Drank my first beer. Not very good.

Okay guys. I'm bummin here a little bit. My first beer tastes kinda grassy and not all that great. Here's the recipe

Red Ale
6lbs light malt
2lbs amber dry malt
8oz Crystal 120l
1/2oz columbus @ boil
1/2oz columbus @ 50 minutes
White Labs Edinburg Ale yeast

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Potential screwups:
Boiled 3 gallons of water, then when I went to top off the brew to get to 5 gallons, only added about a gallon, and got about 3.5 gallons of wort in the fermenter. Used 3/4gallon to boil the priming sugar, to get it more topped off.

Not 100% sure I got all of the sanitizer out of all of the bottles prior to bottling, but of the 3 beers I've had, they all have the same grassy taste, so I don't think this is the problem.

It might just be the recipe. I was going for a relatively safe, middle of the road beer as my first.

Now I think I'll be giving it away as my hoppy copper ale is conditioning.

Grassy Flavors reminiscent of chlorophyll and fresh cut grass occasionally occur and are most often linked to poorly stored ingredients. Poorly stored malt can pick up moisture and develop musty smells. Aldehydes can form in old malt and can contribute green grass flavors. Hops are another source of these green flavors. If the hops are poorly stored or not properly dried prior to storage, the chlorophyll compounds will become evident in the beer



Give it another 2 weeks in the bottle and try again. It might just be a "green" beer (pun intended)

Thanks for the info. The DME was sealed in a plastic bag. The LME was sealed in a plastic tub. The hops were pellet, sealed in a foil/anti static bag, and the grains were cracked that day. I purchased all from LHBS day of brewing, I would hope they wouldn't have quality issues.

I will try it again, see how it ages.

Sounds like its probably not the quality issue then. However you say the LME came in plastic? it is VERY hard to get a non-porus plastic, and so I suspect the LME might have absorbed some moisture? you can tell with DME because it cakes up somthing terrible, however LME is more dificult. But hey, chin up my first beer was a lager, and I did not lager it. It was "so eggy you could scramble it" but now, after forgetting about it for about 4 months in the back fridge, I found it again, and bloody hell its the cleanest, crispest, smoothest lager ive had yet!

Hope your next batch turns out! :fro:

Good news, 'cause it doesn't taste good you'll not be tempterd to drinbk it.
Even better news in 4 weeks it'll be good.

RDWDHAHB

relax don't worry don't have a home brew.

I was thinking of another possibility of why it might not be 'ready yet'.

I don't have any where in my house that is 70 degrees, so its upstairs in my wifes bathroom (thanks hon!) where its 67-68 degrees most of the time (she doesn't shower in there so that isn't a consideration).

I wonder if the slightly colder bottling temperatures are enough to be a problem then?

Rook said:

I was thinking of another possibility of why it might not be 'ready yet'.

I don't have any where in my house that is 70 degrees, so its upstairs in my wifes bathroom (thanks hon!) where its 67-68 degrees most of the time (she doesn't shower in there so that isn't a consideration).

I wonder if the slightly colder bottling temperatures are enough to be a problem then?

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No, I don't think that would matter. How long has it been in the bottle?

67-68ºF is just about the perfect fermentation temperature for any ale yeast. How long did you leave it in fermenter(s) before bottling, and how long has it been since you bottled it?

My first beer was godawful the first time I tasted it, but it had only been eleven days in primary and one week in a bottle. A week later, it was drinkable, and by the time I had the last one, it was pretty good. A lot of weird flavors in beer will take care of themselves over time.

Did I miss you telling us how long it had been in the bottle? That's like the number one thing that new brewers do. Try a beer early and think it sucks. Like the boys said give it 4 weeks.

Give it more time. I don't see anything wrong with your recipe. Topping off before bottling isn't the best idea, but since you boiled the water it shouldn't have been a problem. Grassy and green apple are easy to confuse and the latter will go away completely.

Schedule:
10 days in the Primary
14 days in the secondary
21 days in the bottle

It definately does have a tartness that might be green apple. My palate is still learning how to define all the beer tastes it gets.

I probably shouldn't have topped off, but I did boil the water for 10 miuntes, and I sanitized the pot and lid I was using when I did it, then I put it in the fridge for a few hrs without lifting the lid to cool it to a normal temperature. I don't think I introduced any contamination.

I'm not too worried really. My second batch has 4x the amount of hops as this, and 1lb less malt, and I like hoppy beers. I bottle that one this weekend.

I have the luck of living in the PWN, so last year I was able to attend a "Off-flavor" seminar at Oregon State. It was quite interesting to finally nail down some of the flavors. There were off-flavors I couldn't taste at all! They also gave us a clear demonstration that most of the people attending could not tell the difference when bittering levels changed by less than 10 IBU.

Well I tried it again today. I had previously tried it on friday when I got home from work. Its been 3 days later, 3 days of cold conditioning actually, in the fridge. The grassy/tartness is gone.

I can now taste the beer.

Its just plain too malty. 8lbs of malts and 1oz hops (half at boil, half at 10 minutes for aroma).

I'm an IPA guy who thinks Fat Tire and Dead Guy Ale are way too malty. I think this beer would be pretty damn good to someone who likes those beers.