beer tastes funny

first. forgive me if this has been posted before but i did search around for a thread and didnt really find any solid answers.

my beer tastes funny, its a scottish 80 and i used white labs edinburg ale yeast wlp028. every thing went great, i left it to ferment for a little over a month, and it tasted great at bottling time. this time i used dme instead of corn sugar.

now, about two weeks in the bottle it has this very strange taste, kinda fruity weird. i think the term might be estery, but im not sure. it doesnt taste bad, just weird, i think new belgium has a beer that tastes similar.... abby maybe.

also there is what seems to be little dots of yeast on the walls of the bottles and around the top. theres no mould or anything. but i after drinking the beer the sides of the bottle is coverd in little lighte colored dots and they're tough to wash out.

i dont think its spoiled or anything ive drank about a six pack by now and no ill effects, just strange thats all.

any info greatly appriciated, thanks

I had a similar problem with a Christmas Ale I made - tasted great after 3 weeks of carbonation, but two weeks later and it's developed some weird (almost bubblegum-like) flavors.

Advice I've received: Wait. Apparently time heals all brews, or something. I'm gonna give my problem beer another month until I crack open the next bottle. Hopeful that waiting will solve both of our problems.

I would have to vote for waiting. A Scottish 80 is a little on the stronger side, and with just two weeks conditioning in the bottle your getting some carbonation, but the yeast still have some work to do, the Co2 is not yet absorbed back into the beer, etc.
Please give it two more weeks, taste it, then try to stretch the beers out for the next couple of months.
I'll bet you your kicking yourself on the last bottle for not saving more of them.

+1 sounds estery. Your fermentation may have been on the warm side. Letting the bottles sit for a month before drinking them they will improve a lot. The esters will also be less noticeable if you serve the beer extra cold.

Next batch, consider fermenting in a bucket or tub so you can control the fermentation temp with ice packs. Most European ales are best fermented in the mid 60's *F.

There is a link to my fermentation "chamber" in my sig. I have used it since batch #2, I can get down to 60*F which is cool enough for a steam lager beer! I do everything BUT Belgians which require warmer fermentations in it. I have 24oz soda bottles in the freezer I filled with water up to 1" from the top, two of them changed out a few times a day keeps the temp 10* below ambient.

thanks for the replies guys! i think im gonna leave the rest for a few more weeks. the funny thing is my girlfriend really likes the off taste. so maybe she will drink it all before it gets good hehe.

"Beer tastes funny."

Well, you did make a clown ale.

Something as big and malty as a Scottish 80 is definitely going to need some time for all the malty goodness to blend and mellow.

I think the fed up puppy nailed it!

It sounds green more than anything else...betcha it will taste fine in another couple weeks....Usually when someone opens the beer at 2 weeks, and complains about the flavor, rather than trouble shooting for esters and other things, it's more than likely just really really green, and will improve with time.

Take a read of this...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html

More than likely in a couple weeks when it's mellowed the "funny" taste will be gone...

Patience padwan, patience.