Will young toasted grain flavor ever mellow?

I made the mistake of using about 1 lb of freshly toasted maris otter in a recipe about 4 weeks ago without letting the grain sit for 2 weeks. I tasted the beer over the weekend, and it has a strong astringent, almost sour, flavor to it.

The beer is an IPA, so it has a lot of hop character that I guess is covering up some of the off flavors from the grain, but has anyone had any experience with flavors like these going away?
Or is this a flaw that will never diminish? Any chance that a blending with something else (darker, roastier beer) will cover this flavor up?

No one has ever made the mistake of using toasted grain too soon?

I know the general consensus is "never dump a batch", but I also know some flavors, like those from oxidation, will never age out.

It really depends more on how you toasted the grain. If you did a light toast to achieve something like amber, it's not necessary to let it set for 2 weeks...not even 1 week. On the other hand, if you toasted it much longer & hotter, you could have a permenant off flavor.

Now if you smoke grains, you do need to let it rest for a week or two.

sundowner said:

It really depends more on how you toasted the grain. If you did a light toast to achieve something like amber, it's not necessary to let it set for 2 weeks...not even 1 week. On the other hand, if you toasted it much longer & hotter, you could have a permenant off flavor.

Now if you smoke grains, you do need to let it rest for a week or two.

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Interesting. I toasted the grain at 350F for about 15min then let it sit out overnight. I was trying to produce something close to Victory malt, since I had none on hand.

The reason I believe toasting was what caused the off flavors in this beer, is that I actually did 2 beers from this grain bill, partigyle style. The big beer is a Double IPA and the second, smaller is a mild. I kegged the mild first and noticed the off flavors and figured it was infected or at least oxidized since it was in a bucket primary for 4 weeks.

A week or so later I thought maybe the DIPA would be "off" too, since it used the same grain bill. I opened the carboy for the first time since pitching the yeast and it also has the same off flavors.

Both these beers were separate boils, hop schedules, fermenters (one bucket, one carboy), and yeasts (DIPA US-05, Mild S-04). They only really have the grain bill in common.

Besides the toasted grain, I did not do anything that I have not done a dozen times before in my AG process.

Further thoughts?

Maybe I sparged at too high a temp?

If you only toasted 15 minutes at 350F, I don't think that's your problem. I suppose if your sparge temp was a lot too high, you could be getting some astringency.

It's really hard to say, but I don't think it's the toasted grain. I've done that many times albiet at a somewhat lower...300-325F

I brewed BMs Red Hook ESB clone a while back and mashed the toasted grains about 10 minutes after pulling them out of the oven. That was 2.5 lbs of 2 row at 350 for 15 minutes.

I never tasted anything "off" in the resulting beer.

Quite strange. I don't believe I sparged any higher than 170F, but at this point I am at a loss as to what it could have been. I've done partigyle brews before with awesome results and have not had any bad batches since going AG 9 months ago.

I just might have to write this one off as an aberration. I'll have to see if things mellow more over time.

I've made 2 batches (20gal) since then and while I have not sampled the most recent batch, the prior beer tastes fine when I checked a few days ago.

I would certainly give it more time. Your procedures seem sound...