Aging

[Gergoo]

Hello guys!

I had a few problems with the last couple of batches. 3-4 weeks after the bottling, they were almost perfect (great smell, great taste) but after an other two weeks, they went totally undinkable (yeasty and sour taste at the same time). I heard that the dry hopped IPA-s are best in relatively short time after bottling, but I had the same problem with stouts with high alcohol content and pale ales without dry hopping. My question is, how could I stop the "aging" of my beer at a certain point, or how could i slow down the so-fast changing of flavors? (it's like drinking completely different beer in just one week)

Thanks for the advices!

 

[Ben034]

It sounds like it could be an infection introduced at the bottling stage. What's your bottling process? IPAs should still be good after 2 months in the bottle.

I don't think it's likely that it is oxidisation if it's sour rather than stale but minimising oxygen pick up (not splashing when bottling etc) is important. Do the pale beers look significantly darker than when young?

 

[chthon]

After only six weeks? How do you clean your bottles?

 

[Jakeyboi]

Does the beer appear to change colour, I.e gets darker?

 

[An Ankoù]

I agree with Ben034. Your beer becoming cloudy again and the sourness is due to an infection. Just as a matter of interest, have you used any "funky" yeasts at any stage in an earlier beer or any bacteria mixes?
Another angle: are you sure that whatever you're sanitising your bottles with isn't infected? Do you sanitise the caps before capping the bottles? Do you draw off a bit of beer to taste from the fermenter, to see is it's ready and then fail to sanitise the tap, inside and outside?

Try leaving the beer for an even longer period. It might settle down again depending on what it's infected with. Check one every week or so to see whether the internal pressure is building to dangerous levels.

 

[Mavroz]

I am drinking some ales that were bottled last year around this time, along with ales from before the warm summer this year which are still a great drink.

 

[DavidDetroit]

So you've made batches prior to this that didn't follow the pattern of going bad after about six weeks?
As said above, that shouldn't happen. Are you getting big, foam gushers?

 

[ACBEV]

Sounds like an infection... I had a similar problem with two batches this year, all was well for the first month in bottles, then some went off. In one batch I used 20 new bottles and 22 cleaned bottles, none of the new bottles got infected, but most of the cleaned bottles did.

I've now change my bottle cleaning process to a 2 stage method... Oxi clean first, then sanitiser rinse. But I do a visual inspection first for any crud.

 

[crowcrow]

Don't forget to do a proper deep clean (or buy new?) of everything used in your bottling process - new tubes/pipes if needed as the infection could be there.

 

[foxy]

Hello guys!

I had a few problems with the last couple of batches. 3-4 weeks after the bottling, they were almost perfect (great smell, great taste) but after an other two weeks, they went totally undinkable (yeasty and sour taste at the same time). I heard that the dry hopped IPA-s are best in relatively short time after bottling, but I had the same problem with stouts with high alcohol content and pale ales without dry hopping. My question is, how could I stop the "aging" of my beer at a certain point, or how could i slow down the so-fast changing of flavors? (it's like drinking completely different beer in just one week)

Thanks for the advices!

The best thing to do is describe your whole process and any changes you may have made, if you have bottled without issue in the past, and your bottle cleaning regime is the same it would be hard to point the finger at that.

 

[Gergoo]

I bottled without any issues till now, it's just the last few times that things went wrong. I haven't changend anything.
My process is the following:
I ferment in a plastic bucket. After the fermenting is ready (usually 15 days after brewing) I decant the beer from the yeast layer to another bucket. I stir the dissolved sugar into, and I'm bottling directly from this bucket with a pipe.
I sanitize everything, even the caps. At first I brush out the bottles with liquid soap and water, and then fill the bottles with the sanitezer. I'm using Starsan in higher concentrations than recomennded in food industry, then I rinse with water and sanitise everything again, with the recommended concentration, and this time I don't rinse.
The beers:
There is no significant change in colour, and I can't say that, there is too much carbon-dioxide in them and no gushers, but the size of the boubles are propably smaller and "pungent" as the time goes.

Actually I think, I can not be more hygenic. Maybe I should change the whole fermenting gear as it mentioned above. Maybe for metal bucket. Do you have any experience with UV-C lamp, or it should be ok to sanitize with starsan?

Anyway, thanks for the tipps!

 

[Ben034]

I bottled without any issues till now, it's just the last few times that things went wrong. I haven't changend anything.
My process is the following:
I ferment in a plastic bucket. After the fermenting is ready (usually 15 days after brewing) I decant the beer from the yeast layer to another bucket. I stir the dissolved sugar into, and I'm bottling directly from this bucket with a pipe.
I sanitize everything, even the caps. At first I brush out the bottles with liquid soap and water, and then fill the bottles with the sanitezer. I'm using Starsan in higher concentrations than recomennded in food industry, then I rinse with water and sanitise everything again, with the recommended concentration, and this time I don't rinse.
The beers:
There is no significant change in colour, and I can't say that, there is too much carbon-dioxide in them and no gushers, but the size of the boubles are propably smaller and "pungent" as the time goes.

Actually I think, I can not be more hygenic. Maybe I should change the whole fermenting gear as it mentioned above. Maybe for metal bucket. Do you have any experience with UV-C lamp, or it should be ok to sanitize with starsan?

Anyway, thanks for the tipps!

When you bottle to the second bucket, does this bucket have a plastic tap on it? These can easily harbour bacteria if not removed and cleaned very thoroughly.

 

[Gergoo]

Yes, it has. But I remove the tap, and dip it into sanitiser for at least half an hour long.

 

[BradleyW]

Hi guys, newby here. I have also had this problem of a beer tasting great pre bottling then awful after 2 weeks in the bottle. The taste I have been getting is a really medicinal/chemical one. To now I haven't been sure if it's because of infection or because I haven't let the Oxipron drain well enough. After reading this I'm thinking possibly infection. For my latest batch I boiled the bottles in water then soaked them in Oxi and let them drain properly. Will let you know how they turn out :)

 

[Ben034]

Yes, it has. But I remove the tap, and dip it into sanitiser for at least half an hour long.

Have a look with a bright light to see if you can see any gunk built up in it. Slowly rotate the tap and look. I would soak in something like sodium percarbonate after each use as you can sanitise as much as you like, if there's a build up of gunk inside where you can't see, sanitiser won't stop contamination from occuring. It may not be the source of infection but to be on the safe side I would replace the tap as replacements are just a few pounds and in my experience this is where infection is most likely to come from in a bottling bucket.

 

[Harbey]

I boiled the bottles in water then soaked them in Oxi and let them drain properly. Will let you know how they turn out :)

Make sure you rinse the Oxi too unless you're using fancy no rinse stuff. I had a batch of TCP once which I put down to not having got rid of all the oxi.

 

[foxy]

I bottled without any issues till now, it's just the last few times that things went wrong. I haven't changend anything.
My process is the following:
I ferment in a plastic bucket. After the fermenting is ready (usually 15 days after brewing) I decant the beer from the yeast layer to another bucket. I stir the dissolved sugar into, and I'm bottling directly from this bucket with a pipe.
I sanitize everything, even the caps. At first I brush out the bottles with liquid soap and water, and then fill the bottles with the sanitezer. I'm using Starsan in higher concentrations than recomennded in food industry, then I rinse with water and sanitise everything again, with the recommended concentration, and this time I don't rinse.
The beers:
There is no significant change in colour, and I can't say that, there is too much carbon-dioxide in them and no gushers, but the size of the boubles are propably smaller and "pungent" as the time goes.

Actually I think, I can not be more hygenic. Maybe I should change the whole fermenting gear as it mentioned above. Maybe for metal bucket. Do you have any experience with UV-C lamp, or it should be ok to sanitize with starsan?

Anyway, thanks for the tipps!

Using Star San or equivalent twice is just wasting the sanitiser, use an alkaline cleaner first sodium perborate or sodium pecarbonate, let them soak in that at around 60C to remove any gunk (which you may not even see) Use your Star San at recommended dose, you can mix it in warm water so it drys quicker but lower the pH. You should then have a pristine bottle to fill, if you still have a problem then work back. Better still carry out the same regime with whatever comes in contact with the finished beer out of the fermentor. You can't just use an acid base sanitiser on its own.

 

[Gergoo]

Thank you!
I will take more care of the whole bottle cleaning process. I can't imagine that my fermenter is infected, so it should be the bottles. I brewed two more batches, they are at the 12th day of fermentation, so I will clean my bottles as properly as I can, so it will come to light, that which part of the system is infected. I will keep you updated!