Hi everyone, I did my first home brew batch a week ago today. It was just the pre-ready kit from BrewDemon (Prophecy Ale). Being that I've had probably close to 1500 unique craft beers, I was never gonna be satisfied with just the pre-mix, so I boiled some grapefruit zest briefly before adding the pre-mix to make the wort and strained the zest out before going wort to fermenter (sanitized strainer and brought just to the point of a boil again before putting into the conical to be safe). My directions said to bottle after 7 days. I put a small amount into a glass to give it the smell/taste test, per the directions if I'm not sure. Here's my problem: In the conical itself, I can visually see a difference in shading from the top to the bottom. It's an amber color from about halfway up, and gets gradually lighter as it goes down before hitting the yeast sediment at the base. The bit I poured is roughly the shade of a sour, and has a sort of soury, somewhat apple-y scent and taste to it. I read that a bit of apple scent can be normal as part of fermentation, but that sour likely means contamination post sanitization, and can either be a happy mistake if it works, or you'll have to dump it. Basically, despite all the beer I've sampled over the years, I've realized I have no idea if I've messed up actually brewing one haha. Should the change in shading be there (or should I leave it in the fermenter longer)? And is the somewhat soury scent/taste normal and will self-correct after bottling and carbonating? Any advice would be great, I have no idea if I should move forward with bottling as instructed today, or leave it, or what. Thanks.
The apple-y taste is more than likely acetaldehyde. Give the beer more time on the yeast and they will clean it up.. Color differences from top to bottom are just from stuff (including yeast) settling out. It's nothing to worry about. Unsolicited advice: Having sampled 1500 craft beers doesn't qualify anyone who hasn't brewed before to know how to improve on a good kit. Concentrate on the basics. Read this if you haven't already: www.howtobrew.com ETA: What kind of conical do have that you can see through?
The apple-y taste could mean the presence of acetaldehyde which is an off flavor that will go away with more time in the fermenter. I would wait longer before bottling because of that. How much longer? Another two weeks would a safe bet. Sourness from an infection seems quick at 7 days. Is there a pellicle (bubbling fungus looking thing on top)? Any chance you are mischaracterizing the grapefruit flavor? If it is infected you shouldn't bottle it now because you'd likely get exploding bottles.
It's just the BrewDemon 3 gallon conical. It's a clear conical so I can easily observe the shading. Thanks for the advice, I think I will let it sit another couple days and see if it settles further.
Or another couple weeks haha. I suppose I will play it by ear based on the shading, aroma, and flavor prior to bottling it up
No, there is nothing like that on top. The only thing left at the top of the conical is what I'm assuming is a slight yeast/sediment ring just above the surface of the brew, presumably just what stuck to the inside of the conical before sinking to the base. For what it's worth, the bit I poured into the glass from the spigot, I left sit for the past 30 minutes to let everything sink, and there was quite a bit of sediment at the base of the glass. Not sure if that is evidence that everything needs additional time to settle, or if that's normal. EDIT: It's certainly possible I'm mischaracterizing the grapefruit as I've never experienced that flavor in beer before the finished product, whereas I've had "samples" of other beers (an amber and ipa) from the fermenter at a local brewery, to sample the difference between the finished and almost finished product. It doesn't have a great deal of grapefruit flavor or aroma, however.
Does that look like any of the pellicle you were asking about? I overlooked it previously because I assumed it was just some yeast/sediment still floating near the top. It's not bubbling up or anything, just sitting there. Picture isn't great, I know.
Ok thanks, that's what I was thinking but figured I better post it since I'm new to my own brewing and wouldn't know if I was wrong.
VikeMan is right about shading layers being due to the settling process of the trub, but since you have a conical fermentor, and you say that you are seeing a lighter color in the portion of your beer near the bottom, that thinner conical area allows more light to get through the beer and makes it look lighter in color. You really don't want to use that as a guide for when to bottle. If you have a hydrometer, that's the sure-fire way to know when you can bottle. And when you take samples you'll be tasting the beer then, so that if the green apple flavor is still there (or anything worse) then you'll need to rely a little more on the taste being a factor about whether it's time to bottle the beer.
Bottle your beer according to hydrometer readings, not the calendar. Yeast do not know what day it is. Seven days is almost always too soon to remove your beer from the yeast. Yeast does a lot of cleaning up after itself after the primary stage of fermentation is over.
