Doctor_Wily

Recipes 

Greetings Everyone,

Hope you are all well. I am working to troubleshoot an "off" flavor in my most recent beer. I'll give you some history first though.


I brewed a brewers best summer ale back July 22, 2012 (thumbs up for record keeping!) Due to certain issues I didn't bottle this until about a week ago! This brew sat in primary the entire time.

I can hear it now: "Doctor Wily, why on earth did you let it sit that long?! zomg! rabble rabble internetz!" I know, I fail, sorry, lol.

ANYWAY....

I notice it has a apple-y/cidery flavor. Browsing through the troubleshooting guide by Palmer both seem to lend to the chances that the fermentation was done at too warm of temp and too young of a beer. Certainly possible as it was a pretty hot summer but it spent it's first few weeks of life sitting in the living room where I have a hardcore AC unit. The heat exposure would have happened after about 3 or so weeks.

I'm drinking one of the beers now (it's been about a week in the bottle) as I type this to get a good idea of the flavor. It's certainly a bit of a sour apple after taste and it's not *bad* per-say, just not what I was expecting; I'm sure somewhere along the line my process broke the flavor. I notice a slightly almost metallic smell as well.

It's absolutely palatable, I wont be tossing it or anything, and frankly, the one I'm drinking now is better than the one I had 2 days ago. I know with beer time cures most wounds but I want to make sure I am turning out the best beer I can.

I'm just curious for the sake of learning what may have happened here and I appreciate any help given.

TL;DR: I left my beer for a long time and now it tastes funny.

Thanks everyone who takes the time to read my ramblings!

Edit: for those who are interested, here's a photo!

__________________
Primary 1: EMPTY
Primary 2: Custom Cream Ale
Bottled:

• Brewers Best American Cream Ale
• Random Red Irish Red Ale
• Oatmeal Milk Stout

On Deck: Unknown...
~~Updated Dec 10, 2012~~

twistr25

Recipes 

Both of those flavors can be explained to an extent by being green, another week or two and you should be much better. I am curious how you got so much carbonation after a week. Did you add more yeast? I can't imagine the original was all that active.
Letting sit that long on a yeast cake can impart some off flavors as well, but if it's decent right now, some bottle conditioning should help make it better.

__________________
____________________
Primary: Nothing
Bottled: Dark Skies Black IPA, Sunrise Honey Rye Pale Ale, Yooper's Oatmeal Stout
Kegs: None owned....yet
Future: Raining Hops and Dogs IPA
Previous: Copper Coil Irish Red Ale, Boxer Brown Ale, Out of Your Gourd Pumpkin Ale

Doctor_Wily

Recipes 

No sir, nothing fancy for carbonation. Just did my priming sure and away she went. :-)

I'd use the phrase "all right" to describe it, which (in my head anyway) is less quality than decent, lol. Again, I'll certainly drink it, it's not "omg puke throw it out" bad or anything, just kinda not a "clean" enough flavor I guess.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it!

__________________
Primary 1: EMPTY
Primary 2: Custom Cream Ale
Bottled:

• Brewers Best American Cream Ale
• Random Red Irish Red Ale
• Oatmeal Milk Stout

On Deck: Unknown...
~~Updated Dec 10, 2012~~

DrummerBoySeth

Recipes 

I doubt that the long primary is the cause of the off-flavor. I suspect that the fact that it has only been bottled one week is the biggest contributor to the strange taste. I say try it again in 2 weeks and let us know how it is then!

__________________
"Give a man a beer, and he will waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and he will waste a lifetime!" Bill Owen

Mojzis

Recipes 

One week isn't enough. The apple taste like twist said is from being green. Try again in 2 weeks and I bet you will notice its gone and your beer tastes great. Good luck, wait it out, relax

cooper

Recipes 

I've forgotten about a Black IPA in the secondary for 7 months and it turned out great after I bottled it. The main thing is it didnt get an infection and it was sitting in a 5 gal carboy with about an inch head space. I doubt I could have bottled it if it had hair growing on it though.

Doctor_Wily

Recipes 

after about 3.5 weeks the flavor has mellowed but is certainly still apparent. SWMBO described it as "gross apple juice" lol. I can certainly see where it's improved but I still have the sour-y aftertaste.

Cheers!

__________________
Primary 1: EMPTY
Primary 2: Custom Cream Ale
Bottled:

• Brewers Best American Cream Ale
• Random Red Irish Red Ale
• Oatmeal Milk Stout

On Deck: Unknown...
~~Updated Dec 10, 2012~~

Mojzis

Recipes 

Possibly an infection or too much sugar would be my guess.

estricklin

Recipes 

I absolutely think the cause of the off flavor can be contributed to the long sit in the primary. That recipe had a decent hopping I would imagine, and hops don't stand up to the test of time.

Even more so, I think the lack of temperature control played the biggest factor.

Pretty awesome how you bottled, didn't add yeast and BAM after a week it is carbed. I never add yeast at bottling time, even with my lagers, and most of my beers are carbed after a week.

I've made some pretty nasty beers before and haven't had much luck with off flavors disappearing after it's bottled, but your mileage may vary.

Doctor_Wily

Recipes 

I'm chocking it up to temp control as well I think. All in all this beer was kind of a fail (except I've drank 12 of em already, big fail, right?) Temp control and the extended sit.

Here's the ingredients if anyone is interested from brewers best:

Ingredients
3.3 lb. Pilsen LME
1 lb. Wheat DME
1 lb. Pilsen DME
SPICE PACK
SPECIALTY GRAINS
8 oz. Carapils
HOPS
.5 oz. Bittering
.25 oz. Flavoring
.25 oz. Aroma
YEAST
1 Sachet

__________________
Primary 1: EMPTY
Primary 2: Custom Cream Ale
Bottled:

• Brewers Best American Cream Ale
• Random Red Irish Red Ale
• Oatmeal Milk Stout

On Deck: Unknown...
~~Updated Dec 10, 2012~~