Really pungent acidic solvent / green aroma taste

Help me figure out what went wrong!

I made a Heady Topper clone following the exact recipe from the epic thread in this forum. It's my third time doing this recipe and the first two time it was amazing.

I put the beer in keg. When it was time to drink I throwed away the first 2 pints. Beer was clear tough. So the third, fourth and fifth were tasting great. But the next day, I got this very strong solvent and astringent taste and aroma from every pint I put through my tap. 3 days later this brew is still tasting like %$?&. Well.. I am tempted of just throwing it away tonight.

I am not sure how to describe the taste. It's a really pungent acidic solvent / green aroma taste.. It even cover the hop aroma I should get from a Heady. I first tough it was infection. But the bear is clear and and there's no sign of any putrefaction.

Here a summary of what I done :

• Pitch the yeast at 73F with a big starter (summer temp were a bit high on my first floor) and add a clarity ferm tube
• Put the beer in the basement at 70F
• 1 hour later it was fermenting!
• Let do it's thinkg in the basement at 67-69F for 2 weeks
• Finish it 1 week at 70-72 while dry hopping the last 4 days
• Cold crash 2 days, put it to keg with the last dry hops addition
• 6 days later I tasted it for the first time

What went wrong? Should I throw it?

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Sounds like a classic infection. You could culture it and see what grows... or leave it in the keg amd see if it gets worse or. cloudy (definitely infected then).

I'd say see if it ages out but since it's such a super hoppy beer that's not going to make anyone happy.

Thanks butterpants. But how can you be so sure it's an infection?

If it is, should I assume that the part where I missed something is while or after kegging since beer was tasting good in the fermenter?

I am really paranoid about sanitizing! I wash everything thoroughly with really hot water and then spray it with freshly made Star San.

The only thing I am not so sure about is the part where I am dry hoping. I use cheesecloth/muslim like bag. I put them in boiling water for a couple of minute. But the bag I use tend to break up. Hate them, but I don't know what else to use. Can this be related?

Well your timeline is not quite on track to **** up an entire 5 gal batch (unless it was kegged and not refrigerated).... beer normally takes longer to go bad.... BUT the order your events are taking are classic infection. Good - > Gross

If it was fermentation flaws it would never have tasted good initially. Green Apple/Acetylaldehyde is true of green beer but also could be an infection byproduct. The solventy taste makes me think of you fermenting too hot and not much else.

Do you have access to a BJCP certified judge who can taste it for you?

butterpants said:

The solventy taste makes me think of you fermenting too hot and not much else.

Click to expand...

Makes me think of this too. Are you sure about your temp?
Try letting it age a month, and try it again.

About the temp, I remember the first couple of days when it was fermenter the thermometer on the bucket was showing upper 70's (78-79F). It's quite high, but I tough that i would comes down since my basement ambient temp was lower.

yea 80 is not really goood unless you're ramping up at the end on a belgian or something similar. you should be in the mid to upper 60ies. without active cooling the inside of the bucket could have been easily 5+ degrees higher since the whole process is exothermic and heat is coming from the inside

Yeah this sounds like a really hot fermentation. I would think that some of the greener flavors would have been taken back up by the yeast, but with a hot ferment like that, who knows. This temps are going to put a ton of stress on the yeast and they will throw all sorts of crazy compounds at those temps...

This sounds like too high of ferment temps (and/or maybe an underpitch?) Too soon to be an infection I think.

Only thing that doesn't line up with the temperature theory is that the first few pulls seemed ok...


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Just thrown the whole batch today. no sign of infection, but a really disgusting flavor. I forgot tot tell.. It's not my first batch with this kind of aroma bad/flavor. It's my third one (over a dozen batch made so far). Each at different levels, they were having this green / pungent taste.

The common factor over those batch are dry hoping. I don't remember about the temperature. Could this be from too much dry hop or a dry hop related infection ?

I would really like to get a BJCP certified judge or an experimented brewer to et this sorted. I still have a bottle or two of a year old batch with a similar result. Anyone near Quebec city (Canada) ?

I think it is very unlikely you picked up an infection dry hopping.

Some say that if you dry hop for "too long" that it can impart grassy/vegetal flavors. I've never found that in any beer I've made or sampled. The temperature you dry hop at doesn't matter really, although the aroma extraction is slower at colder temps.

I think your suggestion of finding an experienced brewer/taster to try one is a great way to figure out where the flavor may be coming from. Any local homebrew clubs?