Earthy taste

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mixedbrewer

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... and by earthy I mean dirt. I am not sure if there is a #1 culprit for this or not. I am guessing strained yeast but cant be sure because I didnt really do anything out of the ordinary on this brew. Has anyone ever been surprised by what I can only describe as a taste like dirt? There is a heavy malt taste up front and the beer smells like malt and caramel which is what I was going for. But, the finish is literally dirt. The way black top-soil smells... is what the finish tastes like.
 
It was primary fermented for 2 weeks and 2 days, then bottled and been in bottle for 3 weeks. It was brewed with Notty... and this might be my first bad experience with it, but I might be in denial. It is my favorite.
 
I'd give it more time. 2 weeks isn't very long before going into the bottles, so it was still pretty young when you moved it forward.

As for the Notty, I've tasted a batch that went bad from notty, and it matched yooper's own description of what happened to her batch that got bad notty, and "dirt" is not what it tastes like.

it tasted like I was chewing up latex and bandaids.

Completely undrinkable. The smell alone was enough to make your stomach turn.
 
Ok... the smell on this one is good. Its just a really "dirty" after taste. I will let em sit for a couple more weeks. I can choke em down and have been doing that, so they are not horrid, just too earthy to say they are good.
 
To me, "dirt" in a beer equals fuggles hops! They actually taste like soil to me. I know they are supposed to be "earthy", but I get a true soil taste out of them. Sometimes I get this out of other fuggles cultivars, like willamette, but not all the time. It seems like I taste it in beers that have a ton of EKGs as well.
 
I recently had a batch that had a strong 'grassy' taste. I chocked it up to steeping old grains. I had my steeping grains crushed at the LHBS, then they sat on a shelf for a few months... I think they went bad sitting on the shelf. Next batch through was a amber with the same yeast (washed) and fresh ingredients, no off tastes. Tasted damn fine in fact. Need to bottle the remaining brew...
 
i get worrried about more than a few days with crushed grains.I would have vaccume sealed and stuck them in a cool dry spot like my dry basement.Otherwise would have crushed them myself on brewing day.Grassy usually is associated with hops but wonder what stale hops or stale extract makes it taste like?Usually you can tell by smelling or tasting grains?Maybe they have a musty taste.
Ive learned a few things from my first two brews: not to pitch yeast above 68 degrees-not to bottle before three weeks-probably not a good idea to use priming sugar straight into the bottles(was trying to save a racking step-by botteling from primary)- there is always next week or two to sample a bottled beer-and always ask questions before taking a guess for yourself.
 
Willamette... uh oh. That is the hop variety I used for the last 5 minutes. I have used them before and liked em. Maybe this was a dirty batch. Ick.
 
I dont know i used willamette my first three batches.In fact when i first opened them i thought it had an odd smell along with a good smell.Only problem ive had was botteling too early and having a fruity taste appely that seems to disapeer.no dirt just fruit. I also pitched safale 04 probably at too high a temp. I wouldnt assume it was the hops.Did they smell like dirt in the pouch? In fact i would have rather had a earthy grassy taste than something that tasted like half wine/beer.
 
I don't remember them smelling funny. And this isn't a grassy taste... its a strong, somewhat bitter, dirt taste. I drank one last night and tried to taste band-aid, but that wasn't it. I tend to think it tastes like dirt, bitter, dirty, dirt.
 
I wonder if what you are describing as dirt fits into the Harsh aftertaste that is cause by something you would have to look into in this.I forgot but i think John Palmer has a taste descriptions you may want to look ito.
probably alot of other questions like: how soon did you bottle? how long have been along from day 1? did you boil priming sugar. did you dry hop?
 
What style of beer did you brew?

I have had a couple of stouts that I have brewed that had a slight metallic taste (I seem to be the only one who tastes it) but they also had a sort of astringent like quality that made the roast harsh would could be almost like a dirt taste.

Feedback I got was my PH may have been off. I brewed a kölsch and a stout on the same day, same equipment (rinsed between batches), same water and the kölsch did not have the same taste.

Just wondering!
 
It was a brown ale partial mash. It was bittered with northern brewer 1oz @ 60 min, and willamette 1oz for the last 5. The first half tastes good, malty, sweet, but them bam!... dirt. It is surely a harsh after-taste. I will see what I can find out there. I am not too worried about it. I was just wondering if anyone has gotten something that was a ringer for a mouth full of dirt.
 
too much black malt? i know they can provide a different type of bitter than hops.Probably not pleasant if overused. i am currently botteling my first brown and my notes on my hydro i just did was a strong alcohol smell taste.maybe from using sugar in my recipe.But i took it easy on the black malt and i was worried of overcrushing them because of this type of bitterness. Did you use roasted barley?
 
only 1/4 lb of black malt... I think I am chalking it up to (1) stressed yeast, and (2) bottling @ 2 weeks.
 
I don't remember them smelling funny. And this isn't a grassy taste... its a strong, somewhat bitter, dirt taste. I drank one last night and tried to taste band-aid, but that wasn't it. I tend to think it tastes like dirt, bitter, dirty, dirt.

It was a brown ale partial mash. It was bittered with northern brewer 1oz @ 60 min, and willamette 1oz for the last 5. The first half tastes good, malty, sweet, but them bam!... dirt. It is surely a harsh after-taste. I will see what I can find out there. I am not too worried about it. I was just wondering if anyone has gotten something that was a ringer for a mouth full of dirt.

Well, I hate to disagree with everybody except myself, but I think it's the willamette hops. Sometimes (like with cascades), the "earthy" flavor is nice. Othertimes, alone, they taste very much like their parent fuggles. Which tastes like dirt to me.

Some people LOVE fuggles (and willamette). They don't taste "dirt", but I sure do. A friend gave me an all-fuggles English pale ale. He loved it. I thought he put dirt in it.
 
I just finished bottling my first batch of beer and experienced the exact same as you are right now. The beer has been in bottles for a little over a week and that dirty taste is barely there. I would give it more time.
 
I would guess it's the hops as well. I've only made a few batches but one had the "dirt" flavor and it used fuggles for bittering, flavor, and aroma. It was also a brown ale.

At first it tasted woody but as it aged it got more dirt like. For me I feel like I'm drinking liquid dirt (is that technically mud?) but others really like the brew.
 
Well, I hate to disagree with everybody except myself, but I think it's the willamette hops. Sometimes (like with cascades), the "earthy" flavor is nice. Othertimes, alone, they taste very much like their parent fuggles. Which tastes like dirt to me.

Some people LOVE fuggles (and willamette). They don't taste "dirt", but I sure do. A friend gave me an all-fuggles English pale ale. He loved it. I thought he put dirt in it.

That much flavor from a 5 minute addition though?

OP. 5 gallon batch?
 
Well, I hate to disagree with everybody except myself, but I think it's the willamette hops. Sometimes (like with cascades), the "earthy" flavor is nice. Othertimes, alone, they taste very much like their parent fuggles. Which tastes like dirt to me.

Some people LOVE fuggles (and willamette). They don't taste "dirt", but I sure do. A friend gave me an all-fuggles English pale ale. He loved it. I thought he put dirt in it.

The first thing I thought of when reading the OP was this also... I love fuggles but think they taste like dirt, only a good kinda dirt taste and depending on the OPs taste preference he could really be tasting the willamette
 
Well, they were a 5 minute addition so he could probably try boiling a few pellets for 5 minutes if he has any left and checking the results. I'm just wondering if he would get that much flavor from a 5 minute addition though.
 
I don't have any more of the willamette left. And yes, it was a 5 gallon batch. If it is the hops, it is the strongest finishing flavor I have gotten to date. I will have to try another bottle tonight and see if anything has changed. The strangest part is that I cant detect this taste at all in the smell. It smells so good. It could just be the perfect combination of many things gone wrong including hops to give me the most earthy, dirty, finishing, beer I have ever tasted.
 
I don't have any more of the willamette left. And yes, it was a 5 gallon batch. If it is the hops, it is the strongest finishing flavor I have gotten to date. I will have to try another bottle tonight and see if anything has changed. The strangest part is that I cant detect this taste at all in the smell. It smells so good. It could just be the perfect combination of many things gone wrong including hops to give me the most earthy, dirty, finishing, beer I have ever tasted.

What about the bittering hops? I can taste different bittering hops sometimes. I know I can with magnum and it shows up on the tail end with the bitter where you would expect the bitter finish. At first I thought it was an off flavor but noticed the same taste in Sam Smith stouts. I finally narrowed it down to the fact I could 'taste' my bittering hops.
 
Its possible. They were Norther Brewer 8% alpha acid... but that doesn't jump out at me when I think lingering dirty dirt taste.
 
Ok, I have an update. The flavor is mellowing a little bit, but at the same time, this brew is becoming more astringent. Its hard to explain. Its is not mouth puckering per say. But this beer leaves a bitter aftertaste that makes me salivate in such a way, that there is a slime coating in my mouth. And it lingers. How odd. This is the most puzzling beer I have ever had. I guess it could be tannins, but I never mash over 160. Who knows...
 
Another update... I still have this beer and I am still drinking it every so often. It is still as earthy as ever, but something is changing. It is losing its bitterness, and changing to simply dirt. I am almost getting used to it. I let someone try it and they said it tasted like it was made from muddy water in a ditch.
 
I've got the same thing going on with an extract+steeping grains. I brewed a batch of Northern Brewer's Caribou Slobber (Moose Drool clone) a couple months back. I let it sit in primary for three weeks, secondary for a week, and then bottled it where they've been for another three weeks. At first the after taste was very bitter and lingered (coming out of secondary and into the bottles). It reminded me a bit of dandelions but dirty. The taste has mellowed our some, but tastes nothing like the Moose Drool that I bought to compare it too. There was a 1 oz Willamette addition for 15 minutes. I'm choking them down one at a time to free up the bottles hoping that they'll get better, but so far to no avail. I've got to free up another case of bottles over the next few weeks for another beer, but I'll keep a 12'er or so for long term storage JIC.
 
Thats why I drink them too... to free up the bottles. They smell great, and at first, taste great... but then pow. My brain says "don't drink that, it tastes like dirt".
 
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