Slightly skunky.

Hey All,

Just cracked open my first home brew yesterday. It was a Cooper's IPA and although drinkable I found it to be under carbonated and had a slightly skunky flavor to it. Does that taste mellow out or disappear with age? I only let the bottles condition for about a week after bottling.

Cheers.

You want to leave those bottles for longer and then they will carbonate to the level they are supposed to. You should leave them somewhere that's about 70F for at least 2 or 3 weeks before trying one or they might be undercarbed.

As for the skunk flavor it's from the beer getting exposed to sunlight. Might this have happened? Hop flavor will fade with time but I'm not sure about the skunked aspect of the flavor.

If it's truely skunk, that's a chemical reaction between light (mostly UV) and compounds in the hops that literally produce sulpher compounds. No fixing it is that's the problem. Would you suspect the beers were exposed to sunlight?

Otherwise, there aren't really any other common off flavors that are sulphery.

Can you describe the flavor a bit more? How long was it between brew day and the day you sampled this beer? It may just not be done yet.

Sulfur compounds are common during fermentation but they tend to blow off quickly with age. The off-flavor skunk is usually reserved for UV exposure but maybe what you're getting is more like the brimstone/rotten egg/rhino fart. Primary considerations are yeast health and temperature.

If this persists through an inordinate amount of time, I've heard of folks gassing off their bottles a tad to get rid of compounds in the head space. I can't corroborate since I purge in kegs (much easier), so while I'm not suggesting you do this, maybe look into it.

Update. Waited a few more days and cracked another beer. Skunk flavor is definitely disappearing and I now have a proper head on the beer. Looks like I just needed to wait it out. That batch was not exposed to any sunlight as far as I know.

yes just wait it out... yeast can and will clean up off flavors with time depending on what they are