I recently made a batch of American wheat beer and the first couple I tried tasted quite swell, then I just tried a couple tonight and they tasted off… almost too sweet or something. They have been conditioning for over 4 weeks. Any ideas on why some taste good and some taste awful?
It could be that the priming sugar was not mixed thoroughly at bottling, so some got less sugar and some got more. I would think four weeks would be enough time for the ones with more to ferment out, though. How was the carbonation level on the “good” and “awful” ones? What temp were they stored at during bottle conditioning?
All bottles were carbonated at room temp around 72 F. I am leaning towards that the priming sugar must not have been mixed well. I believe they all have decent carbonation but I am leaning towards the bad tasting ones have less carbonation.
When I used to bottle condition, I found giving the bucket a gentle stir every six pack or so yielded more even carbonation across the batch.
yeah thinking back on it now I think i totally forgot to even stir the priming solution in the bottling bucket I think I just dumped it in and started bottling
When I bottled I never stirred the beer. I just racked onto the priming solution and then bottled. Maybe some of your bottles were not totally sanitized?
Racking into the priming solution is a good practice and is what I did as well. Stirring further improved how consistently bottles carbonated across the batch.
