Advice on bottle carb & "green beer"

Cold storage is ideal for long term storage after the beer has matured. If I'm dealing with a bottled ale that I intend to drink as soon as the flavor peaks I typically bottle 2 to 3 weeks from brew day, bottle carb at room temperature for two weeks, then move to cellar temperature for short term aging, which IMO is usually within another 2 to 3 weeks for most ales.

 

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"Green" flavors (such as acetaldehyde) aren't going to be fixed by cold storage. You want the yeast to be active. If you are consistently having this problem, you may be bottling too early. But since two weeks is usually plenty of time in the fermenter, I'd also take a look at your process. Are you pitching an adequate amount of yeast? How are you aerating/oxygenating your wort? Are you limiting exposure to oxygen after the initial aeration up to and including bottling?

Before you go too far down that path though... can you describe exactly what you mean by "green?"

Bottle carbonation typically takes 2-3 weeks. Sometimes longer for big beers. What do you mean by "you know how that goes.....?" What's happening to your beers?

 

I think he means "young."

There are a few things. Ensure fermentation is complete and use the appropriate amount of sugar when priming. I usually let them sit primed at ambient for 7-10 days then cool them at least 12 hours prior to consumption. The sweet spot for IPAs can be tricky. Drink too early and they taste young; wait too long and they taste bland. I've been force carbing mine and bottling with the beer gun and I notice a drop off over time (even kept cold).

 

Okay, but then what does he mean by young? We can shoot in the dark based on fuzzy symptoms, or he can tell us exactly what he's tasting.

 

What you are describing sounds pretty familiar to me. When I was bottle conditioning there always seemed to be a sweet spot where the beer would become "at it's best". What it turned out to be was oxidation. Certain beers (mostly dark) would start to taste better with a bit of age because the oxidation would somehow create complex flavors.

Another thing that I noticed (related to oxidation) was that the beer never had a great aroma. It always smelled the same or was non existent.

What I do now is transfer my beer from carboy to keg using C02 and then bottle the force carbed beer via beer gun. This change seems to have made a world of difference. My beer hasn't tasted "green" since making this change.

Anyway, your situation might be completely different but it's worth looking into the possibility that your beer is getting oxidized.

Cheers!

 

Having the same issue with my beers. I am getting a keg this month and concerned whether drinking the beer that much earlier (vs bottle conditioning) will be even worse (more bitter?). I know that Nate has said that Julius is about 19-21 days from grain to glass and I guess I am curious how a beer can taste that good, that soon.

No, I am in no way comparing my beginner homebrewing to the likes of TH, but I am way way off from good beer that early.

 

I think it comes down to a few factors. The health of the fermentation is a really big one. From my experience, avoiding exposure to oxygen is another big one. A clean fermentation will almost always create a clean tasting beer within a short time frame. Most of my average strength beers are grain to glass in 3 weeks (two weeks in the primary and one week carbing) and taste great. If you are having to wait for 5 or 6 weeks for an average strength ale to taste good, something is wrong in the process.