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I’ve done a few batches using Safale F2 in combination with dextrose for bottle conditioning. They all came out tasting sour after 2,5 weeks, like I image young sparkling wine would taste. Now it’s do 2-3 weeks additional lagering. Previous attempts with F2 and DME came out like sweet beer. The use of dextrose is new to me.

I also did a tasting after only 1 week of bottle fermentation. I did pick a very faint sour taste back then. But in other respects a very limited flavor impact. Over all it was a good back then, but still lacked some CO2.

At https://www.morebeer.com/content/homebrew-off-flavors the flavor is similar to what’s mentioned as cidery. Since then I’ve done some research and it seems like champagne yeast may be labelled as ale bottling yeast. Additionally, any original yeast flavor profile is gone or very faint.

  • Is it likely that F2 in combination with a monosaccharide will produce flavors like sour and wine-like? Or should I look for other possible causes?
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I saw that "cidery due to too much simple sugar" issue mentioned in a few places, but for some weird reason I haven't experienced it, even though my bottling procedure always includes table (cane) sugar, and sometimes a lot (e.g. for belgians). I remember at least in one place (can't remember who was the author, though) I've read that "cidery due to too much sugar" lore is a legacy of early homebrewing times, when quality yeast was rare, and shitty tired yeast certainly gives you acetaldehyde.

From the description of F2 I don't see how it could be a culprit. Rather, I'd check two hypotheses: a) infection, b) acetaldehyde. Leave the beer for a couple weeks more (hopefully it's not a heavily dryhopped pale ale), preferably at a room temperature, and check after. If "cideriness" dissipated, it was acetaldehyde. If it turns more sour, it was infection.

Lastly, for 99% cases of homebrew you don't need to add extra yeast at bottling time. Normally you already have enough in suspension.

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  • I put half of the batches on refridgeration and half on additional bottle conditioning. I’ll post back in a week or so.
    – Martin
    Commented Apr 28, 2018 at 7:45
  • The beers I put cold conditioning turned out great (this was also prescribed on the label of the F2 yeast). I expect the ones that got extra time on regular bottle condition to be equally good. So the wine/cider sourness was acetaldehyde. Hhmm, it did not taste like green apple according to me.
    – Martin
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 20:59
  • @martin all those words for flavours give you just approximate description of what you may feel, but a) every person has unique nose and mouth, b) from the evolutionary point, smell/taste are the most ancient of senses, and it's not always easy to find a right word even for approximate description. Try to memorise the off-flavour you experienced, put a mental tag "acetaldehyde" on it, it's a very valuable piece of of experience.
    – Roman
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 23:34
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I would suspect that you have bacterial or exogenous yeast contamination. I am a large number of brewing friends bottle with table sugar and we do not see the cidery flavours often attributed to simple sugars. As Roman says this seems to be an historical hangover from poor quality yeast cultures.

If the falvour you have is sour apple, then you have acetaldehyde, which will hopefully drop over time. If the sourness is more like natural yoghurt or vinegar then you have bacterial/yeast contamination.

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