Sunday, December 7, 2008

first brew, part 5

Sunday afternoon I couldn't help myself and had to have a taste. I cracked the half-full bottle, which had a good bit of settled yeast and some amount of pressure, and poured a few ounces. The only evidence of dissolved CO2 was a small number of bubbles clinging to the side of the glass (wrong glass, I know).

There are still no off flavors that I can detect. There is no bitterness to speak of. There is a very faint aromatic hoppiness. The overall flavor is pretty uninteresting. There is no sweetness, but I did not taste immediately after adding the bottling sugar so I'm not sure how it compares. And the carbonation is very, very slight - though I think that's to be expected after only three or four days. Clarity has improved noticeably.

John Palmer notes that carbonation should have occurred by about two weeks, and take no longer than a month. Possible causes of carbonation not occurring are premature settling of the yeast (shake it up), and not enough bottling sugar (no cure identified). Low temperature is also a factor in slow carbonation, though I don't think so in this case. It's been at a pretty steady 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Overall it looks like things are going surprisingly well.

No comments: