Quite possibly my first dumper.... Ideas to try before she becomes fertilizer?

Jamil's dark mild. Pitched with nottingham (not the right yeast choice, but lets move past that). This should be an approximately 3-4% ABV brew but I didn't measure OG or FG.
[FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial]Grain/Extract/Sugar[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] %[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Amount[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Name[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Origin[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Extract[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] SRM[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 74.1[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 5.00 lbs. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Pale Malt Halcyon[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Great Britain[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 1.027[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 3[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 7.4[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 0.50 lbs. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Chocolate Malt - Light[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Great Britain[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 1.002[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 200[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 7.4[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 0.50 lbs. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Crystal 120L[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] America[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 1.002[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 120[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 11.1[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 0.75 lbs. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Crystal 60L[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] America[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 1.004[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 60[/FONT]
Exract represented as SG.

[FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Hops[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Amount[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Name[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Form[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Alpha[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] IBU[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Boil Time[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 0.70 oz. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Goldings - E.K.[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] Pellet[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 5.00[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 17.2[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial] 60 min[/FONT]
Brewed up 5-24, kegged and chilled 6-8 (dates are approximate). Got really hot that week and had no temp control set up. Indoor "room" temps reached 85 - fermentation occured within enclosed closet - so ferment temps probably ranged between 80* and 90*

Now, the beer is... drinkable... kinda.... but not... good.

In the wife's words, it tastes "dirty". Kind of a hot alchohol mixed with a little over ripe unidentified fruit taste and smell. I'm fairly confident that this taste is purely because of heat and not sanitation procedures.

So... she had a primary of roughly 2 weeks and has been in a cold keg for roughly 2 weeks.

So here's my dillema: time heals all things, but milds are supposed to be drunk young. This thing needs aging of some sort to let the esters die down - at which point the "freshness" will be in question.

No worries - I now have several options for temperature control... just not sure what to do with THIS beer. Any ideas on what to do? (store warm, store cold XXX weeks.) I can taste that there's a good beer behind the nasty esters - but it's just not here...

If you have the space to keep it, you could try it. Nottingham fermented above about 72 degrees sure does taste nasty, though. If it was almost 90, I don't think it'll improve much.

I made a light beer, that had this funky but mild sharp taste. This was at 6 weeks in the bottle. It was drinkable, but certainly not a repeat offender. My visitors would hate me if I served them this beer.

However, after 10 weeks in the bottle, the wild funky taste disappeared. Smooth indeed. It's beer as intended.

More patience required.

I'll ditto YB. Hot alcohols don't age out, but if that isn't the problem, give it a chance.

Milds can be drunk young, but don't have to be.

I don't agree David...Hot alcohol tastes DO mellow sometimes with age...my 1.090 Belgian dark is a case in point...after 4 months it is finally losing that hot alcohol, rocket fuel taste and is mellowing nicely.

But sometimes what we think is one thing is STILL just green...

If you have the space, put the keg aside in room temp....and revisited it in a month...

We have proved on this thread Waaayyy too often the merits of patience...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

Since his target ABV is around 4%, I doubt his issue is due to high alcohol "heat". Fusel alcohols that were generated during high temp fermentation would be more likely culprits. Aging won't tame those or the esters that give the "over ripe" fruit smell. It may mellow a little, but those flavors are going to be there. Another issue is that if there are enough fusel alcohols, you could have headache beer.

+1 to the Reverend

Is there going to be enough yeast activity in kegged beer to oxidize fusel oils? I know that bottle conditioning or long term storage in a secondary fermenter can tame some of the heat in high OG beers.

Still, it is always better to set aside a beer that isn't quite right. Yeast is wonderful at correcting problems with our beer. Even if it takes them a while to do it.

Keep it around for several weeks more before you think about dumping it. Plus, you can always just serve it ICE COLD to mellow down the flavors. Like 33 F / hurt-your-teeth cold. That'll tame those flavors down a bit.

Mkay - just needed encouragement to keep it. I'll pull the keg and put her in the fermentation closet. I don't have high hopes, but I guess it's worth seeing if she gets better...

*Edit: Rev- I have read the thread referenced.. which is why the OP mentioned time heals all ;-) But most beers that suck are higher alchohol beers...

curtis97322 said:

Mkay - just needed encouragement to keep it. I'll pull the keg and put her in the fermentation closet. I don't have high hopes, but I guess it's worth seeing if she gets better...

*Edit: Rev- I have read the thread referenced.. which is why the OP mentioned time heals all ;-) But most beers that suck are higher alchohol beers...

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But you never know, until you actually try, right?

Yessir.

I'll report back in a couple weeks. May even toss her in a spot where I'll forget about the beer. I know it'll never be GREAT but It'd be great if this aged out to... drinkable...

Revvy said:

But you never know, until you actually try, right?

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So I didn't report back a couple weeks later. I didn't report back a couple months later. I'm reporting back 5 months, 8 days later.

I was encouraged at the beginning of the term when I discovered a growler left at a friends house of this stuff. It had aged a lot of the nasty esters away but still wasn't all that pleasant. Tonight I went out to the carport and hooked up the keg - it's aged nicely. Certainly not one of my best beers but it's certainly what I'd consider decent now. I'll be going back for a second pint tonight and it looks like my wife will be needing a second.

Now the skanky wheat on the other hand... that'll probably be a dumper.

Make a brine by adding some salt and spice and marinate some tri tips in it. Either that or distill it.

JonK331 said:

Make a brine by adding some salt and spice and marinate some tri tips in it. Either that or distill it.

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Yes, yes, never a dumper, use it for BBQing brats or something.

We'll see. The mild (subject of the OP) turned out fine. In fact, tonight I'm having it again even though I have another 50 gallons of different beer waiting for me.

The wheat was plain nasty. Almost has a soysauce taste to it. I'll taste it again sometime in the next week or so and see if I think it'll be worth using as a marinade or the like. It very well may have been infected, it very well may have turned into a drinkable beer.

Distill it into Beer Schnapps?

Send me the column or other device to do same and I will!

BeerCrazy said:

Distill it into Beer Schnapps?

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