What'd I do wrong?!??

So, I'm not exactly a beginner.. I've brewed 4 extract kits from Brewer's Best previously and they've all turned out excellent!

Tonight I was transferring my 5th brew, a Kolsch kit, from my secondary to my bottling bucket and gave it a quick taste test as I usually do.

I nearly fell over, it was so aweful!!! It had a slight "bread" smell to it and a really pungent taste, I don't know how else to describe it. I did everything the same as I had previously, sanitized everything.. It fermented just fine.. but I did also notice it didn't smell "quite right" when I transferred it from my primary to secondary about 1.5 wks ago.

So, I'm really bummed.. any idea what happened??

Can you describe the taste more?

What was your process? The more info you can give, the more answers we can give.

You didn't use bread yeast did you?

sulfury, perhaps?

maxam said:

Can you describe the taste more?

What was your process? The more info you can give, the more answers we can give.

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I brewed it and put it in my primary for about 5 days. Then transferred it to my Better Bottle (secondary) and left there for almost 2 weeks now. Then just now was about to bottle.

Come to think about it, the only think I may have done wrong this time was I may not have gotten the temperature down low enough before i pitched the yeast, my digital thermometer was acting up. I thought it was at least close and by the time I added the other 2.5g of room temperature water it'd be fine. It had soaked in ice for like 30-45 mins.

Anyways, the smell and taste is a bit hard to describe. Sort of sour, almost? At first it hit my mouth it was OK, then within a second, I was hit with this kind of rotten flavor.

younghusband said:

You didn't use bread yeast did you?

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Nope used the regular ale yeast in the kit.

JLem said:

sulfury, perhaps?

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No it was not sulfury, I definitely would have recognized that flavor.

....

EDIT: I don't know.. perhaps a little sulfury... not overpowering though, mostly sour/rotten...

Bottle it and see what happens

hillybilly said:

Bottle it and see what happens

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no way.. there's no coming back from that. I tried to fool myself that it was OK when I transferred it the first time, I'm not going to try that again.

I would really think about bottling it. Kolsch yeast can throw some funky flavors. It might not have been a bad idea to leave it in the primary for 3 or 4 weeks, many in here don't bother to secondary unless dry hopping or adding fruit.

whitehause said:

I would really think about bottling it. Kolsch yeast can throw some funky flavors. It might not have been a bad idea to leave it in the primary for 3 or 4 weeks, many in here don't bother to secondary unless dry hopping or adding fruit.

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I'll keep that in mind. Should I use my better bottle as a primary or did I just waste $30 on that?

Funky flavors is one thing, but I had to spit this stuff out. I gave it a second try and nearly gagged.

Bottle it and wait at least 3 weeks. It is sometimes amazing how much a beer will change in that time.

Besides you have already spent the majority on the kit. Now it will only cost your time, some priming sugar and some caps.

There is a sticky somewhere in this forum about not giving up on your beer. A lot of lost cases turned out to be fine with time.

nullvalue said:

Funky flavors is one thing, but I had to spit this stuff out. I gave it a second try and nearly gagged.

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Might be infected if it was that bad. You mentioned sour earlier. Perhaps you've got some Lacto in there. If you can't stomach it, there's little sense in bottling it right now. I might leave it alone for right now and see what happens in another week or two. Time does do wonders for a beer, but if you had to spit it out...

I guess I'll bottle a few and put them somewhere in my basement for a few months from now and try again