odd taste keg/not in bottles

[sagec1001]

Hello all! I'm new to the website but have read many articles and threads over the last year as I've gotten into brewing. Awesome site!!

I've been looking to an answer to my question, but can't seem to find it.

My Dilemma: I made a honey wheat with wyeast am. wheat 1010 and kegged 5 gallons of it. I washed the yeast and reused it to make a light wheat beer with the washed yeast.

The honey wheat had a odd taste to it, not sure how to explain it.. maybe a slight sweetness or over carbonated taste that was very bubbly on the tongue?? Well when there was about a gallon of the honey wheat left, I wanted to get my new wheat beer in the keg so based on some directions on this site, I bottled the remaining honey wheat. After 2-3 days in the bottle, the beer tasted amazing and did not have the odd taste that i noticed.

Now after kegging my most recent wheat beer, also using the same yeast, it too has the same odd flavor to it coming from the keg. At first i thought it might have been the honey malt/honey used in the honey wheat but the second beer had it too and that had no honey malt/honey used... But the odd flavor only seems to come from the beer when it is in the keg.

Now, it's just a 5 gallon ball-lock corney keg, with co2 tank and approx 6' of beer line leading to a picnic tap in a mini-fridge. I have 10-12 psi on the beer(s). I thought maybe it was over carbed but the beer poured out perfectly with the right amount of head etc... I've read on here that there can be a co2 acidic bite..
could that be what i'm experiencing by chance?

Is the beer still just green that i'm getting this flavor? Both beers were kegged fairly quickly after fermentation completed, especially the light wheat with the re-used wheat.. I just can not wrap my head around the reasoning why the honey wheat tasted great out of the bottles only 2-3 days after i removed the beer from the keg, but before removing it from the keg it still had the off sweetness, possibly co2 burn type taste??

I know the post is long but wanted to make sure i covered all details.

Thank you for any help, recommendations you can give me! My guess is the co2 just hasn't completely soaked into the beer properly in the keg and i need to give it more time; i've read 3 weeks but I am just not sure why by putting it in the bottles it was better in a matter of days

Thanks again; cody

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

Did the bottles spend some time at room temperature? Did the kegged beer spend some time at room temperature?

Bob

 

[sagec1001]

As soon as the beer(in both cases) finished fermenting they went directly to the keg. I then purged it while still at room temp, put in fridge until very cold. I then began carbonating the keg(s). When i took some of the honey wheat from the keg into the bottles, the bottles were cold before i added the beer, and i put the beer directly into the bottles, and right back into the fridge. In other words, after fermentation was done, the beer never got warm again in either the honey wheat; both keg and bottles, or my light wheat; keg only.

 

[cincybrewer]

How did you transfer the beer from keg to bottles? Did it go through the same lines and faucet?

 

[sagec1001]

yes for the lines/faucet; I hooked a bottling spigot up to my picnic tap, released the pressure in the keg, lowered the pressure on the CO2 tank until the beer would just barely come out, fill it to the top of the bottles, let it foam just slightly and when foaming over, i would cap immediately. The only thing i can figure is the co2 absorbed better in the bottles or since the beer wasn't sitting on the co2 pressure from the keg anymore it lost the acidic co2 bite??

 

[sagec1001]

so going back through my logs my timeframes are slightly off on the 2-3 days..

If it helps, i brewed the honey wheat on 5/15, and kegged as soon as primary was finished. I forgot to note it down but approx 6/1(honey wheat kegged-speed carbonation method) On 6/1 i brewed the light wheat. On 6/11 i poured the remaining gallon of the honey wheat into bottles, and then on 6/11 i also kegged the light wheat. On 6/13 i had a few of the honey wheats from the bottles that came from the keg, and they still had the flavor in question... It was actually the 16th when i drank the bottles so the honey wheat was in the bottle(s) for 5 days before that sweetness/odd flavor went away.

 

[sagec1001]

doing some reading im thinking this is the carbonic acid bite i see discussed. i read a recommendation that says to pour a glass and put in the fridge for 20 mins n if taste is gone its the carb acid bite.. is this a good test? ill try later tonight and see.. if it is the case do i just purge the keg a fee times to decarb and set n forget go recarb? or since im pretty sure the beer is at a proper carb level do i just give it time to disperse and break down? i did do the shake quick method on an easier progression than most but still did shake at higher psi to get the process started

 

[cincybrewer]

Couldn't hurt. Just pour the glass and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes, you'll know when the co2 is gone.

 

[sagec1001]

just as a followup the beer was much better this past weekend.. i lowered the psi to around 9 after originally posting this after venting the keg a few times with the tank off.. seemed that the problem was with my quick carbing just not absorbing and breaking down the co2 all that quick and probably partially because of the beer still being green.

thanks again to all!!