I need help - My Irish Red Ale Taste bad

Bubble-n-Foam · 04-17-2008, 10:14 PM

I'm new to homebrewing. My first batch just finished. It's an Irish Red Ale, but it taste like something is wrong with it. I just don't know what.

Here is the recipe I used:

Malt Extract: 6lbs Gold LME
Specialty Grain: 12 oz Carmel 40, 2 oz Special B, 2 oz Roasted Barley
Hops: 1 oz Cascade (aroma), 1 oz German Tradition (bittering)
Yeast: 1 package dry yeast

Heres what I did:

-First I steeped the grains. I didn't boil them, but I didn't know the exact steeping temp. I did that for 20 mins.

-Then I started the boil, added the malt, and brang it back to a boil.

-As soon as it started boiling again, I added the German Tradition Hops

-After 60 min, I added the Cascade.

-10 min later, I took off heat and let cool.

- I filtered as much as the hops out as I could with a strainer

-I added yeast and let it ferment in a plastic bucket for 2 weeks

-I added priming sugar and bottled it.

-I let it sit in the bottles for 2 weeks.

So now that you know what I did, maybe you could help me out.

I was trying to brew a smooth beer, similar to smithwicks, but what i got was a beer that just doesn't taste right. I'm no beer expert, so i don't know how to discribe it. It seems harsh not smooth. Taste bland? is that from the hops?

I brainstormed what i thought it might be... Could it be one of these?:
- It wasn't aged long enough?
- I used water right out of my facet (city water) (too many minerals, or chlorine?)
- I didn't use moss finishing (too much suspended protein?)
- I may have added the yeast when the mash was too warm (could that effect it?)
- I used dry yeast (would liquid yeast really make that much of a difference?)
- I didn't hydrate the dry yeast, i just poured it in the mash once it cooled down
- I only had one fermenter, so no second fermentation

Or is the bad taste from something else? Or is this what "real homebrew" is suppose to taste like?

I just need some anwsers, so my next batch turns out more to my likeing

Thanks

malkore · 04-17-2008, 10:46 PM

1. its only 2 weeks old - very green beer still. it needs time to age.

2. the hop choices don't look right for an Irish red ale (american hops and german hops....you need English hops)

Give it time, and if you crafted your own recipe, stick to a pre-made recipe for the next few batches until you have enough experience to know what different ingredients (or hop substitutions due to the hop shortage) are going to do to the end product.

**Nurmey** · 04-17-2008, 10:48 PM

It could be your water but my first suspect is not aged long enough. It's only 4 weeks from brew so your talking about a really green beer. It will probably be good in another 3-4 weeks and great in another 6-8 weeks. I find green beer is usually too harsh for me to enjoy and tend to age mine a couple months or more before I really like them.

HOOTER · 04-17-2008, 10:52 PM

Give it a couple more weeks in bottles and then try another. Store it in a dark, room temp. environment and after time it should get much better. Lots of people here use dry yeast, tap water, and skip secondary and still produce great beer.

BTW, do you know what the wort temp. was when you pitched the yeast? I know ale yeast should be pitched around 65-75 degrees (depending on the specific yeast) but I'm not sure what effect this has on the finished product.

elkdog · 04-17-2008, 10:58 PM

If you steeped the grains above 170 F, you extracted tannins from them, which would give a harsh, astringent taste- make sure to have a thermometer in the pot next time, and aim for 155 when steeping.
As mentioned above, though, give it time. My third beer was a porter that I didn't like at all when I first tried it. A couple of months later, I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

**Bobby_M** · 04-18-2008, 01:07 AM

Just a couple things..

The word you're looking for is "wort" instead of "mash".

Some of the things that can be wrong:
Fermenting temps hanging over 70F for too long.
The beer is too young, wait 2 more weeks.
You also boiled your bittering hops for 70 minutes when I would think the recipe you were going for was 60 minutes. I understand you saw 60 minutes and 10 minutes hop additions but that 10 minute addition really occurs with 10 left in the original 60 minute boil. Just a little more bitter than intended.

Bubble-n-Foam · 04-18-2008, 06:27 AM

Well it looks like the majority of you think it's because it hasn't been aged long enough. What effects does aging the beer have? Why does the flavor of the beer change?

EvilTOJ · 04-18-2008, 12:41 PM

There's a very complex chemical process that is happening while the beer ages. Volatile chemicals break down into more benign ones, and longer protein chains settle out. What this also means is off flavors can disappear, along with hop aroma. I can't describe it better than that, but all I know is aging works.

**Revvy** · 04-18-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubble-n-Foam

Well it looks like the majority of you think it's because it hasn't been aged long enough. What effects does aging the beer have? Why does the flavor of the beer change?

Rather than re-invent the wheel and rewrite the explanation for the most common new brewer problem- Tasting a beer too early and panicking if it taste funky or is under/overcarbed, I'll refer you to this post.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html

and to this thread as well, http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/stone-cold-lead-pipe-lockd-n00b-advice-54362/ you'll understand then WHY the majority of us think the beer is still green.

Oh and welcome to your newest obsession, homebrewing!

**jezter6** · 04-18-2008, 01:02 PM

Also, did you take gravity readings? What was OG/FG for the brew? Did you top up with water or boil the whole 5 gallons? If you did top up at the end of boil, did you mix well?