Salted Caramel Porter Distaster

Ach, I have gone almost two years without a bad batch of beer, and now this one has me stumped! I was "commissioned" to make some beer for my dear friend's wedding reception in July. Thankfully I have a lot of time to prepare. I emailed he and his fiancee to ascertain what styles/ideas of beer they would like to have. I got about ten results--most of them interesting but only one really caught my eye: "Salted Caramel Porter." Delicious. The idea struck me at once. Within a week I made up a 2.5 gallon test batch to explore the thought.

I know that many people add salt to their mash water to control the properties and hardness of their wort, and I consulted with my LHBS regarding whether I could put "too much" salt in the beer. I was wary. I am an accomplished chef and already know the perils of over-salting something going into your mouth. Not a pretty picture. I also decided to use homemade candi syrup (my great culinary crossover to homebrewing) as the vehicle for the salt.

Here is the deal: I had a great starter of WLP023, the boil was easy, the wort fermented nicely... and come bottling time (earlier this evening) I tasted it flat and it was wretched. Really. Wow. I always try my beer flat before bottling to make sure I didn't miss the mark... My wife and I both tried it and got waves of this sick, soapy flavor that was really awful. Salt was there, yes, and perhaps too much, but it had nothing on this cheek-puckering soapy flavor disaster. I dumped the batch within a few minutes, hoping to choke down a little more just so I could isolate the flavors. Soap, rot, salt and a slick meaty smack.

Emptying the fermenter but leaving the yeast cake, I took a big whiff--BAM! There was all that I had just tasted in aromatic form. Phweew, rank stuff! Here is the kicker: the beer smelled wonderful. Notes of rich caramels, soft sugar, a little brine and a good beery backbone. But smell the yeast? Horrific. While fermenting, I got a rank whiff here and there from the airlock, but it cleared up after a while. This is my first time using WLP023 and the vial itself smelled really nice, but the result (I think) is a slew of nasty flavors from what I presume to be bad yeast.

Here is the recipe for reference:

Fermentables

3.5 lb Pale Ale Malt Briess
0.75 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 120L Briess
1.00 lb Candi Syrup - Salted Dark Amber
0.38 lb Special Roast Malt Briess
0.38 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L Briess
0.25 lb Wheat Malt, White Briess
0.25 lb Oats, Flaked

Hops

NAME AMOUNT TIME USE FORM AA
Cascade United States 0.5 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 5.8%
Fuggle United States 0.25 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 4.8%
Fuggle United States 0.25 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 4.8%
Cascade United States 0.25 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 5.8%

Yeasts

NAME LAB ATTENUATION TEMP
Burton Ale Yeast WLP023 White Labs 74.0% 68°F – 73°F


So what is the diagnosis? Did the salt interfere with the fermentation? Was the yeast bad? Did the beer gods smite me for my impertinence? Help!

I think its possible that the salt you added to the sugar syrup may have killed off a portion of your yeast during fermentation. The dead yeast autolyzed giving you the meaty and soapy flavors that you've described. Once upon a time, being a chef myself the first thing we learned in pro baking was to keep salt away from the yeast. IMHO you would have been better served adding salt to taste at kegging and force carbonated. Then bottle off of the keg if you so wished. Over all it looks like a good recipe. I just think the salt stressed the yeast. Did you taste a soy sauce flavor as well? Edit #2. In your case and it being a small batch. Save the salt addition till after carbonation and add it to taste in your glass as proof of concept.

The more I think about this, the more I want to try your recipe.

Use a maild coarse salt/Brown sugar mix for rimming your glass maybe? or add the salt to secondary/prior to packaging?

secondary

MoldMan, I wondered the same thing. My wife and I agonized over when to add the salt. She bakes pastries and I do bread, and we really should have leaned on our experience and waited. I did not get a soy sauce flavor or aroma, just meat and soap (I'm cringing just typing that out!).

As for the recipe writ large, I wish I could bottle the smell and send it to you--the perfect caramel aroma. So great! Similar to Brown Shugga' from Lagunitas. I'll try it again soon and let you all know if leaving out the salt makes the difference. I am confident it will. Thanks for your quick input.

I can picture it now. I have a smoked porter that ended up with a nice caramel note that I have been meaning to re-brew without the smoked malt to really see how pronounced it would be. It seems like it just moved closer to the front of my brew schedule. I realy need to see how this will work out.

Just curious if this was ever rebrewed? I was out with a friend today who was having salted caramel ice cream and she said "why don't you make a salted caramel beer?" I figured i'd put the salt in with the priming sugar, but reading this i am thinking just put salt in the glass and pour the beer over it... any new developments?

I've added salt to the boil when making a gose, fermentation went fine. I don't think that's the problem.

Salt may not hinder yeast, but it may taste like **** in beer.

cheezydemon3 said:

Salt may not hinder yeast, but it may taste like **** in beer.

Click to expand...

A sprinkle of salt seems to help your standard BMC.

I brewed another batch just a little while ago. The bottles are conditioning now and I'll let you all know in a few weeks.

how did this turn out?

DrunkleJon said:

Use a maild coarse salt/Brown sugar mix for rimming your glass maybe? or add the salt to secondary/prior to packaging?

Click to expand...

This was the first place my mind went as well. I'd go with this.

Sorry I forgot to let you folks know the results. The latest iteration of this porter worked very well. I got the salt just right--just 1.5 tsp at 10 minutes in the boil. Like a gose, the salt did not, in fact, inhibit the fermentation, and it blended with the dark malts really nicely. There was actually a peanut butter flavor that came through, likely due to the salinity/brine flavor melding with the chocolate undertones. It's great.

This actual beer was not bad, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I think I need to make it stronger ABV-wise, and beef up the malty backbone. I dont like chewy porters, but I dont like them thin, either, and the salinity, while balanced this time, came through a little too strongly due to the thin malt. This has the potential to be a rather excellent peanut butter porter, or something like that.

Bottom Line: 1.5 tsp salt in the boil for 5 gallons.

So what do you think changed that made it taste ok on the second round? Did you change yeast, too, or just the amount and time in the boil for the salt?

I'm definitely going to have to try your recipe out. I love everything salted caramel!