I brewed a honey molasses porter from extract. I fermented in secondary, but then tried a little cellaring to help clear it. i stored it for two weeks in my garage with a cap and airlock where it sat at around 50 degrees. I kegged last weekend and tried it today. It starts off right, but has a strong alcohol aftertaste that has not been present in my previous batches of this. is this an effect of some part of the brew process or cellaring, or is it something that will mellow over time that I should not be excited about yet? I am concerned that I picked something up somewhere as I have never tasted this before and I don't know enough about what causes off flavors yet. Thanks for the input.
"Alcoholic
A sharp flavor that can be mild and pleasant or hot and bothersome. When an alcohol taste detracts from a beer's flavor it can usually be traced to one of two causes. The first problem is often too high a fermentation temperature. At temperatures above 80°F, yeast can produce too much of the higher weight fusel alcohols which have lower taste thresholds than ethanol. These alcohols taste harsh to the tongue, not as bad as cheap tequila, but bad nonetheless.
Fusel alcohols can be produced by excessive amounts of yeast, or when the yeast sits too long on the trub. This is one reason to move the beer off of the hot and cold break when the beer is going to be spending a lot of time in the fermentor.
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Sounds like the temperature wasn't the problem. How long did your beer stay on the trub?
Only on Trub a week. I am very careful about moving to secondary because I have heard that too much time on the trub can give you some nasty aftertastes. So i don't think it is that. Any other ideas?
My only other guess, and I may be reaching here, is that a honey molasses porter sounds like a real sugar'ry recipe. Maybe there was too much sugar in the wort and it fermented too much?
By the way, I left my beer in the primary for over 2 weeks and then went straight into bottling. No aftertastes at all. Usually "too much time" is a month or more.
thanks for the input. I know that it has alot of fermentables as the alccohol content is always high. this is just the first time that i have been able to taste a strong alcohol content. do you think it will mellow out? Maybe I'm just hitting it too soon.
What was the OG and FG? And what type of yeast were you using?
Sometimes if you use yeast that is only supposed to work up to 7% abv but are using it to brew a beer that is supposed to turn out around 10% abv, the yeast gets stressed and produces off alcohol flavors. So knowing what these things ahead of time is important.
+1 on letting it sit and condition a little longer.
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When did you brew it? It sounds like it needs more time to me. High alc and high hop content beers just need more time; that is just how it is. I made an IPA recently that is in the keg and carbing up. It is probably somewhere around 5-6 weeks old. I tried some the other day just to see how the carbonation was coming along and it was rough. I know this beer is going to be good, but these flavors need time. I would give it another two weeks in the keg. Give it another whirl then, and I bet you will be pleasantly surprised.
Strong alcohol aftertaste
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