Too much yeast?!

[BOBBYTBREW]

I am still fairly new to home brewing. I recently brewed a clone to Goose Island's Honkers Ale and when I added the Wyeast to the wort, it did nothing after 3 days. So I sprinkled some dry yeast on it. After 12 days it was done fermenting so I bottled it. It has only been 2 weeks but I wanted to see what it tastes like so I opened one. Holy yeast flavor...

Is there anything I can do to get rid of that yeasty flavor?

 

[manoaction]

Give it time before you make the decision about flavor. Two weeks in bottles in pretty short. Give it a couple more, have it sit in the fridge, and then taste it.

 

[kanzimonson]

Also, you're not indicating which yeast strains you're using. If you're using 1056 and US05, those are HORRIBLE flocculators. I never use these yeast because they leave so many floaters in my beer. I hate the flavor of yeast. You really need to use gelatin before bottling to get those yeast outta there.

Fortunately, you can encourage your beers to settle by putting the bottles in the fridge for a couple weeks. You'll probably have a nice plug of yeast at the bottom of each bottle so be careful when you pour into a glass.

 

[Revvy]

Two weeks is pretty young for a beer in the bottle, and 12 days was waaaaayyyy too soon to be bottling, especially having added extra yeast because you "thought it wasn't fermenting." That is a lot of yeast that probably never had a chance to flocculate out.

Your best bet is two walk away from it for a few weeks, then chill them for a couple weeks before drinking them, that will hopefully pull a lot of yeast out of suspension.

 

[BOBBYTBREW]

Two weeks is pretty young for a beer in the bottle, and 12 days was waaaaayyyy too soon to be bottling, especially having added extra yeast because you "thought it wasn't fermenting." That is a lot of yeast that probably never had a chance to flocculate out.

Your best bet is two walk away from it for a few weeks, then chill them for a couple weeks before drinking them, that will hopefully pull a lot of yeast out of suspension.

You say that 12 days is waaaayyy too soon to be bottling, but I got the same finishing gravity reading 3 days in a row...which I assumed meant that it was "done". Is that incorrect?

 

[Revvy]

You say that 12 days is waaaayyy too soon to be bottling, but I got the same finishing gravity reading 3 days in a row...which I assumed meant that it was "done". Is that incorrect?

But if you aren't using a secondary or long primary for that matter, it is too soon. Fermenting the beer is just a part of what the yeast do. If you leave the beer alone, they will go back and clean up the byproducts of fermentation that often lead to off flavors. And plenty of time for the yeast to actually flocculate, which it sounds like by your description you are tasting, all the yeast still in solution.

All my beers go through some permutation of 1 month from yeast pitch to bottling day, either a month in primary or 2-2 two weeks in each.

Cold crashing is another thing that can be done to pull the yeast out faster, which it doesn't sound like you did.

This is a game of patience, slowing down means for better beer. It's amazing how a little bit of waiting makes our beers better.

 

[manoaction]

The initial fermentation is done, but you're preventing the wonderful process of conditioning that is sometimes referred to inaccurately as "secondary fermentation."

You might be done with initial fermentation in less than a week, but you need to give it a few weeks to clean up and drop yeast out of suspension as you've discovered.

You can't go wrong with four weeks in a primary, it will make your beer taste better, your cat stop pissing on the carpet, and your wife better looking. It's just plain science.

 

[BOBBYTBREW]

I actually used White Labs English Ale Yeast (WLP002) initially but when I got nothing after 3 days I used the Munton's Premium Gold Ale Dry Yeast. I did not know that you had to wait as some of you have noted...everything I read said once you got 3 straight days of the same reading for F.G. you could go ahead and bottle.

Patience is a virtue...and not one of my strong suits. But, it sounds like if I want better tasting beer I'll need to learn it and not move to bottling until 3 - 4 weeks.

So it sounds like my only option here is to get this beer into the fridge and wait it out until the yeast settles out a bit...is that correct?!

 

[manoaction]

I believe putting it in the fridge stops the conditioning. It is best to let it finish carbing, then yes put it in the fridge. The yeast will drop as the temperature does.