kanzimonson
Well-Known Member
I just got a pumpkin ale on tap and everything about it is great except for this mildly unpleasant aftertaste. It's a little toasty and grainy, with a touch of maybe metallic (like freezer burn?), and some spiciness or even sourness like yeast bite. SWMBO, who has an incredible palate (but sometimes not the vocabulary to describe what she tastes), gave me the typical comment that makes me want to destroy all of my homebrewing equipment and go out with a murder-suicide: "It tastes like a homebrew! Why is it so sour?"
But she's right. It's a beautiful beer in all its complexity and myriad of flavors - it just has an aftertaste that really turns you off to the beer. Don't read too much into the fact that she used the word "sour"... I'm very confident it's not contaminated with something wild.
The thing is, I do a lot to eliminate yeast bite in my beers because I think I'm really sensitive to it. So I used a pretty flocculant yeast (WLP004 Irish Ale), used gelatin and crash cooled after fermentation, and I keg. The beer could be a little clearer, but it's not so cloudy that I worry about the yeast content.
It could be something related to the bitterness contributed by the spices too. I know the beer is young, but it still makes me wonder about the fact that SWMBO was able to correctly pin it as that flavor that plagues a lot of brewers no matter the age of the beer.
Recipe:
6gal
OG 1.069
FG 1.015
IBU ~20
10.4# Am two row
2# crystal 60
1.6# dark Munich
1# cpils
1# rolled oats
2 x 15oz canned pumpkin (in mash)
.6# whole cane sugar (at beginning of boil)
Mash 158* for ~45min
25g Amarillo/Centennial pellet blend - 60 min - 20IBU
1T cinnamon, 1t nutmeg, .5t allspice - 60 min
.5T cinnamon, .5t nutmeg, .5t allspice - 10 min
Pitched @ 67* with a large, stepped up starter of WLP004 Irish Ale. Was quite active at time of pitching and barely had any lag before the wort began fermenting.
Fermented at 67* for three days, then bumped to 69* for two days, then let free rise for two more days.
Added a gelatin solution and began crash cooling to ~40*. Sat like this for 4 days, then kegged today and quick-carbonated.
Dammit!!!!!!!
But she's right. It's a beautiful beer in all its complexity and myriad of flavors - it just has an aftertaste that really turns you off to the beer. Don't read too much into the fact that she used the word "sour"... I'm very confident it's not contaminated with something wild.
The thing is, I do a lot to eliminate yeast bite in my beers because I think I'm really sensitive to it. So I used a pretty flocculant yeast (WLP004 Irish Ale), used gelatin and crash cooled after fermentation, and I keg. The beer could be a little clearer, but it's not so cloudy that I worry about the yeast content.
It could be something related to the bitterness contributed by the spices too. I know the beer is young, but it still makes me wonder about the fact that SWMBO was able to correctly pin it as that flavor that plagues a lot of brewers no matter the age of the beer.
Recipe:
6gal
OG 1.069
FG 1.015
IBU ~20
10.4# Am two row
2# crystal 60
1.6# dark Munich
1# cpils
1# rolled oats
2 x 15oz canned pumpkin (in mash)
.6# whole cane sugar (at beginning of boil)
Mash 158* for ~45min
25g Amarillo/Centennial pellet blend - 60 min - 20IBU
1T cinnamon, 1t nutmeg, .5t allspice - 60 min
.5T cinnamon, .5t nutmeg, .5t allspice - 10 min
Pitched @ 67* with a large, stepped up starter of WLP004 Irish Ale. Was quite active at time of pitching and barely had any lag before the wort began fermenting.
Fermented at 67* for three days, then bumped to 69* for two days, then let free rise for two more days.
Added a gelatin solution and began crash cooling to ~40*. Sat like this for 4 days, then kegged today and quick-carbonated.
Dammit!!!!!!!