What am I tasting? - Page 2

ifishsum · 08-14-2009, 06:36 PM

Put it away for 2 or 3 weeks and then taste it again - if it's a vinegar (aceto) infection it will definitely get worse in that time, but chances are good that it's just a bit green. I had a recent batch have that same slightly sour flavor but it's since aged out very nicely. I did have one infected batch last year with the same flavor at bottling, but after 3 weeks it was almost pure vinegar.

BrokenBrew · 08-14-2009, 06:45 PM

Here's one I've had lots of experience with lately.

I'm guessing that the taste is fusel alcohol. I was regularly fermenting at about 75 (using WL Calif. Ale), and thought what I was tasting was extract twang. It wasn't. I went to all-grain and it actually got worse. Coincidentally, summer hit just then, and I was fermenting more like 80.

Did you measure temp from the fermometer on the outside of the fermentor, was that ambient room temp, or did you have a temp probe in the wort? If any but the last, you probably fermented 5-10 degrees higher than the 80 you mentioned.

Do a search on fermentation temps. I thought I was the only one until I started doing some research. These threads come up a couple times a day this time of year.

eightbt · 08-15-2009, 01:18 AM

Okay, well I guess definitely not "malty". I'm still a little confused as to what malty taste like, since it can't be sweet. I mean, all the sugar is fermented out, right?

Well, here are more details: It sat in the fermenter for 1 week, then I bottled. The taste has actually got better between week 1, and 2. But from week 2 and now (4) it hasn't improved much.

I kinda left out green beer as a possibility because my first batch didn't taste like this at all.

I wish I could control my ferm temps better, but my mini-fridge is too small.

BillTheSlink · 08-15-2009, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eightbt

I wish I could control my ferm temps better, but my mini-fridge is too small.

Go to Wal Mart (I hate to go to those SOBs, but they are the only place I've seen them), go back to the isle where they keep the laundry tubs, and buy these huge solid plastic tubs withe rope handles. Put your filled carboy in it, put water in there and daily put in a block or two of those blue ice box ice cubes. Cover carboy with a tee shirt and point a box fan at it. Here's a picture of one (never mind all the pile of junk behind it. I am looking for a place to put it all. Most of it is brew stuff)

For scale that's a six and 1/2 gal glass and upside down is a 5 and 1/2 gal Better Bottle carboy airing out. Inside the tub is grain for a Little Kings clone from Austin Home Brew.