What's your green beer like?

[triskelion]

Just curious, who tastes their green beer and how much of an indication is it of the finished product? Is it a better indication with some styles than others?

My helles is in its diacetyl rest at the minute and it tastes very like becks, hard to tell yet but I think 20 ibu was too much, I usually get poor hop utilisation so I went towards the upper end of bitterness.

 

[stpug]

I always drink some amount of beer directly out of the fermenter, so that puts the beer anywhere from 7-18 days old. I find it to be a very good indicator of the "conditioned" profile, with some rougher edges. I generally assume the taste I get from young beer will mellow out, soften, and be less sweet by the time it's conditioned and carbed.

I'm sure some styles and fermentations are better indications than others. A lager is said to be one of the worst comparisons to the finished product due to the lack of lagering when it's still young.

Additionally, if you're tasting a beer that still has a fair amount of yeast in suspension then you can expect some of the bitterness to go away once the yeast is done flocculating because a fair amount of hop oils stick to the yeast cells and once they fall out, so will the bitterness (to some extend anyway).

 

[triskelion]

hop oils stick to the yeast cells

Hmm, did not know that, you learn something new every day.

 

[stpug]

Hmm, did not know that, you learn something new every day.

It can be quite astonishing how bitter yeast can be. The next time you rack a beer off of a yeast cake, grab a spoon and taste a little bit of the yeast - the bitter will bite you back (especially in a high IBU beer).

 

[kblankenship11]

I definitely don't judge my lagers by the green samples. It freaks me out every time like it's infected but after lagering everything smooths out significantly.

Ales on the lower gravity scale seem to be close to the final product. Belgians never seem to be. Anything hoppy is close but usually overbearing compared to after conditioning.

I'm definitely a green-taster. Early on in my brewing life I was always nervous thinking "is this how this is really going to taste?" After experience you learn that it's not really a good final representation but a good generalization.

 

[narl79]

+1 on tasting green beer. I try not to think of it like is this going to be good/bad but just to see how it comes along so I know when I brew it again ill have a hint as how close I got to the last time I made it. I Take notes for everything

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[JoseLima]

The yeast does wonders. Yeast just don't convert sugar to alcohol also removes those unpleasant flavors like diacetyl buttery etc. Be patient let yeast do its job

joselima

 

[gwapogorilla]

I used to taste samples of my green beer when I first started, but no longer do so for a few reasons.
1) I like to leave my fermenter closed as much as possible. Opening it to do a sample just increases the chance of infection.
2) I found the flavor of green beer to be only small indication of what my final product tastes like. The yeasties are not done cleaning up the off flavors yet.
3)Warm flat beers sucks! Just too hard core for me!

 

[cjgenever]

How much it can tell you depends on what you are looking for. I take multiple samples as needed. I drink them all. I find with each batch I can read the beer better. I have also started sampling the wort during the boil. I hope to gain a pilo pallet for the ibu's ad I plan to grow some hops and will have no way to know the aa% accurately.

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[triskelion]

I taste the wort also. I can taste the starch if theres much left. Although I always mash for an hour anyway, by which time its well converted.

 

[wildactbrewer]

Though not necessary at all, I taste EVERYTHING at all points in the brewing process. More for curiosity than anything. When I buy a new grain or adjunct I like to chew on them before I mash. I also taste the wort both pre and post boil. Everytime I steal a gravity reading I drink that too. A sip at bottling as well...

Maybe I'm just crazy but I like to know how the beer tastes from start to finish!

 

[ChrisMT]

I stopped tasting my green beer, I would always develop these ideas about off flavors and then stress about it. When the beer was finally done conditioning and ready to drink I had already decided it was bad beer. Now that I dont taste my green beer I enjoy everything I brew.

 

[sclitch]

I tend to get a grainy and yeasty flavour in my young beer. The yeasty flavours are understandable as a lot of the yeast is still in suspension. I believe that my crush is A-okay, and I'm batch sparging so I don't think I'm stripping excess graininess from the mash. Anyone else experience grainy flavours in young/green beer?

I even taste this grainy flavour in some commercially made beers, and I don't like it at all. Could it be that I just don't like this "off"-flavour, or does it sound like it is a legitimate off-flavour that can be corrected? Thanks!

 

[triskelion]

I've got very grainy flavours in my last few beers, mainly from pilsner malt I think. I've also been grinding the malt finer, so that might add to the grainy taste.

 

[sclitch]

My graininess definitely seems to have a pilsnery twang to it. Most of the time I will get the graininess when using a lot of Pilsner malt although sometimes I get the graininess with 2 row pale as well. Hmmm

 

[cjgenever]

I stopped tasting my green beer, I would always develop these ideas about off flavors and then stress about it. When the beer was finally done conditioning and ready to drink I had already decided it was bad beer. Now that I dont taste my green beer I enjoy everything I brew.

I note the numerous off flavours at different points to better understand what the yeast can and cannot do. It's amazing what or little buddies can clean up. If a beer truly is off, this education can tell you if it's useless or if you should extended secondary to clean condition it. There is something to be said of the power of secondary conditioning. It's way faster than in the bottle. Sorry, getting off topic.

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[NivekD]

I'm in the "used to but not anymore" camp. I know the beer will be much better after I let it do it's thing for the proper amount of time. Well woth it.

 

[cjgenever]

I tend to get a grainy and yeasty flavour in my young beer. The yeasty flavours are understandable as a lot of the yeast is still in suspension. I believe that my crush is A-okay, and I'm batch sparging so I don't think I'm stripping excess graininess from the mash. Anyone else experience grainy flavours in young/green beer?

I even taste this grainy flavour in some commercially made beers, and I don't like it at all. Could it be that I just don't like this "off"-flavour, or does it sound like it is a legitimate off-flavour that can be corrected? Thanks!

I LOVE that flavor, uhhhhh, I think. My last apa had a nice maltiness, but I noticed something interesting. About two weeks into ferment it developed a crazy strong maltiness. Not sweet mind you, that's a whole different flavor. There was also a stronger grain flavor than I'm used to. Sorta Like the smell of fresh ground wheat.

A week later all the crazy flavor had mellowed into a good strong malty base for the us-04 to add its estery weirdness. A touch warm ferment temp lends some bubblegum that, in small amounts, ages out to a smooth fruity ester that dances around without overpowering. This batch was a trip to follow. The tastings actually taught me a bit about how to mold us-04 to what I want from it.

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[JoseLima]

I tend to get a grainy and yeasty flavour in my young beer. The yeasty flavours are understandable as a lot of the yeast is still in suspension. I believe that my crush is A-okay, and I'm batch sparging so I don't think I'm stripping excess graininess from the mash. Anyone else experience grainy flavours in young/green beer?

I even taste this grainy flavour in some commercially made beers, and I don't like it at all. Could it be that I just don't like this "off"-flavour, or does it sound like it is a legitimate off-flavour that can be corrected? Thanks!

What was your base malt that u used for this recipe.

joselima