice "pffft" sound when I opened it, but I wouldn't say it was really fizzy. It was definitely a lot more carbed than it was at 1 week.
 
That's good news to me. I have a batch now that is supposed to be at 68, but is staying at about 72-73. I guess that is better than the low temps I was battling a couple weeks ago if it ages out over time.
 
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