Beer tastes crap the day before bottling

[Martybhoy]

I brewed Greg Hughes' Cornish Tin Miner's Ale 3 weeks ago with no issues. I used CML Real Ale yeast for the first time.

2 weeks in primary and a week in secondary, it's clear and ready to bottle. But it tastes bad. Very bitter, green apples, no maltiness at all.

I know it's not going to taste amazing before conditioning but surely it should be fairly decent with a small promise of what's to come.

Am I on to plums if I continue with this brew?

 

[Ajhutch]

Hmm. Green apple is a classic descriptor of acetaldehyde, which is from what I've read and understood typically an off flavour associated with an incomplete fermentation/conditioning. While i haven't used CML real ale yeast, everything I've seen from others on it would suggest you've given this plenty of time, so that's a bit inconsistent with acetaldehyde. So I don't have a great answer for you. How badly do you need the vessel freed up? I might be tempted to give it another week and see if the flavour is still hanging around.

 

[BrewHouse]

Tricky one. If you have a spare PB I would chuck it in there and see if the conditioning can sort out the acetaldehyde. The only reason I say that is because bottling is such an overhead if you are not sure about the beer. Cleaning, sanitising, filling, priming, capping, waiting, sampling, chucking, re-cleaning etc. On a more positive note, I had a beer that tasted so badly of cardboard that it was destined for the drain. I wasn't prepared to give over valuable keg space or spend time bottling and so threw it in a PB that I had sitting around and forgot about it. Two months later it had sorted itself out.

 

[Martybhoy]

Cheers folks.

I'm in no rush to get the FV empty, and as you say, bottling is a fair investment of time and effort. I'll leave it for a few more weeks and check again.

 

[BeerCat]

I always taste my beers now before i bottle it. I have thrown a few away rather than bottle them as have bottled some horrible beers before and they never improved. Like you say though might as well wait a while.

 

[Duxuk]

It does sound like acetaldehyde. I've had this occur but only in hot summer conditions. I believe that it can be due to too high a temp. in the first few days. Acetaldehyde is a precursor to alcohol in the fermentation process but sometimes it just sticks around. One of my brews was clear of the flavour after a couple of weeks in the bottle. The other 2 had to be thrown away. I'd leave it in the FV and see what happens or even bottle if it's a slight hint of taste and smell.