Bad Taste

I just racked my second wheat beer (german hefeweizen) to secondary and gave it a little taste. It tasted a bit similar to my first (american wheat). However, it had a very bitter taste to it, it did not taste at all what I expected (smelled like a wheat beer though). It was only in the primary for a week but I was expecting a little better of a first sip. I couldn't event get myself to take a second one. Should I just chalk this up to green beer or should I be concerned?

I am planning on brewing my 3rd batch tonight which is why I am asking (Rogue IPA).

My friend made an off batch when he was 14. He used an old section of garden hosing as the siphon. 2 weeks later the batch tasted awful and had to be discarded. It was very transparent at the time that the batch was undrinkable (although my memory of this event is starting to fade). Using too much hops or boiling them for longer than necessary can lead to catastrophe. Just try and go about your business sparingly wrt how hard you boil those hops.

Let it mature and see how it turns out. If the harshness is from hops, it may mellow over time. I've made 3-4 beers that were very harsh after primary fermentation, but turned out better at bottling time and excellent after carbonating in the bottle!

Can you think of anything you may have done differently? Did you use any grains and, if so, what temperature did you steep and with how much water?

Rhoobarb said:

Can you think of anything you may have done differently? Did you use any grains and, if so, what temperature did you steep and with how much water?

Click to expand...

Everything was done according to the time instructions of the kit I got from morebeer. 60 minute boil. I over sanitized things (kept a spray bottle with starsan that I kept using anytime i got near the cooled wort). I pitched the first batch yeast at 82 - was a very short fermentation and the second batch at 76 - very violent fermentation.

The only problem i had was that in the secondarys both had lost the rubber stopper overnight due to issues with the rubber being wet and not wanting to go in right. I fixed that with different stoppers that don't have that problem anymore. I am not going to dump the batches just wanted to know what I should be prepared for.

I'd proceed as normal and not worry. It'll probably be fine!

Once, I brewed a 10 gallon batch with a friend of mine. We sanitized everything and put half the batch in one carboy to ferment, and the other half in another five gallon carboy. His carboy eneded up being fantastic beer. Mine had some type of bacteria in it that was a bit strange and sour tasting, but it wasn't hurl-inspiring. We brewed a light "summery" ale at the time. If it was more of a belgian style, the sourness might have even been decent.

I'm not contributing my story to get you to worry, but sometimes things just happen. Yours is probably fine, though. How bitter is bitter?

swh127 said:

I just racked my second wheat beer (german hefeweizen) to secondary and gave it a little taste. It tasted a bit similar to my first (american wheat). However, it had a very bitter taste to it, it did not taste at all what I expected (smelled like a wheat beer though). It was only in the primary for a week but I was expecting a little better of a first sip. I couldn't event get myself to take a second one. Should I just chalk this up to green beer or should I be concerned?

I am planning on brewing my 3rd batch tonight which is why I am asking (Rogue IPA).

Click to expand...

I'd chalk it up to green beer...if you look back about a month in this forum, there were a bunch of posts from newbs like myself saying essentially the same thing. I believe every one of us is now convinced we each created the best beer ever brewed.