I have been having this issue for a while now. On bottling day I taste my beer and it is fantastic. A week into bottle conditioning, I taste it again because I taste it all through the process, and it's still great (but flat of course). At 2 weeks into bottle conditioning I taste it and the flavor has DRASTICALLY changed. This change always happens at the 2-3 week mark. After that it stays constant, no better, no worse with extended aging. The weird thing is it ONLY happens with my hoppy pale beers. My porters taste great on bottling day and even better after a month.
My first thought was oxidation. So I spent a few hundred dollars on a fridge/kegging setup. I brewed a Mission St Pale Ale clone from the CYBI show. It tasted spot on cloned on kegging day. I flushed all the air out of the keg with C02 then slowly transferred without any splashing. Again, flat but tasty after a week, one of the best pale ales I've ever had. The dry hop aroma filled the air. After 2 weeks the carbonation was getting there, but the hop aroma and flavor were virtually non existent, and the other flavors tasted watered down. It tasted the opposite of "clean," not really musty, just a bit dirty, muddled, and thin.
My second thought was oxidation. So I went with 100% RO water (9 gallons) with 2 tsp CaCl and 2 tsp Gypsum. Same exact bland off flavor.
My third thought was sanitation. So I replaced all my hoses. Soaked EVERYTHING in PBW for a few hours. Rinsed everything obsessively and soaked everything in Star San for an hour or so. No improvement.
This is driving me crazy. Pale ales and IPAs are my favorite styles to drink, and after about 40 extract brews and 10 all-grain, I've yet to brew but one or two that were enjoyable. Every single porter, stout, belgian, or wheat beer I've made has been great though. Please help me figure this out!!!
My first thought was oxidation. So I spent a few hundred dollars on a fridge/kegging setup. I brewed a Mission St Pale Ale clone from the CYBI show. It tasted spot on cloned on kegging day. I flushed all the air out of the keg with C02 then slowly transferred without any splashing. Again, flat but tasty after a week, one of the best pale ales I've ever had. The dry hop aroma filled the air. After 2 weeks the carbonation was getting there, but the hop aroma and flavor were virtually non existent, and the other flavors tasted watered down. It tasted the opposite of "clean," not really musty, just a bit dirty, muddled, and thin.
My second thought was oxidation. So I went with 100% RO water (9 gallons) with 2 tsp CaCl and 2 tsp Gypsum. Same exact bland off flavor.
My third thought was sanitation. So I replaced all my hoses. Soaked EVERYTHING in PBW for a few hours. Rinsed everything obsessively and soaked everything in Star San for an hour or so. No improvement.
This is driving me crazy. Pale ales and IPAs are my favorite styles to drink, and after about 40 extract brews and 10 all-grain, I've yet to brew but one or two that were enjoyable. Every single porter, stout, belgian, or wheat beer I've made has been great though. Please help me figure this out!!!