So Effing Close

[MyCarHasAbs]

I'd actually say that a mid gravity pale ale doesn't need 2 weeks at low 60s, and in fact, you can speed that up by allowing primary fermentation (usually 2-3 days) to take place at about 60-62F (take a gravity reading to ensure you are at or close to reaching terminal gravity), and then raise the temperature a couple degrees each day, up to 70 degrees for the following 7-8 days. The gradual temperature climb post primary fermentation will actually encourage yeast to metabolize any diacetyl, and also encourages other enzymatic activity (both outside and inside the yeast cell) that will break down other compounds that impact flavor. You should be able to safely cold crash on day 10-11. (consistent stable gravity readings will let you know, though...and of course, this all assumes you pitched appropriate quantities and at the appropriate temperature, and had minimal or no lag time)

Of course, you'll need to have an ability to control ferm temps to take advantage of this. But by no means do you need 14 full days at 62 degrees for a 1.045ish pale ale.

I will very likely try this for the third batch.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

The beer will let you know when it's done fermenting after successive gravity readings taken 2-3 days apart are the same. Keep your ales in the low to mid 60's for two weeks, take a gravity reading with your hydrometer (make sure there's enough wort in the test tube so that your hydrometer is not resting on the bottom), for example it reads 1.008. Probably finished fermenting but hold off on bottling until the following weekend and take another reading, still 1.008, perfect it's time to bottle.

Fermenting for a week and then cold crashing in 35-36F will put the yeast to sleep before they're done fermenting your beer. So then you're bottling unattenuated, sweet wort, adding priming sugar and putting the bottles at room temp to carb up. The yeast awaken and start chewing on this new and old sugar and boom, you got bottle bombs.

Ohh, so that's how you get a bottle bomb. I thought it was due to over carbonation. I haven't experienced one of these yet so I guess that tells me fermentation is atleast 90-95% done for most of my beers by the time I go to bottle.
For that last reading I did on batch#2, since it was slightly lower than the target FG I figured it had to be done.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Bottled batch#2. Still too early to tell as I haven't had a fully carbonated batch#1 bottle but the majority of the off flavor seems to have subsided. I'm beginning to think what the other guy said about ramping up fermentation temps over the course of two weeks may be the magical key.

Should the beer taste good at the point of bottling, or just taste like semi sweet un carbonated beer? It doesn't taste terrible enough to spit out, it just tastes...meh.

The only reason I'm not too worried about it not tasting that great is the lemon wheat beer didn't taste amazing when I went to bottle and now it tastes similar to Sam Adams Summer Ale.


EDIT: random side note, the Chai Tea spiced Amber Ale I brewed about two months ago, I just opened another bottle of it. I kind of took a two week break from it as it was a bit of a dissapointment. It's been carbonated now for about a month. Holy crap...it tastes so much different. Not only has it cleared up but the Chai flavor is actually kind of peaking out more now.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I was able to taste a semi carbonated bottle of batch#2. Dear god that was awful. I couldn't get passed two sips. That's the greenest beer I've ever tasted. Granted after another week batch#1 is drinkable but certainly not great. I'm beginning to think the off flavor had next to nothing to do with the source of water being used but the yeast isn't finishing.

I've got a plan for batch#3, both pre fermentation and post. It's getting a minimum of two weeks..end of story. The only reason I'm not giving this hobby up is that wheat beer I made. It's proof I know what I'm doing to an extent.

I also looked through this thread.. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/newbie-q-what-does-green-beer-taste-like-62340/
I'll let it sit another two weeks and it's not that much better it's getting pitched. That last batch sat around 63-64F for a week and then cold crashed. I suspect the yeast didn't finish secondary fermentation. Next time, I'm doing 62-63 for 4-5 days and then slowly ramping it up one day at a time to 70F through two weeks. Can't sit here and say I'm too shocked by the results as this was meant to be an experiment.

Also, for gravity readings, I think the post boil readings are off because they contain trub.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

EDIT: so for the longest time I thought trub was what's left over post boil from Hops and didn't realize it's essentially the same thing as Yeast Cake. So when I say I'm getting a lot of extra thick debris in my post boil readings, I mean left over hops. I'll be filtering that out on the third batch. I was filtering it out but it was taking longer to pour into the carboy. I've got a pretty good idea how to get around that now. Use a large pale bucket to do the initial dump with a very large round mesh filter, then take a sanitized pitcher and start trasnferring the now filtered wort into the carboy.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

That's the 4th time you've posted that. No one is responding to you, make your own thread.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

So would anyone agree the green taste is from the 1 week of low fermentation temps?

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I believe I found/confirmed my mistake/cause for the off flavor. Whether the water was an issue before or not..these make a lot of sense why I'm tasting what I'm tasting. The reasons given very closely describe what I remember doing.

1) as suspected, not enough time for fermentation. However, this doesn't explain the gravity readings. I still don't understand why I'd get a gravity reading that basically tells me the yeast is done when it's not. Unless it was done eating sugars but not done cleaning up.
2) consistent low temps through out fermentation are to blame. The young beer was taken away from the yeast too soon.

Lesson Learned.

Sources:
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/q...er-than-recommended-fermentation-temperatures

During the start of the fermentation the Yeast reproduces quickly using the oxygen present in the beer and produces diacetyl which imparts a buttery flavor. Which is why it is usually recommended to start the fermentation at a lower temperature to slow down the diacetyl production (and the reproduction rate, I suppose). The beer fermentation is then 'finished' at a slightly higher temperature so the yeast consumes the diacetyl. So in principle you should rise the temperature after a few more days to allow that to happen. So to summarize the risks are buttery taste (diacetyl) and sweet beer (incomplete fermentation).

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/acetaldehyde.html

In normal fermentation, acetaldehyde is a precursor to ethanol. It is noticed mostly in young beers where the yeast were not able to reabsorb or finish the conversion of glucose to pyruvic acid to acetaldehyde and finally to ethanol. In other words, the beer was removed from the yeast too quickly. Give your homebrew plenty of time on the yeast and then condition as long as practical to prevent these flavors from occurring.