kryznic
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I brewed what was to be a session beer, a Creme Ale I got out of the BYO 250 Clone Recipes magazine. And it has a unpleasant bitterness that almost reminds me of a couple batches I made that got infected because of scratches in my bucket.
Well I bought a new bucket and ran a batch through, a coffee porter that was outstanding. Using the same bucket very careful not to scratch it I fermented this batch. Which only used about 3.5-4 lbs DME and I think 3.3 lbs LME and a maybe 2oz of hops. I also used 4 vanilla beans, scrapped and the skins in the boil. I don't have the recipe in front of me right now. It used a White Labs English Ale yeast (liquid). The fermentation was going within 24 hours and raged on for 3-4 days at which point I became too busy to bottle and it sat for about 3 weeks in the fermenter.
When I went to bottle it I could small this bitterness (I don't know how else to explain it) a kind of "astringent" smell? I am not sure if that is the right term. When I tasted the beer this bitterness was more prominent over the malt flavor as well as the vanilla and in my opinion was just a ruined beer. But since I have heard stories of brews making a miraculous turn for the better I bottled it anyway. It should be carbonated by next Wednesday.
I'm wondering what could have gone wrong here? My sanitization is very good, I am very anal and clean and take extra care not to scratch or damage anything. I did make one hop addition 10 or 15 minutes too early but I don't think it should "ruin" the beer. Maybe the yeast worked too fast?
Oh and one off topic question, if yeast eat all the sugars in a brew, how does it manage to stay sweet? Is it because there are sugars that are unfermentable?
Thanks!
I brewed what was to be a session beer, a Creme Ale I got out of the BYO 250 Clone Recipes magazine. And it has a unpleasant bitterness that almost reminds me of a couple batches I made that got infected because of scratches in my bucket.
Well I bought a new bucket and ran a batch through, a coffee porter that was outstanding. Using the same bucket very careful not to scratch it I fermented this batch. Which only used about 3.5-4 lbs DME and I think 3.3 lbs LME and a maybe 2oz of hops. I also used 4 vanilla beans, scrapped and the skins in the boil. I don't have the recipe in front of me right now. It used a White Labs English Ale yeast (liquid). The fermentation was going within 24 hours and raged on for 3-4 days at which point I became too busy to bottle and it sat for about 3 weeks in the fermenter.
When I went to bottle it I could small this bitterness (I don't know how else to explain it) a kind of "astringent" smell? I am not sure if that is the right term. When I tasted the beer this bitterness was more prominent over the malt flavor as well as the vanilla and in my opinion was just a ruined beer. But since I have heard stories of brews making a miraculous turn for the better I bottled it anyway. It should be carbonated by next Wednesday.
I'm wondering what could have gone wrong here? My sanitization is very good, I am very anal and clean and take extra care not to scratch or damage anything. I did make one hop addition 10 or 15 minutes too early but I don't think it should "ruin" the beer. Maybe the yeast worked too fast?
Oh and one off topic question, if yeast eat all the sugars in a brew, how does it manage to stay sweet? Is it because there are sugars that are unfermentable?
Thanks!