slothorentropy
Well-Known Member
I just posted this in Ed Wort's Oktoberfest recipe thread:
And after reading through all of the past hosannas and awesome pics in that thread and considering again a sample of what I just bottled, I have to say I'm pretty bummed. There were a *ton* of variables in this one that could have thrown things off, so many that trying to track down the specific culprits and correlating them to this thing's various insufficiencies is probably a fruitless exercise (though I'm generally glad I know what they are, I suppose). The hefe I brewed previous to this turned out borderline undrinkable, also very sharp, vegetal and sulfurous and just very unpleasant. Again, I know generally what the problems were there, as well. But it's still quite a bummer.
Last night I racked an ESB to secondary to settle out for a day or two before bottling, and my tasting sample was excellent. I'm incredibly excited for this beer to bottle condition and get into my fridge. It and the Rochefort 8 clone that's currently fermenting happily away in my closet are great consolation to me when I look at the ~4 cases of beer (the Oktoberfest and hefe) that I'll either drink grudgingly or not at all, never mind sharing it with friends and family. As I sip a beautifully-simple malt-forward 3-month-old IPA of my own devising, I find I'm capable of RDWHAHB, but only just. Without the promise of that stuff coming down the pipeline, I could see how I might be pretty down on myself and the hobby at this moment.
I haven't really experienced a ton of disappointment as a homebrewer up to this point. Partly the sharper sense of discouragement probably stems from the fact that I'm in a manic phase vis-a-vis beer lately, and have been reading, tasting, and brewing a lot. The more I learn, the more conscious about things I get, the harsher a critic I am of my own efforts. And I'm sure I'm not alone.
I'm curious to hear from other intermediate-to-advanced homebrewers who have had maybe some adverse experiences. What did you learn? Did it make you look at the hobby differently? Have you ever considered the amount of time & money you've spent on a batch (or in general) in juxtaposition to your finished product and just been profoundly discouraged? I love homebrewing and have made more than a few fantastic beers, but sometimes I think I'm at a point where the geekery and reading and actual process of brewing brings me more satisfaction than what ends up in my glass.
Well, bottled this today. Shooting for about 2.5 vols.
My batch had a slightly higher OG than I was shooting for (ended up at 1.069) and attenuated nicely down to 1.016. The taste I had a bottling was... okay. Very grain-forward, kind of sharp (ABV is around 7%). I get some diacetyl and maybe a bit of cooked veggie/DMS kind of stuff going on. Reasonably dry finish with a bit of hop bitterness. Pretty much nothing like what I imagine an Oktoberfest to be, but I'm expecting it'll be reasonably drinkable. This batch had a complex history--the temp got dropped too low immediately after pitching; repitched another Kolsch tube three days later, then fermented steadily at 65F for a week, followed by about 63F for ~20 days, cold crashed for 3. There was still a big frothy krausen on top when I popped the lid off but I'd hit gravity so decided to go ahead and bottle. Need to get this one through the pipeline, especially since I've got so much coming behind it.
And after reading through all of the past hosannas and awesome pics in that thread and considering again a sample of what I just bottled, I have to say I'm pretty bummed. There were a *ton* of variables in this one that could have thrown things off, so many that trying to track down the specific culprits and correlating them to this thing's various insufficiencies is probably a fruitless exercise (though I'm generally glad I know what they are, I suppose). The hefe I brewed previous to this turned out borderline undrinkable, also very sharp, vegetal and sulfurous and just very unpleasant. Again, I know generally what the problems were there, as well. But it's still quite a bummer.
Last night I racked an ESB to secondary to settle out for a day or two before bottling, and my tasting sample was excellent. I'm incredibly excited for this beer to bottle condition and get into my fridge. It and the Rochefort 8 clone that's currently fermenting happily away in my closet are great consolation to me when I look at the ~4 cases of beer (the Oktoberfest and hefe) that I'll either drink grudgingly or not at all, never mind sharing it with friends and family. As I sip a beautifully-simple malt-forward 3-month-old IPA of my own devising, I find I'm capable of RDWHAHB, but only just. Without the promise of that stuff coming down the pipeline, I could see how I might be pretty down on myself and the hobby at this moment.
I haven't really experienced a ton of disappointment as a homebrewer up to this point. Partly the sharper sense of discouragement probably stems from the fact that I'm in a manic phase vis-a-vis beer lately, and have been reading, tasting, and brewing a lot. The more I learn, the more conscious about things I get, the harsher a critic I am of my own efforts. And I'm sure I'm not alone.
I'm curious to hear from other intermediate-to-advanced homebrewers who have had maybe some adverse experiences. What did you learn? Did it make you look at the hobby differently? Have you ever considered the amount of time & money you've spent on a batch (or in general) in juxtaposition to your finished product and just been profoundly discouraged? I love homebrewing and have made more than a few fantastic beers, but sometimes I think I'm at a point where the geekery and reading and actual process of brewing brings me more satisfaction than what ends up in my glass.