I recently bottled by 2nd attempt at brewing, a truebrew belgian ale kit. I tasted the beer at bottling time and it tasted sweet like I would expect a belgian ale to taste. I left it to carbonate for about 2 weeks. Yesterday I chilled one in the fridge for an hour and gave it a try. It tasted very bitter with a touch of sweetness from the candi sugar. The bitterness was so overpowering that I couldn't drink the beer. Is this a sign of infection or do I need to let it sit longer?
Bitterness is not usually a sign of infection. Did it taste astringent, like sucking on tea leaves? That may be a flavor caused by infection, but it's more likely caused by the grain (boiling the grain, steeping too long, etc).
My advice at this point is to be patient with your brew (hard to do as this is your second batch, I know): give it a couple more weeks and see what it tastes like after some more conditioning. Bitterness is not a typical indication of infection. Sourness and/or a strong phenolic flavor and a continued increase in the carbonation level (in the bottles) are perhaps the most common signs of infection. If the bitterness that you perceive is from hops, it will likely decrease somewhat over time.
Candi sugar actually does not impart sweetness to a beer. It is fully fermentable and thus ferments out completely. The way to get sweetness into a beer is to use a mashing process & grains (or malt extract from a mashing process) that gives a wide range of sugars, including ones that not fermentable by beer yeast. As for why your beer is now so bitter? Hard to say without a recipe in front of us (include fermentation details & time frame). Carbonation does change the way a beer tastes though...
What kind of belgian ale was this, and how sweet? Sweet isn't the first word that leaps to mind when I hear Belgian. I'm wondering if the initial sweetness may have been due to incomplete attenuation, which continued in the bottle, leaving a less sweet beer in the end.
Beginning Gravity: 1.058 - 1.062Final Gravity: 1.007 – 1.011Hop Bittering Units: 15.5 Fermentation was 2 weeks in glass carboy in my basement. this is the recipe from the extract kit Unhopped Light Malt Extract – 1 canExtra Light Dried Malt Extract – 1 lbLight Dried Malt Extract – 1 lbWheat Dried Malt Extract – 1 lbBelgian Candy Sugar – 1 lbPale Grain Malt – .375 lbGrain Steeping BagNorthern Brewer Hop Pellets – 1 ozStyrian Goldings Hop Pellets – 1 ozCzech Saaz Hop Pellets – 1 ozFermentis T-58 Ale Yeast - 1 packPriming Sugar – 5 oz
As for the sweetness... what was your measured Beginning Gravity and your Measured Final Gravity? The recipe says what they should be, what did you actually measure? As for bitterness... probably yeast. A beer with lots of yeast in suspension can be very bitter depending on the strain and other fermentation parameters. A 1 hour chill will not drop the yeast out of suspension, thus you probably had yeasty beer. Leave one in the fridge for 4 days and see what happens. Was the beer fairly cloudy/murky in the glass? Was there a layer of dusty or clumpy yeast settled at the bottom of the glass as you drank it?
might be a stupid question but... at what point in bottling did you taste the beer? Before or after you added priming sugar? Also, I find beer taste sweeter when uncarbonated. The carbonation helps lift the beer of the palate and give sharper, drier taste. Give the beer another week. Also let it sit in the fridge for 24-72 hrs prior to drinking, I have found this can help mellow the flavors in a super fresh beer.
45min Partial boil Northern Brewer Hop Pellets – 45min Styrian Goldings Hop Pellets – 15min Czech Saaz Hop Pellets – End of boil
Well that's not very helpful! Any chance you squeezed the grain bag and are confusing astringency with bitterness We often perceive them simulatneously in some bitter foods, so I don't think this is a stretch. Well, yeah I do, but it's all I got.
And what temperature did he steep his grains at (did you boil them)? FYI, you should not steep grains that need to be mashed. I suggest you read http://www.howtobrew.com
