Well, some of you may remember my thread from 3+ weeks ago, asking questions about my barleywine. Well, it's had time int he secondary and tonight was bottling night. I always steal a spoonfull after mixing in the sugar, before putting it in the bottles and, well, I saved myself some bottling time. SOMETHING went horribly horribly wrong.
About three and a half weeks ago, I transferred it to a secondary (after two weeks in a primary) and added the last hops to the batch. I tasted a bit, and it was spot on. I was really excited for this to mature and be done in a few more weeks/months! Well, tonight, despite the color being beautiful and the whole batch looking fine (and not smelling gross or anything), the beer tastes AWFUL. It closely resembles what I imagine rubbing alcohol would taste like, and BURNS going down. Needless to say, I didn't bottle it, and all but dumped it down the drain. I did put the lid back on the bucket (good Lord, I better run down and take that damn lid off...I did add the primin sugar....BOOM ) to see if you guys had any advice before I just trashed it. I know this is a kind of beer that needs to mature, mellow, and age, but, this can't be right. It tasted 100 x better a few weeks ago. Again, it's a beautiful dark amber. Very clear. No crap floating on the top of the batch...I don't get it.
Any thoughts? Very depressing as I've never had a batch go "bad" and I put a lot of time into this guy!
About three and a half weeks ago, I transferred it to a secondary (after two weeks in a primary) and added the last hops to the batch. I tasted a bit, and it was spot on. I was really excited for this to mature and be done in a few more weeks/months! Well, tonight, despite the color being beautiful and the whole batch looking fine (and not smelling gross or anything), the beer tastes AWFUL. It closely resembles what I imagine rubbing alcohol would taste like, and BURNS going down. Needless to say, I didn't bottle it, and all but dumped it down the drain. I did put the lid back on the bucket (good Lord, I better run down and take that damn lid off...I did add the primin sugar....BOOM ) to see if you guys had any advice before I just trashed it. I know this is a kind of beer that needs to mature, mellow, and age, but, this can't be right. It tasted 100 x better a few weeks ago. Again, it's a beautiful dark amber. Very clear. No crap floating on the top of the batch...I don't get it.
Any thoughts? Very depressing as I've never had a batch go "bad" and I put a lot of time into this guy!