Simply Lager kit query

[Skunkylager86]

Hi all,

I've had a Simply Lager kit bottled for 6 weeks now and am wondering how long is best to leave it to condition before it's at it's best. I've tried a few bottles and it has this strange lemon sherbet kind of taste that does seem to be dying down over time. It didn't taste like that before priming so I'm hoping it's just taking its time processing the priming sugar
Cheers

 

[DocAnna]

What temperature have you been conditioning at, and did you use table sugar (sucrose) or brewing sugar (dextrose) for priming? Also did you use the sugar as granules or as a boiled solution? Thanks.

A lemon fizz flavour may suggest additional acidity and might be secondary bacterial fermentation. That is unlikely though in a bottle conditioning situation unless conditioned at particularly warm temperatures- upper 20’s I’d estimate.

Bottle conditioning a lager would typically take two weeks at about 18 deg, longer if cooler.

 

[Skunkylager86]

What temperature have you been conditioning at, and did you use table sugar (sucrose) or brewing sugar (dextrose) for priming? Also did you use the sugar as granules or as a boiled solution? Thanks.

A lemon fizz flavour may suggest additional acidity and might be secondary bacterial fermentation. That is unlikely though in a bottle conditioning situation unless conditioned at particularly warm temperatures- upper 20’s I’d estimate.

Bottle conditioning a lager would typically take two weeks at about 18 deg, longer if cooler.

Thanks for the reply

I just used granulated sugar for priming and didn't dissolve it. My house didn't get over 15C while it was carbonating so I'm wondering if the sugar hadn't been fully used up after 2 weeks when I moved the bottles out to the shed

The bottles have been out in the shed since they finished carbing so definitely not in the upper 20s for temperature.

The lemon taste isn't unpleasant, it just tastes more like a shandy than a lager at this point. It does seem to be fading so I'm hoping it'll be more lager like after another month or two.

 

[DocAnna]

Sucrose will take considerable longer to be metabolised by the yeast, due to it being a disaccharide and the first step in metabolism requiring cleavage by an extracellular invertase (β-fructofuranosidase, EC 3.2.1.26) into glucose and fructose. the subsequent sugars then diffuse into the cells but also into the beer. After fermentation on a maltose/maltotiose rich wort, this also requires gene upregulation which the residual yeast in the beer will take longer to adapt to and expand sufficiently in biomass to make use of the sugars. There’s also the issue that the oxygen introduced with bottling changes entirely how the yeast metabolise the sugar till the oxygen is depleted - by growing in number rather than creating CO2 through an anaerobic fermentation pathway.

Short version is that it will take considerably longer to bottle condition a lager with sucrose sugar. If possible I suggest you bring the beers into somewhere with high teens/low 20s temp for about 4 days then cool again for at least a week.

 

[Skunkylager86]

Sucrose will take considerable longer to be metabolised by the yeast, due to it being a disaccharide and the first step in metabolism requiring cleavage by an extracellular invertase (β-fructofuranosidase, EC 3.2.1.26) into glucose and fructose. the subsequent sugars then diffuse into the cells but also into the beer. After fermentation on a maltose/maltotiose rich wort, this also requires gene upregulation which the residual yeast in the beer will take longer to adapt to and expand sufficiently in biomass to make use of the sugars. There’s also the issue that the oxygen introduced with bottling changes entirely how the yeast metabolise the sugar till the oxygen is depleted - by growing in number rather than creating CO2 through an anaerobic fermentation pathway.

Short version is that it will take considerably longer to bottle condition a lager with sucrose sugar. If possible I suggest you bring the beers into somewhere with high teens/low 20s temp for about 4 days then cool again for at least a week.

Thanks for that. I'll give that a go.

 

[Skunkylager86]

So I took DocAnna's advice and moved a bottle inside the house to test for a few days. Just cracked it open and the lemon taste has faded significantly and it's starting to taste like lager, it's not quite there yet but it's close. Thanks your help DocAnna.