It's hard for me to explain this, but I will try my best to explain the problem.
I've brewed about 5 batches of beer now. Except for a wheat beer I only made a gallon of, my beers all seem to have one pervasive flavor, despite their varied recipes. The only way I can explain the taste is to refer to two commercial brews with a similar flavor: New Belgium's Abbey (a Belgian Dubbel), and New Belgium's Trippel (a Belgian Trippel). It's been a while since trying them, but the one bottle of each which I tried seemed to have a similar taste to them.
I don't usually take a taste of my brews until bottling, but at that point the flavor has certainly been present. It lasts for quite a while, although I've noticed (in beers which have been aging for at least 3 months) that it tends to perhaps mellow out into a flavor I can only describe as bitter.
I experienced it first in my first brew, an Irish Red kit; when I took it into the brewshop, they thought it tasted quite green, and suggested I keep my beers in secondary much longer next time (for my first attempt, I was in secondary for about 2.5 weeks). My latest brew (Cheesefood's Caramel cream ale) was in secondary for about 6 weeks. It's since been bottled for about a month, but I still can't taste anything except for this off-flavor.
I know it's hard to diagnose without a bottle or a view into my brewing style, but do any of you have any ideas? I suppose it's possible it's an infection, although I try to be rather stringent with my cleaning with bleach and one-step (not at the same time, of course). Are there any other ideas?
Thanks a ton for all the help, guys... I've learned so much about brewing from these forums, and now I just need to get past this recurring problem so I can put all the knowledge to use.
I've brewed about 5 batches of beer now. Except for a wheat beer I only made a gallon of, my beers all seem to have one pervasive flavor, despite their varied recipes. The only way I can explain the taste is to refer to two commercial brews with a similar flavor: New Belgium's Abbey (a Belgian Dubbel), and New Belgium's Trippel (a Belgian Trippel). It's been a while since trying them, but the one bottle of each which I tried seemed to have a similar taste to them.
I don't usually take a taste of my brews until bottling, but at that point the flavor has certainly been present. It lasts for quite a while, although I've noticed (in beers which have been aging for at least 3 months) that it tends to perhaps mellow out into a flavor I can only describe as bitter.
I experienced it first in my first brew, an Irish Red kit; when I took it into the brewshop, they thought it tasted quite green, and suggested I keep my beers in secondary much longer next time (for my first attempt, I was in secondary for about 2.5 weeks). My latest brew (Cheesefood's Caramel cream ale) was in secondary for about 6 weeks. It's since been bottled for about a month, but I still can't taste anything except for this off-flavor.
I know it's hard to diagnose without a bottle or a view into my brewing style, but do any of you have any ideas? I suppose it's possible it's an infection, although I try to be rather stringent with my cleaning with bleach and one-step (not at the same time, of course). Are there any other ideas?
Thanks a ton for all the help, guys... I've learned so much about brewing from these forums, and now I just need to get past this recurring problem so I can put all the knowledge to use.