pre-bottling taste test.... terrible

i can't describe it but my latest batch is terrible.. well the pre-bottle hyrdo test sample is terrible anyway
normally, when i try a hydro sample i can see the potential goodness... not this time...
this was a "some stuff i have left over" recipe so i didnt expect greatness but... damn, this is bad...

recipe:
3 gallons
went for a quick 15 minute boil
3 lbs briess golden light dme
4.4oz crystal 60l
2 oz torrified wheat
1 oz palisade (6.7% aa)
.5 oz @ 15
.5 oz @ 10
found a few stray pellets and tossed in at flameout for the hell of it

yeast: us-05

og: 1.047
fg: 1.008

i think the 15 minute quick boil idea was a bad one...
or maybe i'm just judging too soon and should rdwhahb for a couple weeks and try a bottle..

terrible recipe?
short boil = dumb?

in my defense, i was totally hammered when i concocted this idea...

What was the 'bad' taste? I'd say if it's already fermented the hard part is over... for the yeast anyway! Bottle it up, let it sit. Have one in a month, with some folks who enjoy different flavors. Maybe it'll mellow out or improve in flavor in time.

I think shorter boil just means less time for hop bitterness to be extracted, less volume reduction / sugar concentration. 15 min still seems like enough time to kill any baddies.

Torrified wheat without anything to convert it is a recipe gaffe, unless you are after a cloudy beer like Belgian Witbier.

15min boil is fine for extract. How long did it ferment, and did you control the temp?

944play said:

Torrified wheat without anything to convert it is a recipe gaffe, unless you are after a cloudy beer like Belgian Witbier.

15min boil is fine for extract. How long did it ferment, and did you control the temp?

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it has been in the fermenter since 4/20. its been in the mid 60's the whole time.
i decided to let it sit in the fermenter another week instead of bottling; hoping the yeast are still cleaning up after themselves and improving stuff or something...

The thing to remember though is that if you are smelling or tasting this during fermentation not to worry. During fermentation all manner of stinky stuff is given off (ask lager brewers about rotten egg/sulphur smells, or Apfelwein makers about "rhino farts,") like we often say, fermentation is often ugly AND stinky and PERFECTLY NORMAL.

It's really only down the line, AFTER the beer has been fermented (and often after it has bottle conditioned even,) that you concern yourself with any flavor issues if they are still there.

I think too many new brewers focus to much on this stuff too early in the beer's journey. And they panic unnecessarily.

A lot of the stuff you smell/taste initially more than likely ends up disappearing either during a long primary/primary & secondary combo, Diacetyl rests and even during bottle conditioning.

If I find a flavor/smell, I usually wait til it's been in the bottle 6 weeks before I try to "diagnose" what went wrong, that way I am sure the beer has passed any window of greenness.

Fementation is often ugly, smelly and crappy tasting in the beginning and perfectly normal. The various conditioning phases, be it long primary, secondarying, D-rests, bottle conditioning, AND LAGERING, are all part of the process where the yeast, and co2 correct a lot of the normal production of the byproducts of fermentation.

Lagering is a prime example of this. Lager yeast are prone to the production of a lot of byproducts, the most familiar one is sulphur compounds (rhino farts) but in the dark cold of the lagering process, which is at the minimum of a month (I think many homebrewers don't lager long enough) the yeast slowly consumes all those compounds which results in extremely clean tasting beers if done skillfully.

Ales have their own version of this, but it's all the same.

If you are sampling your beer before you have passed a 'window of greeness" which my experience is about 3-6 weeks in the bottle, then you are more than likely just experiencing an "off flavor" due to the presence of those byproducts (that's what we mean when we say the beer is "green" it's still young and unconditioned.) but once the process is done, over 90% of the time the flavors/smells are gone.

Of the remaining 10%, half of those may still be salvageable through the long time storage that I mention in the Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer:

And the remaining 50% of the last 10% are where these tables and lists come into play. To understand what you did wrong, so you can avoid it in the future.

Long story short....I betcha that smell/flavor will be long gone when the beer is carbed and conditioned.

In other words, relax, your beer will be just fine, like 99.5%.

You can find more info on that in here;

Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Just remember it will not be the same beer it is now, and you shouldn't stress what you are tasting right now.

I would think with a 15 min boil, you would get very little
bitterness out of the hops. Could be part of the problem.

dzlater said:

I would think with a 15 min boil, you would get very little
bitterness out of the hops. Could be part of the problem.

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I agree- it shouldn't taste too terrible, though, just way underbittered. So maybe a bit sweet and alcoholic tasting, but nothing rancid.

A 15 minute boil with the hops means you got almost nothing in the way of bittering out of them, and some random hops might mean some "muddy" flavors.

YooperBrew said:

I agree- it shouldn't taste too terrible, though, just way underbittered. So maybe a bit sweet and alcoholic tasting, but nothing rancid.

A 15 minute boil with the hops means you got almost nothing in the way of bittering out of them, and some random hops might mean some "muddy" flavors.

Click to expand...

Yeah... I have decided to not do any more 15 minute boils for this reason and others.
I'm thinking about boiling up a little hop tea and pouring in...
thoughts?

I had the same thing happen with my last batch. I bottled a oatmeal stout on friday and it tasted pretty bad. I thought maybe it was infected, but showed no signs. Then I figured it was just a bad recipe. Well I popped one last night just to taste and it was exactly what I was shooting for, except a touch sweeter. Guess the priming sugar isn't completely eaten yet. Maybe when I tasted it at bottling I was tasting some Notty that was in suspension. Whatever the reason, it went away in only 3 days. This one will be a lot better in 2 weeks to a month. I also have nitro carts to look forward to in the TAD bottles.

whoops, double posted