New batch - Tastes old/stale?

I brewed the Northern Brewer Rye Pale Ale extract kit about a month ago and tapped it this Friday. I followed the instructions as normal. The only changes I made were a full 1 oz of Palisade at 5 minutes and dry hopped with 2 oz of Palisade.

I let sit in primary for 2 weeks and dry hopped for 1 week.

I force carbed in keg for 1 week @ 12 psi and 41 degrees.

Upon tasting, I was thrown by how earthy it was, almost vegetal and almost stale tasting.

I am trying to figure about what's up. HAs anyone here brewed this or have some feedback on this?

Thanks,

Joe

As a starting point, maybe it was the extra Palisade that imparted those flavors? I know many hops are earthy and vegetal, especially when dry hopped. As for the general staleness, did you note the freshness on the ingredients? These are only guesses!

Sorry to double up but I should also mention hat your processes seem fine.

I was also betting on it being on the Palisade dry hop.

It was 3 week in primary with the last week being the dry hop. Maybe I should have let it sit one more week.

I am going away for a couple of days, so maybe the extra time will let everything calm down and settle.

As for the freshness of ingredients, I would have imagined that the extract from Northern Brewer would be pretty fresh as the Rye extract is a new product. The dry hops were purchased from my LHBS and they were fresh.

I don't usually buy kits anymore due to the freshness fear, and build mine starting with extra light DME and building from there. But the Rye kit seemed too appealing.

But in the end, I made it and I will drink it.

One step I left out of the original post was when I tapped the keg, I thought the dip tube got clogged and purged the keg buy putting the CO2 on the "out" post to unclog it, which totally upset the sediment at the bottom. I hope by the time I get back, it has settled. That to may be a factor.

Thanks for the heads up.

Joe

Yeah just give it time to mellow. I once dry hopped with Kent Goldings and Fuggle and I am sure I will not use Fuggle again for that purpose.

I let the beer sit from Sunday until now. Definitely not a clear beer but it is better. Most of the hops have cleared out but I am still getting a couple of floaties. Still earthy but not as pronounced. I would definitely choose a different variety of dry hop if I were to brew this again.

Thanks for the update! Really, I think you did a solid thing by figuring this out now. Imagine learning this lesson on a much more precious beer to be! But I think that the more time you give it, the more it will mellow out. Plus, some people really dig earth flavors!

I agree. This will mellow out with some time (probably will be good when the keg kicks.)

I had an objective person taste it this evening. He agreed, earthy but not bad.

His only critique....that it was a bit under carbonated (serving pressure around 10 psi, so I turned it up a little.)

This is not the best or the worst beer I have made, but definitely palatable.

I will drink it because I made it. Having beers in the pipeline is a great motivator.


Thanks everyone for the advice.