What HAPPENED??

Brewed an all grain clone of Dales Pale Ale recently...gravity came out just where I wanted it. Forgot to use Irish Moss but oh well.

Fermented at around 65 and then racked to secondary after about a week. Tasted great. Kept in secondary for about 2 weeks and then racked to keg. Tasted freakin awesome!

After about 5 days in the keg, the taste started to get kind of strange. All of the sudden it's tasting overly bitter. There isn't any more maltiness or floral hoppy taste in the finish....it's all bitter. Kind of like earwax. If you've never tasted earwax, then good for you. But yeah, it's like the balance between sweet and bitter got thrown way off all of the sudden.

Any ideas what the heck the problem could be?? I've been kegging my beer for a few months now and I've never had a sanitation issue...I'm pretty thorough.

I used 1056 yeast for this beer...and I've had problems EVERY time I've used this strain...some way or another, the beer comes out too dry. I watched my mash temps this time (keeping them UP and using a calibrated thermometer) and thought I was successful, based on the fantastic taste and steady FG of the beer going IN to the keg. In my mind, that eliminates the possibility of the yeast being the problem...

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

How much carbonation is in there? Is it overcarbed?

I've never had Dales or earwax. The 1056 types of yeast are pretty clean.

Only 1 week on the yeast....

carnevoodoo said:

How much carbonation is in there? Is it overcarbed?

Click to expand...

My tank is at 10psi...so I doubt it's overcarbed. But either way, I swirl the beer around in the glass to shake out some of the carbonation and the bad taste is still there.

I had some strange flavors in my beer when I failed to pull the poppet valves out of the stands of my kegs and clean them thoroughly. When I first started kegging, they were so crammed in there that I just gave up on pulling them out and ran BLC through them. After a while I started noticing nasty bitter flavors in my beer that took me a long time to pin down. My beer got this taste right after I kegged, so I'm doubting this is your trouble, but it might be worth looking in to.

It'll be really easy to tell if this is your trouble. Just bleed off the pressure and taste some of the beer in the keg by ladling some out of the top and see if there is a difference between that and the stuff coming out of the tap. At the very least, it will tell you if the problem is somewhere in the beer line.

Other than that, I don't think oxidation can cause harsh bitter tastes, but what are your racking and kegging practices like?

The thread title makes me think of this song for some reason.

The couple of times I've had a beer taste good going into the bottle and then the way you described coming out, they've been infected. Losing the malt taste is a pretty bad sign.

It's easier to tell in bottles, because they start gushing.

Try it again in 2-3 weeks. Forced carbonation can give some odd flavors until the beer settles in.

david_42 said:

Try it again in 2-3 weeks. Forced carbonation can give some odd flavors until the beer settles in.

Click to expand...

That's good to know. My kegerator gets here today and I'll be force-carbing my first ever batch sometime this week.

I made a Ipa using the same yeast, and keged the beer. It had a nice favor, when I tapped it three weeks later, it had the same taste you describe.

Is it posible that Co2 can go bad?. I had the same tank of co2 for about a year, just wondering if it could be leading to the off taste?

What temp is your beer at. I've had a couple batches taste very bitter right out of the keg but got better after sIting at room temp for a little bit.

houndhome1 said:

Is it posible that Co2 can go bad?. I had the same tank of co2 for about a year, just wondering if it could be leading to the off taste?

Click to expand...

CO2 shouldn't be able to go bad; it's a stable compound. As long as you've got pure CO2 there shouldn't be any off-flavors from it.

Nyxator said:

I had some strange flavors in my beer when I failed to pull the poppet valves out of the stands of my kegs and clean them thoroughly. When I first started kegging, they were so crammed in there that I just gave up on pulling them out and ran BLC through them. After a while I started noticing nasty bitter flavors in my beer that took me a long time to pin down. My beer got this taste right after I kegged, so I'm doubting this is your trouble, but it might be worth looking in to.

It'll be really easy to tell if this is your trouble. Just bleed off the pressure and taste some of the beer in the keg by ladling some out of the top and see if there is a difference between that and the stuff coming out of the tap. At the very least, it will tell you if the problem is somewhere in the beer line.

Other than that, I don't think oxidation can cause harsh bitter tastes, but what are your racking and kegging practices like?

Click to expand...

I'll try ladling some out to taste but I feel like the beer line isn't the problem; I've not had this issue with beers that I brewed using other yeast strains. It's this 1056/001 that KEEPS giving me trouble. I've never had a successful batch with it. And I don't know if that's the problem here, but in looking for common denominator--seems a likely culprit.

My racking/kegging practices are sanitary to the point of being OCD.

krops13 said:

What temp is your beer at. I've had a couple batches taste very bitter right out of the keg but got better after sIting at room temp for a little bit.

Click to expand...

It's around 38 degrees F. I've used the same temp for all my beers; but those made with 1056/001 always seem to develop this horrible dry taste.

dogbar said:

The couple of times I've had a beer taste good going into the bottle and then the way you described coming out, they've been infected. Losing the malt taste is a pretty bad sign.

It's easier to tell in bottles, because they start gushing.

Click to expand...

Any way to know for sure if there's an infection? I'd be happy to test that theory if I knew how...?

david_42 said:

Try it again in 2-3 weeks. Forced carbonation can give some odd flavors until the beer settles in.

Click to expand...

I've never heard this. I'm not doubting you...in fact, I HOPE you're right. Do you experience any issues like this when using 1056/001 in particular with forced carbing?

houndhome1 said:

I made a Ipa using the same yeast, and keged the beer. It had a nice favor, when I tapped it three weeks later, it had the same taste you describe.

Is it posible that Co2 can go bad?. I had the same tank of co2 for about a year, just wondering if it could be leading to the off taste?

Click to expand...

Did you ever figure out what the problem was? I'd be very interested to hear if you did...or if you've had the same issue with other beers using this yeast. I've consistently had issues with this yeast. A large number of American Pale Ale's use it...and that's my favorite category of beer. But I've not been able to use it effectively. Drives me crazy because everyone says how fast/simple/clean this strain is but I can't get it to work for me.

i brewed an APA with this yeast and it was pretty bitter right out of the keg (after it had carbed for ~1 week) but after it settled in another week or so, it was right on.

android said:

i brewed an APA with this yeast and it was pretty bitter right out of the keg (after it had carbed for ~1 week) but after it settled in another week or so, it was right on.

Click to expand...

Interesting...hopefully that is the case with mine as well. Thanks for the input!