Taste of bottle conditioned beer in stages.

[ed_brews_now]

Hi,
Out of curiosity I taste my beer at different stages of bottling.
At the point of bottling I taste the beer that I have used to take gravity. At this stage the beer always (so far) tasted pretty good except that it is flat.

I taste after bottling for a week. And the taste is quite terrible -- undrinkable.

At two weeks it starts to taste like beer again.
At 3 weeks it is near prime taste.

Is it just because of the yeast floating around? My expectation was that after the pre bottling taste, the beer should taste similar -- except growing with carbonation as time passes. But that horrible taste at 1 week suprised me. I thought the beer was ruined. But it recovers and is prime at the third week after bottling.

 

[joetothemo]

I have one clear Newcastle bottle that I work into every batch. That is my guinea pig bottle. I can see the yeast swirling around in suspension (especially in lighter color beers like APAs.)

When I see the yeasties drop almost completely out of suspension, I know that guy is "good to go" and chill it down. It will haze up over a few days, but when I drink it, I get an idea of when the batch is fully conditioned.

Note: It is ALWAYS one week longer than I am willing to wait.

 

[C-Rider]

Hi,
Out of curiosity I taste my beer at different stages of bottling.
At the point of bottling I taste the beer that I have used to take gravity. At this stage the beer always (so far) tasted pretty good except that it is flat.

I taste after bottling for a week. And the taste is quite terrible -- undrinkable.

At two weeks it starts to taste like beer again.
At 3 weeks it is near prime taste.

Is it just because of the yeast floating around? My expectation was that after the pre bottling taste, the beer should taste similar -- except growing with carbonation as time passes. But that horrible taste at 1 week suprised me. I thought the beer was ruined. But it recovers and is prime at the third week after bottling.

I did the same w/an IPA. Never had the terrible stage, but each week it got much better. They are all in the chiller now ready to drink.

 

[Hoosier-Brewer]

I found with my first brew the taste after 1 week of bottling was flat and not great. It was the same for 3 more weeks, but the carbonation was getting better. Then I tried leaving it in the fridge for 24, 48 and 72 hours. I found then it was best if left in the fridge for a minimum of 72 hours before drinking. At 24 and 48 hours the flavor was not great, not bad, but not great like at 72 hours.

 

[NorthRiverS]

I will usually sample a bottle at one week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks etc., just to see how carbonation is progressing. The one week and two week samplings usually don't taste very good mostly because there is still a lot of yeast in suspension. I mainly do this to assess the carbonation level. Don't want all that effort to turn into bottle bombs.

NRS

 

[Revvy]

You've never come upon the term bottle conditioning in any of your reading? That's what you're experiencing. Too me it's a waste to sample early, but that is what you are tasting happening.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

 

[PhelanKA7]

I have one clear Newcastle bottle that I work into every batch. That is my guinea pig bottle. I can see the yeast swirling around in suspension (especially in lighter color beers like APAs.)

When I see the yeasties drop almost completely out of suspension, I know that guy is "good to go" and chill it down. It will haze up over a few days, but when I drink it, I get an idea of when the batch is fully conditioned.

Note: It is ALWAYS one week longer than I am willing to wait.

So simple that I can't believe I have never thought of doing this. Thanks! :rockin:

 

[Sisyphus]

I'm on my first brew right now, an extract pilsner, and though I suspected that my temperature was too low and not enough of the yeast survived to reproduce, I bottled the stuff anyway. After a week it is, of course, flat, but it's also incredibly sweet. I take it the yeasts died prior to bottling and did not eat the sugars?

 

[Revvy]

I'm on my first brew right now, an extract pilsner, and though I suspected that my temperature was too low and not enough of the yeast survived to reproduce, I bottled the stuff anyway. After a week it is, of course, flat, but it's also incredibly sweet. I take it the yeasts died prior to bottling and did not eat the sugars?

???? Yeast don't die in the cold, they simply go dormant, and wake up when it gets worm again. There's enough yeast to carbonate your beer even if it's been cold crashed. The reason it tastes sweet is because it's not carbed yet, and the reason it's not carbed yet, is that it's only been a week. Go read my blog and note the whole thing about 3 weeks@ 70......

 

[jsweet]

Too me it's a waste to sample early, but that is what you are tasting happening.

I can't see it being a waste for a beginner (like me). If nothing else, then I sorta know what people are talking about when they talk about "green beer".

It's like when I cook, I always sample all the raw ingredients (unless dangerous) and if it's a new technique, every stage of the process. Then I know what the hell is going on with it. Once I've mastered a certain technique, though, I only taste it occasionally to adjust seasonings.

I'm imagining I'll do the same thing with beer. Once I get a feel for the stages beer goes through in bottle conditioning, I won't need to do it again. But I'd sort of like to know, you know?

 

[Revvy]

I can't see it being a waste for a beginner (like me). If nothing else, then I sorta know what people are talking about when they talk about "green beer".

It's like when I cook, I always sample all the raw ingredients (unless dangerous) and if it's a new technique, every stage of the process. Then I know what the hell is going on with it. Once I've mastered a certain technique, though, I only taste it occasionally to adjust seasonings.

I'm imagining I'll do the same thing with beer. Once I get a feel for the stages beer goes through in bottle conditioning, I won't need to do it again. But I'd sort of like to know, you know?

That's you're perogative. It's your beer....

I just never had gleaned anything substantive from that. Despite the rationalization that many new brewer say is for 'educational purposes' I find there's very little to be gleaned tasting a beer at 1 week, and again at 2....that to me just means there 2 less beers that are actually tasting good and are ready at the end. I don't buy budweiser because I don't like to taste "bad" beer. So why would I drink my own beer when it was "bad" especially since I know it's going to be delicious a few weeks later?

It's a great rationalization, and I hear it every time I make my assertion. But the thing to remember is that since every beer is different that 5 day old Ipa you may have decided to crack open is not going to taste anything like that 5 day old brown ale you opened early in your next batch. They're two different animals. There are so many tiny variations in things like ambient temp at fermentation and carbonation, pitch count phases of the moon, that even if you brewed your same batch again and cracked a bottle at the exact same early time on the previous batch, the beer, if you could remember how it tasted, more than likely wouldn't taste the same at that phase....Heck even in the same batch if you had grabbed a different bottle it may seem carbed or tasting differently at that point.

To me all you're doing is wasting a beer that will be excellent when your beer is ACTUALLY carbed and conditioned...

You not going to be able to "fix" anything in the bottle, it's the taste of the final product once it's MATURED" that you want to evaluate for future tweaking, NOT a bottle of green beer.

There's an old saying, the best beer in a batch is the last one...

But it's you're beer after all.

Do whatever floats your boat. But just DON'T start a "My Beer is flat, or tastes like A$$, what's wrong?" thread about it if your beer isn't where you want it, if it's under 6 weeks or so......

 

[ed_brews_now]

I conditioned my beer for five weeks in the fermenter (rather than 3). It tasted great, but flat just before it went in the bottles. I thought that since it tasted great going in, it should taste great in the bottle. Didn't expect the beer to have to go through the whole conditioning process again.

I guess if I am in a hurry, I should use forced carbonation.

For some reason, in my opinion, self brewed beer, if you don't runi it tastes, better. I am guessing it is because commercial breweries can't afford to have inventory lying around for 8 weeks.

You've never come upon the term bottle conditioning in any of your reading? That's what you're experiencing.

 

[KevinM]

I think that seeing the same question, or what looks like a question, over and over again takes its toll on a person. It's true that, because someone mentioned they did it for educational purposes, and wouldn't do it again, that it's something people will just do. Kinda like putting a hand close to a fire.

Despite me reading many threads about what it would be like, etc. I just desired to have my taste buds actually experience the weekly process just so I would know what it was like. I suppose that's also why taste testers have to go through tasting the defects purposely to understand how it is, not just the description of how it is.

Like other items have said, because you've added sugar, it's pretty much going through a full fermentation cycle. (Yeast wake up, yeast eat sugar (so it's sweet before this point) and let off different things including co2, yeast eat the other things (got more of that "green" flavor), yeast find no more food and settle down a the bottom and by then, the co2 has subliminated into the liquid.(the good stuff). Of course this is simplified and doesn't get into any of the whole aging process of beer.

 

[jsweet]

And now a reading from the Homebrewer's Bible. Please turn your guide to 1st Papazians, Chapter 3, Verses 6-10:

6 And the angel Parker came unto this lady and said, thou art with child, and thou shalt name that child Revvy. 7 And it came to pass that in due time, the child Revvy sprang forth from that lady's womb. 8 Verily I ask of thee, on that day, didst he partaketh of homebrew whose days on the Earth had not yet been of great number? 9 I say unto thee, nay, he did not. Revvy doth not partake of beer which hath been called 'green', nor shall he ever. 10 For Revvy was born without homebrew sin, such that all homebrewers might be made free.

It went something like that, I'm guessing?

I dunno, call me crazy, but when it costs something on the order of 60-70 cents for me to have a visceral feel for why not to open the beer early (as opposed to just trusting it as Revealed Truth from the homebrew gods on high), hell, I think that's a bargain.

 

[KevinM]

It's just one of those things where people keep saying similar things over and over again. Tech support people get this way too. "Hello... did you even read the instructions? It's right there in bold, click agree to continue to install."

Or, in this forum, "Can anyone help me find a good beer recipe?"
Oh sure, we'll just fire up our mind reader machines and tell you what recipe you want despite not having any information about what you consider good.

The op did say it was entirely out of curiousity and even recognizes something about why we have to wait 3 weeks and just wondered why (brew science stuff), which is infinitely better than the others who go "Help, my beer isn't carbonated and tastes bad at week 1 of bottling, what'd I do wrong". (Well, you didn't read the instructions, now did you?)

As to the most recent op post, yeah, some businesses like MCB do just that. Some other companies do bottle condition. There's posts about harvesting their yeast too.

And I found the link I was thinking of: http://www.bjcp.org/cep/kits.php where they give you examples of certain flavors.