Sweet flavor/Kinda Cidery

[tardisode]

So I had bottled my first beer, brewed a brewers best recipe kit, all went well, fermented on primary for two weeks, and has been bottle conditoning for three weeks. The only real bad screw up i had was i didnt add enough water to the wort to get to a full 5 gallons. It would make sense that the flavor would be stronger or the alcohol higher when you are short by almost a gallon, but i cant pin down the kinda sweet flavor that it has, and i have a hard time describing it. Fermentation temps were solid at 68 F. Im gonna keep it bottle condionting for at least antoehr week before i try to drink it again. Could this be resolved by further bottle condtioning?

 

[xjmox14x]

Being your first, I'm going to assume that this was an extract kit? It could be the extract "twang" many taste. I'd imagine this would only be magnified when diluting it less...

 

[teresalgl]

Yes. Don't throw it out. Give it some time and if it's not at least drinkable, give it another week or two. Repeat as necessary. I've made beer that tasted like lighter fluid initially but was actually quite good after another month in the bottle.

What was the FG?

 

[daksin]

Yea, I'm going to guess the FG was just high due to the low initial volume. Probably just residual sugars that aren't going to get fermented. It will probably age well, though.

 

[tardisode]

i dont have my notes on me at work, but i belive the abv i calculated was around 5.2. It was indeed an extract brew. I had planned on at kleast three weeks bottle condtioing so im not too worried about waiting, its definetely drinkable, just not tasting as good as i would like.

 

[h22lude]

Being your first, I'm going to assume that this was an extract kit? It could be the extract "twang" many taste. I'd imagine this would only be magnified when diluting it less...

Extract twang isn't much of a worry anymore unless you are using old extract. Typically if you buy from a good site or your LHBS sells a lot, the extract will be fresh and you won't get that twang.

Was the wort at 68 or ambient temp at 68?

Is it a cidery flavor or more green apple tasting? Sometimes flavors are really hard to tell.

If it is a green apple flavor, you may have to aerate more or your temp was too high.