Overly Sweet Beer

[hoppy2B]

Hi, I'm just fairly new to brewing in that I haven't done many brews although have been at it for a few years. Am wondering if you leave your beer for a long time does the flavour improve? I don't have a fermenting fridge but I always get improvement the longer I leave it. Anything less than 2 months and the flavour hasn't settled down yet.
All this talk from the experts is making me wonder if I'm supposed to rush out and get a fermenting fridge.

 

[yum beer]

Stick with ales with your higher temps.

if you cant get a fridge to do low temps work with what likes the temps you have.

coopers aussie pale ale will tolerate 21-22 if need be.but get it lower if you can, use coopers be2 with the can gives a nice result...after 8 weeks in the bottle.
coopers draught also will handle slightly higher temps..

keep your temps under 22 at the very highest..IMO.

Start with the laundry tub and when the boss carries on about it, buy yourself a cheapie fridge, and hey presto, problem solved...almost. :icon_cheers:

 

[yum beer]

Hi, I'm just fairly new to brewing in that I haven't done many brews although have been at it for a few years. Am wondering if you leave your beer for a long time does the flavour improve? I don't have a fermenting fridge but I always get improvement the longer I leave it. Anything less than 2 months and the flavour hasn't settled down yet.
All this talk from the experts is making me wonder if I'm supposed to rush out and get a fermenting fridge.

get a fridge if you can, its the best way to improve your brews,

and if you are doing kits the longer you leave them the better, 2 months minimum, preferably six months...unless its a hopped up pale when you want to
get into when its fresher.

 

[Hedgehog]

get a fridge if you can, its the best way to improve your brews,

and if you are doing kits the longer you leave them the better, 2 months minimum, preferably six months...unless its a hopped up pale when you want to
get into when its fresher.

Thanks Yumbeer.

Do these sorts of time frames apply to kegging too? if so I'm gonna have to get a truck load of kegs :blink:

 

[J Grimmer]

Thanks Yumbeer.

Do these sorts of time frames apply to kegging too? if so I'm gonna have to get a truck load of kegs :blink:

short answer no, beer will age and better in bulk, i normally leave it it a week in the keg before drinking and try to rack prior to kegging for 2 weeks.

 

[Hedgehog]

great thanks J G

Going to bite the bullet and crank up a fermentation fridge......

Home brewing seems to be a bit more complicated than I remember, or maybe my palate has matured somewhat

and what passed for beer in the old days just don't "cut the mustard " anymore

Anyway, thanks for the info people's

I'm liking this place, might have to hang around and bug you guys a bit more

 

[peas_and_corn]

Sweet beer can be the result of not enough/poor quality/low viability yeast used. What yeast do you use, and do you make a starter/rehydrate your yeast, or do you just throw it into the wort?

 

[Hedgehog]

Gday Peas and corn.

I use the yeast that comes with the brew kits. I hope to play with some different types of yeast in the future but at the moment I am just trying to find my feet again.

Most of the brew's I have dry pitched the yeast, but on a couple I hydrated the yeast prior to pitching.

One brew I may have inadvertently killed most of the yeast by placing it in too hot water while hydrating.

At this point I should mention that I may have stuffed up a couple of my brews by moving to secondary TOO early, ie, after only 4 days, therefor losing most of my yeast so

that fermentation did not complete. Does this sound feasible?

I am thinking that between having my Lagers at too high a temperature while fermenting , and moving a couple of brews to secondary way to early I might have found the

root problems for my sweet (not in a good way) beer

But if I sound like I am talking out my bum please correct me.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Yeah, these can contribute to yeast health. Hydrating the yeast is certainly recommended, as up to 50% of your yeast can die if you just pitch it dry.

Racking shouldn't affect the final gravity too much. While it will slow down how long it takes to reach terminal gravity, you'll still have several million cells per mL of beer, and as such it will still be able to ferment out- remember that similar concentrations of yeast ferment out priming sugar in the bottle. It depends on what sort of gravity it was when you racked it. High fermentation temperatures can affect the beer.

The condition of the yeast in the lid of the kits is highly variable depending on how they are treated during transit, and how they are stored at the store. If they are subjected to wildly varying temperatures, then a lot of the yeast can be dead when you open the packet. Most people notice an increase in quality when using good yeast- such as the stuff Safale put out. If the owner of the store keeps it at the very least out of the light or at best in the fridge then you're onto a winner when it comes to going to a good hone brew shop.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Oh yeah, lagers require a much higher cell count than ales, so one pack of yeast (when you're using proper lager yeast) isn't enough. Also, the yeast that comes with lager kits is usually an ale yeast, so fermenting at lager temps will cause the yeast to struggle. This was most likely the cause of your lager being underattenuated- the yeast going to sleep because it was too cold.

 

[Hedgehog]

"Racking shouldn't affect the final gravity too much. While it will slow down how long it takes to reach terminal gravity, you'll still have several million cells per mL of beer, and as such it will still be able to ferment out- remember that similar concentrations of yeast ferment out priming sugar in the bottle. It depends on what sort of gravity it was when you racked it. High fermentation temperatures can affect the beer."

Good point about the yeast, I didn't think of that.

In the last couple of days I have learned a hell of a lot and now that I know what I am looking for I will do a bit more searching before posting again.

Thanks for everyone's reply's, they have pointed me in the right direction and I hope in the not too distant future I shall have a good luck story to tell you all. Jim