Off flavor in IPA

I Recently brewed a True Brew IPA kit. It was the in primary for 5 weeks and 3 weeks bottle conditioning. It has great carbonation, and starts well but has this very odd off flavor in the middle. The only way I can describe it would be molasses. I had a ton of problems getting the kettle to boil on an electric stove and brew day took forever because of this. I also did not steep the grains at a certain temperature. I waited until it was near boil and steeped them for the time called for with the kit. Does anyone have insight in to what the flavor could be?

steeping grains above 160 can pull tannins out and cause bitterness, but the molassesflavor is usually over boiling the LME causing excessive caramelization of the malt

I would recommend adding most of your LME after flameout next time around, it has made a huge difference in my beers

I have a few thoughts.

Fermentation time: First off, five weeks in primary is. . . a long time for an IPA. My IPAs and DIPAs usually are in primary for ten days, get dry hop additions for 7, a second batch of dry hops for another 4, and then get kegged - that's just three weeks before I start drinking.

The reason IPAs don't do well with prolonged fermentation times is that the hops oxydize quickly, leaving you with off-flavors that can be unpleasant. A good flavor experiment for you would be to hold on to one of the bottles and drink it six months or a year from now, to see how the hop character has diminished.

That said, two months from kettle to glass isn't so long that I think it would contribute to really noticeable off flavors. I do believe that some of your hop character may have volotolized off or oxydized, leaving you with a more pronounced malt flavor. . . but I don't think that's necessarily the issue.

Recipe: Hops are expensive, and most IPA kits skimp on them for that reason. If you're detecting too much sweetness, it's possible that your kit just didn't include enough hops to balance the malt.

Steeping Grains: You say that you didn't steep your grains at a specific temperature but, instead, "waited until it was near boil and steeped them for the time called for." There are a lot of different opinions about whether steeping grains should be left at a specific temperature. In my opinion, because you are not using them for conversion of sugars (and therefore do not need a specific temperature to activate the enzymes in the grain) the temperature need not be constant.

Nevertheless, I think most people agree that there is a temperature range that is appropriate. Temperatures that are too high begin to extract more than just sugars, and will add unwanted astringency and tanins to your beer. In my experience, you don't want to steep grains higher than 190F. If you don't already have a candy thermometer (they cost $5) you'll want to go get one, to decide when to remove the steeping grains.

Boil: You say that you had a lot of problems getting the kettle to boil, so you left it on for a long time. My instinct is that this ended up caramelizing some of the sugars at the bottom of the pot. (Technically the process is a Maillard reaction at these temperatures, but most people think of it as caramalization, and the science is similar enough that it makes no difference.) The result is that you get a burnt sugar flavor in your beer - similar to molasses. You can remove this flavor in a couple of ways:

How many gallons of water did you steep it in? Temperature can cause tannin extraction but PH can cause more. If you were steeping in a full volume with little dark malts that can cause a high PH which means more tannin from the steeping grains.
Ultimately since you didnt even mention fermentation and pitching rate of yeast I'd bet those are your problems. Use MR maltys pitching rate calculator to get proper levels and get a system designed to keep fermentation temps stable at an ideal temp like 67. Getting my fermentation ffridgw made aa massive difference in my beer.

I immediately thought LME twang with your description. One reason I switched to all DME and save half for late addition..no problems since.

I also noticed the primary time. I usually do 2 to 3 weeks on the yeast max.. I wait until the fermentation is done or about a week and then dry hop in the primary as well

unionrdr said:

The BB summer ale kit (said to be a shock top clone) my wife picked out had steeping grains. They said 150-165F for 20 minutes. So I'm assuming they want it below 170F to prevent leaching tannins from the grain husks. we did it at 160F. It worked ok,& had a huge hot break for some 3 minutes. In the end,it didn't show me much for a $53 kit.

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Where do you get your BB kits? I pay about $35 with tax at my LHBS for the Summer Ale kit, brewed it 3 times.

pericles said:

I have a few thoughts.
Boil: You say that you had a lot of problems getting the kettle to boil, so you left it on for a long time. My instinct is that this ended up caramelizing some of the sugars at the bottom of the pot. (Technically the process is a Maillard reaction at these temperatures, but most people think of it as caramalization, and the science is similar enough that it makes no difference.) The result is that you get a burnt sugar flavor in your beer - similar to molasses. You can remove this flavor in a couple of ways:

(1) Buy a better burner. Many brewers use turkey-friers to boil their wort. It's a high heat flame designed to boil six gallons of viscous oil plus a big bird. And best of all, they go on sale RIGHT after Thanksgiving, sometimes for just $15. This is definitely the time for you to make that investment if you're interested in continuing the hobby.

(2) Late extract addition. To increase hop utilization and to avoid unwanted caramelization, a lot of brewers add just about a half-cup of extract at the beginning of the boil, and then add the remainder in the last fifteen minutes. There are plenty of threads on this site discussing this technique, so I won't go into it in detail here, but you should explore it.
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You can also just remove your brewpot briefly from the burner when adding your LME and stir it in well before returning the pot to the heat. I had a couple batches where I didn't do this, and the LME all fell directly to the bottom of the pot and started to burn over the heat source.

you can also just remove your brewpot briefly from the burner when adding your lme and stir it in well before returning the pot to the heat. I had a couple batches where i didn't do this, and the lme all fell directly to the bottom of the pot and started to burn over the heat source.

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+1

Midwest Bavarian wheat and Cascade Pale Ale are good partial mash kits, I have done them both. The Cascade I used a Wyeast Forbidden Fruit yeast and 1ib of Belgian candi sugar dry hopped with 2 oz of cascade.. Awesome!