Things were going so well....

I have been extract brewing for two years now. My last 3 or 4 brews have turned out really good. So I wanted to step it up. Built a keezer. Works awesome. Then I wanted to do full volume boils. And here my troubles began. My first full volume was a pumpkin ale. It turned out thin with a strange flavor. Don't ask what flavor cause I can't really describe it. I did the 60 min boil with lid on the turkey fryer and steeped in full volume. Is that what caused the problems?

Next was a honey kolsch. Left the lid off. No grains. Used LME. Not really sure what would have gone wrong here. Not a good flavor.

I'm getting so frustrated!

Boil with the lid off. Always. That gives the DMS a chance to escape. With the lid on, it attaches to the water droplets under the lid and drops back into the wort. Not good.

You'll have to give us some more info about your pitching and fermentation practices and what water you use in order to zero in on what the issue may be.

You should post info on your process and equipment.

Reading through posts, you should leave the lid off so the nasties can boil off. Folks with more experience will probably give more insight.

Bill

I know you say you can't describe the off flavor but you're going to have to try if you want some help. You can read about off flavors here and here and see if you can come up with something.

As others said, it will help if you post your whole process, recipe, gravities, fermentation and packaging schedule, temps, etc.

I guess I should have included more info. I was just ranting I guess.

The pumpkin ale has a buttery flavor to it and seems very thin. I used my new aluminum fryer for it. Did boil water before to oxidize. I hit the OG and FG like the instructions said. 2 weeks in bucket. Fermentation temps between 68-72 I believe based on house temp. Then kegged and carbed. Let it sit for 2 weeks.

Kolsch went just like instructions said and like pumpkin ale. Tastes slightly sour and bitter both.

Okay well buttery sounds like diacetyl which is likely a fermentation issue. If you are only monitoring house temps then we don't know your fermentation temps but likely too high. What yeast? As for thin, what was the recipe and OG/FG numbers?

bb40bball said:

I guess I should have included more info. I was just ranting I guess.

The pumpkin ale has a buttery flavor to it and seems very thin. I used my new aluminum fryer for it. Did boil water before to oxidize. I hit the OG and FG like the instructions said. 2 weeks in bucket. Fermentation temps between 68-72 I believe based on house temp. Then kegged and carbed. Let it sit for 2 weeks.

Kolsch went just like instructions said and like pumpkin ale. Tastes slightly sour and bitter both.

Click to expand...

Buttery is usually diacetyl. What yeast did you use? What was your OG? you might have pulled it off too early.

Also keep in mind during primary fermentation, the temp in the carboy is many degrees higher than ambient, so if your house was at 70, in the carboy it was more like 78, which is very high for certain types of yeast.