Best temp to mellow beer?

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trn

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I have a brown ale that has a disappointing off aftertaste. I have some very good stuff coming down the pipeline, so I'm happy to just let the mediocre beer sit and see if it gets better, but I'm not sure what temp I should keep it at: cellar or room temperatures. Right now it's properly carbonated and at cellar temps.

While we're at it, maybe y'all can help me figure out the source of the off taste. My girlfriend describes it as "plastic". To me it seems more like spice: clove or cinnamon. I sanitized with bleach, and an experienced brewer friend is pretty sure that the off taste is from residual bleach. Does this seem reasonable? (I'm not using bleach any more, by the way.)

trn
 
I use bleach myself and as of yet have not had a problem with an off taste though I have heard over and over that free chlorine molecules will deliver a nasty taste to your brew..... if you rinse with hot water until there is no smell left and then rinse at least two more times, you'll not have the bleach badness problem.

I think blaming the bleach in this instance is a feasible possibility assuming everything was kept sanitary and all other proper procedures were implemented....
 
ohh.. and one more thing to keep in mind is that the type of yeast you uise and the temp that you ferment you brew at can also affect the overall flavor including leaving behind clove-like or fruity esters in your finished product..... longer periods of bottle conditioning will help to mellow this considerably....
 
trn said:
I have a brown ale that has a disappointing off aftertaste. I have some very good stuff coming down the pipeline, so I'm happy to just let the mediocre beer sit and see if it gets better, but I'm not sure what temp I should keep it at: cellar or room temperatures. Right now it's properly carbonated and at cellar temps.

While we're at it, maybe y'all can help me figure out the source of the off taste. My girlfriend describes it as "plastic". To me it seems more like spice: clove or cinnamon. I sanitized with bleach, and an experienced brewer friend is pretty sure that the off taste is from residual bleach. Does this seem reasonable? (I'm not using bleach any more, by the way.)

trn
Click to expand...

This is perfectly reasonable. I wouldn't sanitize with bleach, there are so many good sanitizers out there that really aren't that expensive, I would recommend Iodophor or Starsan. Starsan is a little more expensive, but reusable.
 
Regarding your first question, it will mellow and age more quickly at room temperature rather than cellar temperature. Chill and try one every week or so and see if things are improving, when you feel the flavor has started to peak then I'd move it to cellar temp for storage (or drink it up).
 
I used to hate the cost of sanitizers. It really used to chap my bum to spend $8 or whatever on a bottle that lasted a couple of months and slowly gets dumped down the drain.. Then one day I ponied up like $30 or something and bought the BIG bottle. 2 years later, I'm still nowhere close to running out. It was money well spent.

When our water heater broke, I even took a StarSan sponge bath one night. It worked pretty well. SWMBO said I was less smelly.
 
I used bleach a few times, but always had this deep paranoia that I couldn't tell when I had rinsed it all out. There was always lingering bleach aroma in the room where I was doing this, so I must have wasted dozens of gallons of water rinsing unecessarily.

Now I've moved over to Starsan and I worry no more. This stuff really does keep a long time, so the cost is not too bad. I had a batch in a dark, sealed bucket for eight months and the pH was still fine. To me, this is at least one area where I don't fret so much anymore.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll move the beer back out to room temp and see where it goes. If it was the bleach, then it won't happen again. If not then, well I suppose I'll learn something new. I'm sure the temp wasn't too high, so that wasn't the cause, and I was pretty serious about sanitation, so that's probably not it. At any rate, I'm done wondering.

Thanks again.
 

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