Green olive taste?

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edmanster

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I have had on two occasions tasting different friends brews and have noticed a green olive taste.. One was a mead wich I guess he used hops in and the other was a honey moon ale.. I can't tell what is causing that taste but I can't drink it.. Any idea what would cause a green olive taste?
 
wow...umm, the only thing I can think of is they were turning to vinegar, since green olives are packed in some kind of 'pickling juice' that has that sour vinegary twang to it.

I'm not enough of a hop enthusiast to say if any hop variaties have a green olive flavor/aroma.

It might just be you :)
 
I have had on two occasions tasting different friends brews and have noticed a green olive taste.. One was a mead wich I guess he used hops in and the other was a honey moon ale.. I can't tell what is causing that taste but I can't drink it.. Any idea what would cause a green olive taste?

I have experienced this in a beer once. I attributed it to some potentially old or stale hops, but I honestly don't know if that was really it. It was not a heavily hopped beer at all though.
 
I was thinking a reaction between the honey and the hops... I'm glad someone else has experienced it because it was only me tasting it and others didn't unless I said it has a green olive bite before they tasted it..
 
I made a berliner weisse by inoculating with grain once and noticed a similar aroma. Not trying to sound the alarm, but after a lot of searching I concluded it to be a product of acetobacter in my case. If you figure that happened to you I wouldn't freak too bad, just clean all of you gear really well, replace tubing and other less expensive items and move on.
 
this was last week at my bowling league.. i have a couple friends that homebrew and we all bring a little to sample(hush hush no brown bagging) and he had a honey moon that just tasted like green olives and i remember having another friends mead that had the same pungent smell and tast and the only thing i can link between the two are hops and honey.. i believe he used 3# honey in the honey moon.. i just hate not liking someones homebrew..
 
My first crack at AG had an olive taste to it... very noticeable. Myself and a couple buddies got drunk in the process of brewing and my one friend took some leftover nugget I had from a month prior (ziplock bag) and chucked about an ounce in at 60 minutes... I was assuming that it was the nugget mixed w/ cascade that caused the smell and the taste, but maybe it is because the hops were stale. I still have a bunch of bottles left, because I honestly don't care for it. It was Edwart's Haus pale ale recipe btw.
 
I've found a green olive taste in some commercial white wines, usually chardonnays that were mild on the mushroom side of the flavor, I always attributed it to mild oxidation.
Although old/stale hops could also be a cause, I have noticed that when I leave some sitting around too long with a poor seal they can occasionally give off a mild olive aroma.
 
I have an amber with very strong olive flavors... after chatting with the 'experts' at the home brew store, and doing a little internet reading, we're thinking the chlorine in our water is what caused it. Our local municipality uses higher chlorine in the winter months, and I do not (never have) pre-boiled the water. There is also a chance we have a bacteria, but my sanitation is pretty by-the-book. I have a couple of other beers in fermentation, so we'll see what happens.
 
I still never found out what caused that olive flavor, but I'm leaning towards oxidation as the last one I had was like chewing on a box... the judges of a comp.weren't sure what it was either.....
 
Yeah, I've come across a couple more from friends that have had this sh!ty green olive taste... The last one was a ipa I couldn't swallow wich is weird because you would think a ipa can hide alot of flaws!!
 
I Figured it out!!! For the short answer, scroll to the bottom. For the brave of heart...

I had 3 batches that tasted / smelled like green olives to varying degrees.

I ruled out the yeast. (I used the same yeast harvested from previous batches and did NOT get the taste or smell in a subsequent batch. It was Dennys Favorite FWIW)

I realized that I used the same hops in all of them (I have a big bag of hops. Perhaps they've gone a bit stale/old) Before you throw me under the bus for using stale hops... I'm only using them for bittering hops and in very small portions. (here they are fwiw https://ychhops.com/varieties/herkules)

Batch1; Scotch ale - just a hint of green olive smell/taste in some bottles. Very faint. Only a few could distinguish the smell.

Batch2; Deception Stout - BRUTAL! Pretty much drainpour.

Batch3; Deception Stout - Got a bottle or 2 that were kind of bad. But other bottles are perfectly fine. ??? That's weird


Then I finally put it all together.
I brew in an apartment. I have a pantry that I use to store my beer on the shelves. I also will occasionally put a carboy in there to finish conditioning.
Totally didn't think about the fact that the lightbulb was a compact flourescent because it's a pantry... the light is only on for like... a second... unless you forget it on for days at a time :mad:

Batch 2 was left in the pantry for 2 weeks with that light being on for long stretches.

Batch 3 was not - HOWEVER - the bottles that were on the front part of the shelf were light-struck, whereas the bottles in boxes or near the back were unaffected. Hence, some bottles were affected, and others were not.

I've switched to a conventional bulb and make sure to always turn it off. I also don't let my carboys in there anymore.

Conclusion;
It was likely a combination of old hops being lightstruck.
 
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