New brew tastes like soy sauce?

Hi there all,

I am new to home brewing, just having started 2 months ago, very excited very glad to have a great resource like HBT.

I brewed my first batch of beer three weeks ago, it was a dunkelweizen:

1# Caramunich
3.3# Wheat LME
3.3# Amber LME
1oz. Argentina Cascades (60 mins)
Wyeast German Ale Yeast
1/2c. white sugar (priming)

1 week primary
~2 weeks in the bottle

Brew day went great, the only weird thing I did (and now I know better) is putting 7 lbs of ice directly into the fermenter to cool the wort down. (I had become interested by watching "Amber Waves," the Good Eats episode about beer making by food celebrity Alton Brown. He reccomended the ice solution)

My question is this: I opened a bottle up the other day to see how it was, and the color was a beautiful garnet, rather clear for a wheat beer, nice head, and the distinct taste of soy sauce.

Is this an issue of the yeast? Is this because I accidentally fermented the beer around 75 degrees? Is this just some estery compound that will mellow out in the conditioning phase?

I possess no particular penchant for patience, so should I just wait it out (of course I should.)

Anyone every encounter such an odd flavor compound?

thanks

I'm sorry, but the title of this thread made me laugh my ass off. I hope my first batch doesnt taste like Soy sauce!

My guess is that the ice in the fermenter wasnt a good idea and you should have let it sit in the primary for more than 1 week, but I'm sure the veterans of the home brew world here will follow up with better advice.

I've used that yeast before and have never had any sort of a soy sauce flavor. I haven't used either those hops or the barley before. I'd be curious to hear if people here have an opinion on those. I know you mentioned it, and already have a reply on it... but that ice is probably something you don't want to do again. Even out of my own freezer I've had ice cubes that change the flavor of water based on what happens to be in there at the time. I can only imagine what that will do to your beer considering it hasn't been boiled.
I wouldn't let this discourage you. The beer is still young and the flavor could change over the next couple of weeks to a month. Even if this beer never loses that flavor, I think we'll all have a bad batch or two at some point.

How long has the beer been in the bottles before tasting it???

If you brewed it 3 weeks ago, the beer has barely had any time to bottle condition....

Click on the number next to the " Blog entries" and read the first blog there...it will explain what's going on....

RDWHAHB

Let it sit for a while and if it still tastes like soy sauce, serve it with sushi!

YUM.

Prolly patience is in order microwave (man with a name like that, I suspect it'll be hard ). Weird meaty flavor compounds can disappear over time iirc.

BTW....Welcome to the forums! :fro:

Have a look see:



Look in the Gray area (Sulphury) is caused by fresh Yeast. I believe this is what you are experiencing.

Congratulations! You made Samuel Adams Triple Bock! No, wait, that has to be molasses and soy sauce.

Seriously, soy sauce makes me think of oxidation, so that might be your problem. It especially makes me think of old, oxidized extract, so that might be your specific problem. I don't see how it would be anything else would be. The German Ale yeast is pretty clean (really, too clean for a dunkelweizen), and the Argentine Cascades hops are fine for that beer and in that amount.

So, do you know how old the extract was?

More bottle conditioning may help, but if your problem lies with old, oxidized extract, then it probably will not.


TL

Well - don't do anything ever again from that show in regards to making beer!! He had dozens of errors.

To be honest I don';t even know what a dunkelweizen is SUPPOSE to taste like LOL

Do you like Chinese food?? I've never seen that flavor and perhaps you have stumbled upon something

Grinder12000 said:

Well - don't do anything ever again from that show in regards to making beer!! He had dozens of errors.

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I'll second that. After buying some of his gear, ol' AB started losing me a little while buying agreement. Once he got home, he went off the rails in a big way

And, Zoebisch01, that is a good point about the "meaty" part of the soy sauce flavor. The beer might be fine in time.


TL

TexLaw said:

Congratulations! You made Samuel Adams Triple Bock! No, wait, that has to be molasses and soy sauce.

Seriously, soy sauce makes me think of oxidation, so that might be your problem. It especially makes me think of old, oxidized extract, so that might be your specific problem. I don't see how it would be anything else would be. The German Ale yeast is pretty clean (really, too clean for a dunkelweizen), and the Argentine Cascades hops are fine for that beer and in that amount.

So, do you know how old the extract was?

More bottle conditioning may help, but if your problem lies with old, oxidized extract, then it probably will not.


TL

Click to expand...

Indeed, it could be that as well. If the extract is bad then unfortunately there is no amount of conditioning that will rid it. However, to me, Soy sauce has a distinct meaty flavor to it which can tie in with Yeast specifically as Yeast extracts are used to add meaty flavors in the food industry. Now if they autolyze it or not, of that I am not sure.

Wasn't there a thread here about somebody who had their sugar swapped with salt by an angry SWMBO?

In all seriousness, I'd vote for the old extract or just young beer. Let it sit for a few weeks and try it then. My first beer got better over a couple months in the bottle (then strangely went horribly bad after 3 ). If it still tastes like soy sauce there's always the sushi suggestion.

Keep us posted!

I have had the soy sauce flavor before. I believe it was actually the first batch I ever made, I dont remember the specifics (I didnt take notes back then) but from what I remember it was a POS muntons extract kit, probably been on the shelf for years. What I do remember is it did have a very distinct soy sauce taste and unfortunately it never did go away. But I did finish the whole batch and moved to my next which turned out much better. Whatever happens dont let it get you down keep on brewing. Your second batch will no doubt go much smoother.

I don't have too much to add about your first brew but will give you a couple tips on your second.

1. Don't use ice in the wort if it's store bought. Those machines don't come close to keeping anything sanitary.

2. I don't know what sanitizer you used but he used bleach and that is not the best or easiest. A no rinse sanitizer like Star San is much better.

3. Beer is best if left longer than a week before bottling. Several weeks for clean tasting, clear beer.

4. Three weeks in the bottle for proper carbonation. Several weeks longer for beer that doesn't taste "green".

5. Buy a hydrometer and use it. It helps avoid bottle bombs by telling you when your beer is ready.

Welcome to HBT! I'm glad that Alton got you into brewing but his very abbreviated show does not do beer brewing justice. Hang around and learn how to brew really good beer.

I have had two batches now turn out with a funky (Lack of a better explination) dusty, soy saucy flavor. The first was a pumkin ale and the second was a Dunkel. I think the culprit was bad yeast. The Pumpkin ale is in bottles and has been there for 4 months with no change the dunkel has been in the kegorator for 2 months after primary and still no change in flavor. All that I can say is I feel your pain and dont use old yeast if you did.

AAAAHHHH, ZOMBIES!!!!!


no, really.... i think the OP probably figured out his issue by this point.




*note the date of the last post before yours was 3 and a half years ago.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

AAAAHHHH, ZOMBIES!!!!!

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zombie apocalypse 2012!!!!!!

Piratwolf said:

zombie apocalypse 2012!!!!!!

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does this make us zombie hijackers, or in your case, a zombie pirate?

I see what you did there. Clever and well done!

TexLaw said:

Congratulations! You made Samuel Adams Triple Bock!

Click to expand...

oh god i ended up cooking with that