Time is a great healer...too bitter AG

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
645
Reaction score
288
Having switched to AG I have done four brews in a short period of time to get over the steep learning curve and the whilst none are so far ready to drink, two in the bottle, one in the bottling vessel and one still fermenting, I have learned something already.

At the first brew (a traditional bitter) I didn't have anything ready for a sparge and the beer turned out to be low in FG and very low in taste. The second a SMaSH tatted like poison it was so bitter. The third. Townes IPA is sweeter but still very bitter and the last due to me finding the Brew Pal App and realising that I was making very high IBU beer and adjusted it, was very very sweet. I now know that the recipe was also for a high OG beer.

But worry not, the first one is now developing a better rounded body in the bottle, the second one became far less bitter after a week in secondary and by bottling was quite drinkable and the other will probably also change considerably in time. I should have known this from the kits that I managed to leave but was a bit disheartened at the time due to the amount of effort AG needs.

Now optimistic again so bring on another 25kg of Malt!
 
Glad to hear it is clearing up, strong beers do take longer to condition.

I do find my AG are ready to drink much much earlier than kits though pretty much as soon as they carb up.
 
I'm glad you posted this, I went AG earlier in the year and have just bottled no.6, it tasted pretty rank as it went into the bottle but I won't dismiss it until it's had time to mature a bit.

I think bad beer with AG is harder to take because of the time and effort it takes, if it'd been a kit it'd be "oh well" and start again.
 
Yes, quite encouraging .
I too am new to AG brewing and like yours my first two brews were very weak and thin due to various reasons I have , hopefully, since addressed.
I have bottled them anyway (I actually left a 'j' cloth in one of my brews and it seems to have survived !) .
Hopefully they will improve a little given time...
 
Hate to contradict Covrich but i find my AG brews take longer to condition than kits I've made in the past. It might be just that I'm making different types of beer or it might be that by the time they've conditioned they are so much better than kit beers anyway.
Hoppy brews mellow considerably after a month in the bottle - in fact it would be hard to recognise them as the same beer.
 
Hate to contradict Covrich but i find my AG brews take longer to condition than kits I've made in the past. It might be just that I'm making different types of beer or it might be that by the time they've conditioned they are so much better than kit beers anyway.
Hoppy brews mellow considerably after a month in the bottle - in fact it would be hard to recognise them as the same beer.

That is interesting , I wouldn't say my difference was huge but the more the case as soon as they carb up some are very drinkable and a week or so more they are at their best.

But like you say not always comparing like for like, some styles are different.
 
I found that kits needed to be left alone for a good while or I didn't enjoy the. I think AG beers are very drinkable very early, but often improve a lot with longer conditioning. Some are better young, IPAs for example, usually are.
 
Just opened a bottle of my thoroughly cocked up mild - stale base malt; giving a kit like twang. Overacidifaction when trying to alter the water chemistry; giving a chemical taste and to top it off a wild yeast infection overattenuating it.

Two days ago I could taste all the faults now suddenly (after 4 weeks conditioning) it tastes great all the faults have magically disapeared and conditioned out. Shame I've only got 7 bottles left, it really nice now :( :lol:
 
Just opened a bottle of my thoroughly cocked up mild - stale base malt; giving a kit like twang. Overacidifaction when trying to alter the water chemistry; giving a chemical taste and to top it off a wild yeast infection overattenuating it.

Two days ago I could taste all the faults now suddenly (after 4 weeks conditioning) it tastes great all the faults have magically disapeared and conditioned out. Shame I've only got 7 bottles left, it really nice now :( :lol:


I keep finding that the last few bottles are the best and I tell myself to wait next time...and then I start drinking them too early again!
 
Yes, quite encouraging .
I too am new to AG brewing and like yours my first two brews were very weak and thin due to various reasons I have , hopefully, since addressed.
I have bottled them anyway (I actually left a 'j' cloth in one of my brews and it seems to have survived !) .
Hopefully they will improve a little given time...

Seems to be the case! It is just the waiting to see how it gets on that seems to go on forever 😊
 
Hate to contradict Covrich but i find my AG brews take longer to condition than kits I've made in the past. It might be just that I'm making different types of beer or it might be that by the time they've conditioned they are so much better than kit beers anyway.
Hoppy brews mellow considerably after a month in the bottle - in fact it would be hard to recognise them as the same beer.

The coopers kits are drinkable whilst they are still warming in the house before being put out to condition..or that's what I tell myself!
 
I found that kits needed to be left alone for a good while or I didn't enjoy the. I think AG beers are very drinkable very early, but often improve a lot with longer conditioning. Some are better young, IPAs for example, usually are.

What I found with my very first brew from January was that after six months it had gone very, very dry and much more bitter. I assume that was because all the sugars had finally been gobbled up by the yeast.

I preferred it when it was younger, but not too young; there was a "sweet spot" where it had improved greatly from being about two weeks in the bottle to being three/four weeks in there. I would say once it had been bottled for four months then it started to get too bitter and dry. Does that sound normal?
 
What I found with my very first brew from January was that after six months it had gone very, very dry and much more bitter. I assume that was because all the sugars had finally been gobbled up by the yeast.

I preferred it when it was younger, but not too young; there was a "sweet spot" where it had improved greatly from being about two weeks in the bottle to being three/four weeks in there. I would say once it had been bottled for four months then it started to get too bitter and dry. Does that sound normal?

We talking kits or AG ? I found kits did have a sweet spot but it was a smallish window, the ones which were dry hopped were pretty good actully whilst the dry hop was punchy enough, but when a dry hop diminishes the beer was pretty average.

I have found AG good to go after 2-3 weeks in the bottle, 4-6 weeks gets really good and then kind of stays like that for a few months.

That is my experience anyway I am conditioning a stout now so will see how that goes.
 
No it doesnt sound normal. My beers don't get drier and more bitter. The yeast should have finished consuming sugars before you bottle. If they haven't, your bottles will become thinner, dryer and over carbonated. Also, I find that bitterness does not increase with time. But sometimes they become less bitter.
 
Covrich, they're all grain. I would say I found the same as you, except that five months in they (the first one I did) got much drier. Just had the last one (which was brewed in Jan) and that was very dry indeed come September. Not off, not really unpleasant, but much drier and not as nice to my palate. I would say 1-4 months ish was the best taste.

clibit, could it be there's too much yeast in the beer when it's bottled?!

Maybe I have stopped fermented too soon with the earlier beers and so there's a fair deal of sugar still in it that wasn't munched by the yeast. I've mostly one barrels recently that get drunk too quickly to know whether the they have the same issue!
 
It's not too much yeast in the bottle. You may well have bottled too soon. Do you know what the gravity was at bottling time?
 
No it doesnt sound normal. My beers don't get drier and more bitter. The yeast should have finished consuming sugars before you bottle. If they haven't, your bottles will become thinner, dryer and over carbonated. Also, I find that bitterness does not increase with time. But sometimes they become less bitter.

Interesting. I put 6 bottles aside for three months, three John Bull IPA and three John Bull trad English ale, to see if they 'matured' .
They were very drinkable, but if I am honest they were also very carbonated, a bit 'bright' if that makes sense, and also a bit 'thin' .
Nice and clean to drink and lost pretty much all the twang but in all honesty a bit disappointing considering the wait....
 
It's possible you had a slight infection which developed over time. That would explain what you describe.
 
It's possible you had a slight infection which developed over time. That would explain what you describe.

I would agree with this. Sounds to me like a wild yeast infection. I've had two. Wild yeast seem to ferment the beer more slowly than brewers yeast. At a guess it's because brewers yeast is well adapted to wort over thousands of generations. Wild yeast is what brewers yeast was before humans found yeast fermented sugary liquids from grains turned it into beer.
So if you got a small amount of wild yeast in the brew it would take a long time to grow and then ferment the beer. A tell tale sign would be very low attenuation (have you measured the gravity of the very dry/bitter beer?) as again humans have put selective pressures on many of the strains of brewers yeast to not attenuate low to make sure there's plenty of body in a beer whilst wild yeast have had non of these selective pressures.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top