Nose is off

This is a recipe I've made a few times. Most of my beer is a lot hoppier, but I'd like to have an under 5% lawnmower beer for the summer. The last two times I've made it the nose has been off. It tastes good and doesn't smell bad, it just doesn't smell like beer.

The first time it was off I "fixed it" by dry hopping with some spare Galena hops and it was pretty drinkable. This last time I added some additional Saaz as a dry hop (results TBD, it's been under two days).

I'm pretty sure it's not a sanitation issue, the beer tastes good. A friend suggested the off nose might be because my mash is too thin and there are no dark malts to cover the imperfection.

15 lbs Pilsner
1 lbs Carafoam
1 lbs Munich 20L
3.00 oz Saaz 60.0 min
2.00 oz Saaz 30.0 min
2.00 tsp Irish Moss 10.0 min
2.00 oz Saaz 10.0 min
US05

Mash 9 gal @ 155ish
Sparge with whatever is needed to bring boil vol to 13 gal
Boil 60 min
Ferment at 60-62 degrees.

So what does it smell like?

chumpsteak said:

So what does it smell like?

Click to expand...

I wish I could describe it better. Mostly it doesn't smell like much of anything, the closest I can describe it is cardboard. Maybe the problem is I'm too used to highly hopped beer.

Could be. In my experience highly hopped beers cover up a lot of flaws with aroma and hop flavor and then after a while the hop profile fades and the flaws start to shine through. Could be you have an issue in your process that you haven't noticed before due to usually having a strong hop presence. Might be time to look closer at your process. Water profile, chlorine, ferm temps, etc.

Also, without knowing how old the beer you're talking about is, it could just be green. I recently made a brown porter that smelled like wet dog to me for the first 3 weeks it was in the keg. Now it smells great.

chumpsteak said:

Could be. In my experience highly hopped beers cover up a lot of flaws with aroma and hop flavor and then after a while the hop profile fades and the flaws start to shine through. Could be you have an issue in your process that you haven't noticed before due to usually having a strong hop presence. Might be time to look closer at your process. Water profile, chlorine, ferm temps, etc.

Also, without knowing how old the beer you're talking about is, it could just be green. I recently made a brown porter that smelled like wet dog to me for the first 3 weeks it was in the keg. Now it smells great.

Click to expand...

Hops, is there anything they can't do?

Beer might be green. It's only a few weeks out of the fermenter. I'm pretty comfortable with the fermentation temp, I use a freezer with a two stage controller, temps range from 60 - 62, I pitch at 75 (lowest I can get).

Water: I'm living somewhere new and the water out of the tap isn't what I'm used to. I do run it through a charcoal filter which makes it drinkable. I haven't run a water analysis.

Pilsner malt...60 min boil...dms? Maybe a 90 minute boil is in order?

inthesound said:

Pilsner malt...60 min boil...dms? Maybe a 90 minute boil is in order?

Click to expand...

I thought DMS and boiled w/o a lid, but I'll give a 90 min boil a try.

BJCP Beer Faults

Take a look at the link and look under oxidized. A recipe like you brewed will expose any and all problems with techniques.

Cardboard is a classic descriptor for oxidation in a beer.

Yep, what Wayne1 said. Cardboard and a muted aroma are classic signs of oxidation.

DMS usually smells like cooked corn and is a common pilsner aroma. A 90 minute boil will help reduce DMS by boiling off the precursors that could later form DMS.

Wayne1 said:

BJCP Beer Faults

Take a look at the link and look under oxidized. A recipe like you brewed will expose any and all problems with techniques.

Cardboard is a classic descriptor for oxidation in a beer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. After walking around with a snifter of beer and sniffing cardboard boxes (my wife thinks I'm going nuts) I'm going to say it's not cardboard.

I'm leaning towards the problem being the heavy use of pilsner malt and my mash/sparge. I'm going to substitute 50% two row next time and see what happens. For the existing batch, dry hopping to the rescue.

I like the 90 minute idea, and move the 10 minute hop addition to flame out