BeerBorg

Do you find you can tell if you made a good beer from the sample taken just before you bottle or keg?
I'm just curious if you can tell if it will be good or not. I don't think I can pick out good brew until it has gone through the conditioning and carbonation stages.

Banjo-guy wrote:Do you find you can tell if you made a good beer from the sample taken just before you bottle or keg?
I'm just curious if you can tell if it will be good or not. I don't think I can pick out good brew until it has gone through the conditioning and carbonation stages.

So far when my sample has been good, the beer is even better . When the sample is so so, it's up in the air how the finall product comes out. Sometimes good sometimes meh.

I agree, I can't tell till it's done.

I carb all of my beers in my basement which stays a constant 66 to 68 degrees. I discovered last night that in 5 days they are as carbed as they are going to get. And with Wheat beers and IPAs the beer is at it's peak just as soon as it is carbed. Other beers improve over the next 1 to 3 weeks.

I suspect that most of the carbonation occurs within the first 24 to 48 hours just like initial fermentation. In my mind carbonating is doing the same thing. Feeding yeast sugar and sending it into a frenzie. It worked that way when I dumped a pound of sugar into my Saison after primary fermentation was over. That night the blow off tube was bubbling the next day it wasn't.

Banjo-guy wrote:Do you find you can tell if you made a good beer from the sample taken just before you bottle or keg?
I'm just curious if you can tell if it will be good or not. I don't think I can pick out good brew until it has gone through the conditioning and carbonation stages.

It depends on what yeast I've used, how much I pitched, and what style of beer it is, fermentation temps, etc... but most of my beers lately have tasted pretty good right out of the fermenter and always better after carbed.

IMHO the only reason it would somehow ending up tasting "worse" is if it was infected or oxidized at bottling time or you cracked a bottle before the acetaldehyde produced by the bottle fermentation (carb) has cleaned up. (if you carb/condition at too low of a temp this may take longer). If you keg you have none of that to worry about.

I can usually tell from the sample, yeah. It lets me know how balanced it is, and whether it tastes promising. It's not the finished product, by any means, but it's a pretty good indicator of whether it's going to be good, average, or poisonous.

FedoraDave wrote:I can usually tell from the sample, yeah. It lets me know how balanced it is, and whether it tastes promising. It's not the finished product, by any means, but it's a pretty good indicator of whether it's going to be good, average, or poisonous.

↑ That.

In addition all my beers (that didn't develop an infection) tasted much better after carbonation. In my reading I read somewhere that CO2 adds something to the flavor of the beer but I can't remember what it was. (Yeah, Dave. Yet another senior moment.)

That's the case for sure with me. If I taste it at bottling and it is good, then it will be great when it is carbed/conditioned

Banjo-guy wrote:Do you find you can tell if you made a good beer from the sample taken just before you bottle or keg?

No not 100% but I always sample from the bottling bucket, today I bottled my Fat Tire clone and I kept wanting to sample, I think I tried at least 5 shots out of that one because I like it and already knew how it was going to taste anyways as I have brewed it before. A few weeks ago I bottled a Cream Ale that I cut the bittering hops in half as an option per recipe for a less bitter beer, on my bottling taste test I thought this is too plain and sweet for my taste, but after trying one the other night after carb and cold, it's good as per style.

I'm quite new to all this but i have to say that my first two batches really tasted like they would be good at bottling. My third batch, I was worried. I opened one today after seven days in the bottle and I can honestly say it tastes as good as any white Blue Moon to me..

I have found that the beers that taste real good at bottling are outstanding when they have carbed. The beer that were just so so at bottling have turned out to be pretty damn tasty when carbed as well. Lucky for me i found this forum or should i say the old one right when i started have been fortunate not to make any real bad beers.