"Extract-brew twang" versus Malt Liquor

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evanos

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Hey everyone!
I just bottled my first brew (Cooper's Irish Stout) and found it smelled a lot like Mickey's malt liquor coming out of the fermenter. I've heard about the "extract-brew twang", or the "home-brew twang", and I was wondering if this twang is what makes Mickey's so unbearably vomitous (and yes, that's a word). I don't really have anything to compare my beer with in terms of this "twang" but I decided not to taste it directly out of the fermenter because all I've ever heard is that it has to age or it'll taste bad.

So, anywho, back to the original topic: Is the "twang" what makes malt liquors so disgusting?
 
'twang' is really more of a syrupy-sweet zip, perhaps faintly metallic even. It's pretty specific to beers made with liquid extract syrup (particularly stale syrup), so I doubt it's anything like malt-liquor has.
 
I've found that late boil extract addition, thorough fermentation and gold crashing/conditioning completely eliminate the "twang".
 
I keg but I usually have the beer in primary until close to fg so 7-12 days then I rack and let sit for a week then I put the carboy in the fridge for a week or so before racking to the keg.
 
So lots of aging is the moral of the story...?

Not necessarily. I'd have to guess but I'd say that maybe there was corn sugar in this recipe, and it was fermented at a high temperature. That can make it taste a bit twangy/cidery. Aging might help somewhat, but a better fix would be to have fermented it at about 65 degrees and to use quality ingredients like a good yeast and no corn sugar. I'm just guessing since I don't know what technique and ingredients you had to work with, but from the description it sounds like some canned extract, corn sugar, and warm fermentation temperatures.
 
@YooperBrew You're right on more counts than one. The kit was a Cooper's kit, which is basically a packet of yeast, a can of hopped malt syrup, about a pound of light malt extract, and about a cup and a half sugar. The kit called for sugar, but I had heard this kit doesn't turn out the best all the time, so I subbed in extra LME for sugar. The outside temp was about 75, inside, who knows. Hopefully it'll age out okay.

@chask31 The last time I drank Mickey's was two years ago at a frat party (the first and last frat party I've ever attended), and I almost left in a body bag. I don't blame Mickey's, I blame the frat boys with 40's and duck tape. To this day, the smell of malt liquor makes me violently ill.
 
So lots of aging is the moral of the story...?

No it's still about 6 weeks from brew till drinking. It's about making sure fermentation is done before racking it. No matter how long primary takes I still secondary for two weeks. One week on the floor and one week cold crash. Then it's the keg for a few weeks set to carb at a desired volume.
 
So, anywho, back to the original topic: Is the "twang" what makes malt liquors so disgusting?

There isn't any such thing as "twang" from malt extracts. Malt extracts
are exactly the same thing you get out of a mash. Most beginning
brewers don't know what they are doing and most of them use malt
extracts, so the off-flavors were mis-attributed to the extract instead
of the brewer.

Malt liquors are high alcohol and any high alcohol brew is going to have
a lot of residual unfermented sugars unless you wait a really long time
for it to attenuate. That's why malt-liquors taste syrupy. That's the
whole point behind "ice beers". You can make a high alcohol beer
by brewing a normal beer, then freezing some of the water out
to concentrate the alcohol, thus getting a clean crisp taste out
of it.

Ray
 
Okay, so here's the breakdown...

I bottled a week and a half ago. I kept it in the bottle to carb for a week. I tested a bottle after this week of fermenting at room temp and the beer was pretty decent! Now it's been in bottle for a week and a half and it's getting better really fast! Not only is it getting better, but it's flying out of my fridge!

It doesn't taste like a stout, definitely not heavy enough. It tastes more like a brown ale, but I am more than okay with that. My roommate and several other "taste testers" compared it with Moose Drool.

I'm really surprised how much it changed in just a week and a half in the bottle and I can't wait for it to really mature after a few weeks!

Thanks for your input!
 
<snip> Not only is it getting better, but it's flying out of my fridge! <snip>


<snip> I'm really surprised how much it changed in just a week and a half in the bottle and I can't wait for it to really mature after a few weeks! <snip>

You think it'll make it that far? :D
 
"There isn't any such thing as "twang..."
***************

I've suspected as much for a long time now...

Folks, have also noticed now that billions of folks all over the world now have cell phones/cameras, etc. and that there ain't no UFOs anymore either...

Maybe just a coincidence, huh?

;)
Just Plain Dick
**********
 
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