My home brew has an off flavor can you help me fix it?

Question

So i just racked my first homebrew from my primary fermenter to my secondary fermenter and i took a glass to taste and make sure things are going ok. The beer has a very distinct cidery smell and a slightly cidery taste. From what ive read it should either be from using too much table or corn sugar, which i haven't used any or from fermenting at too high of a temperature which is likely because we've been going through a bit of a heat wave while its been fermenting.

So my question is is there anything I can do to fix the cidery flavor at this point?

and for future reference what are some good ways to control temperature with a relatively minimal setup?

Answer 1

Up front-I am not sure.

But I will search about to see if I can find something for your issue.

To control temp. keep out of direct light. Use a water bath and change water everyday or use ice. An old refrigerator can help for cold fermnetations.

I have heard the same about large amounts of corn sugar.

I dought that you can fix the cidery flavor.

Answer 2

What was the recipe?

If it's a sour sort of flavor, it could be an infection of bacteria, or wild yeast.

Warmer fermentation can cause the yeast to produce a "green apple" smelling compound called acetylaldehyde which is broken down later during fermentation.

If it's an alcohol sort of taste, it could be that the yeast produced longer chains of fusel alcohols.

Whatever you do, DON'T THROW IT OUT.   Wait until it's bottled, and see how it tastes.  Even then, it may need some extra bottle conditioning to end up being a great beer.   currently have a bottled batch that didn't taste quite right when I first tried it, but two months later I know that I'm going to miss this batch when it's gone.  I'm glad I left it to age a bit.

Answer 3

My temperature control setup is a marine cooler standing on end. I keep it cool by adding 2-litre soda bottles filled to the shoulder with water and frozen. By rotating them in pairs between cooler and freezer, I can keep the temperature low enough for lagering.

Don't stop fermenting just because the intermediate stages are not to your liking. I brew one beer that is undrinkable for the first year or so after bottling, very nice thereafter.