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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Kegged beer tastes slightly sweet on the second day (not the first)
« on: April 14, 2010, 09:28:10 PM »
First off, welcome to the forum! I will admit that I did not read your entire post but let me try and help from what I have gatrhered.
First off, Co2 should make a beer taste drier, not sweeter. The more carbonation the drier the beer should be perceived. This would make sense, except you said the beer tasted flat first, then got "sweet" as it carbonated. Which is oddm because this is backwards. It could be that you are picking up some oxidation which is giving you this perceived off flavor. Or, perhaps this "sweetness" is more like butterscotch? That would be caused from diacetyl which can be brought on by a number of things, usually fermentation issues. But if the beer tasted fine in primary and secondary the it could be caused from either oxidation or an infection.
But, since it is really hard to pin point exactly what is going on here let me give you a few pointers.
#1) You don't really need to secondary a beer that is going to go into a keg. The keg itself acts as one big seocndary, only better = because you can purge the o2 with co2. When you tap the beer you ca blow out the initial yeast and not worry about seocndary (or transfer into another keg off the yeast via a jumper). If you insist on using a secondary use a keg. 100xs better than a glass carboy.
#2) Co2 is Co2. It tastes the same whether it comes from force carbonation or natural. Try simply hooking your beer up to the co2 at ~12 psi and letting it sit at serving temps for 5 days. It will balance out and be pefectly carbonated. Using sugar is fine but you could run into inconsistencies. Hooking up to co2 and carbbing that way guarantees perfect carbonation every time.
#3) Look at the off flavor trouble shooting guide here: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html and see if you can more accurately identify this "sweetness". If "sweetness" it actually is it may be you priming sugar not fermenting all the way. Haard to say.
First off, Co2 should make a beer taste drier, not sweeter. The more carbonation the drier the beer should be perceived. This would make sense, except you said the beer tasted flat first, then got "sweet" as it carbonated. Which is oddm because this is backwards. It could be that you are picking up some oxidation which is giving you this perceived off flavor. Or, perhaps this "sweetness" is more like butterscotch? That would be caused from diacetyl which can be brought on by a number of things, usually fermentation issues. But if the beer tasted fine in primary and secondary the it could be caused from either oxidation or an infection.
But, since it is really hard to pin point exactly what is going on here let me give you a few pointers.
#1) You don't really need to secondary a beer that is going to go into a keg. The keg itself acts as one big seocndary, only better = because you can purge the o2 with co2. When you tap the beer you ca blow out the initial yeast and not worry about seocndary (or transfer into another keg off the yeast via a jumper). If you insist on using a secondary use a keg. 100xs better than a glass carboy.
#2) Co2 is Co2. It tastes the same whether it comes from force carbonation or natural. Try simply hooking your beer up to the co2 at ~12 psi and letting it sit at serving temps for 5 days. It will balance out and be pefectly carbonated. Using sugar is fine but you could run into inconsistencies. Hooking up to co2 and carbbing that way guarantees perfect carbonation every time.
#3) Look at the off flavor trouble shooting guide here: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html and see if you can more accurately identify this "sweetness". If "sweetness" it actually is it may be you priming sugar not fermenting all the way. Haard to say.
