Smells like raw beef...BEEF!

Tastes lovely, smells like beef stew. That is the way that I would explain my Test Ale, AKA Harvest Ale, aka find out what the hell Maris Otter tastes like by itself ale.

10lbs Maris Otter
2 oz Willamette
.5 oz Hallertau
.5 oz Irish moss

I am sanitary, I did a normal mash, used Coopers dry ale yeast and all went well. I don't have a chiller (which might be the problem) so it cooked all night in a corny keg and I added the yeast the next morning.

When I first smelled it I got a touch or butt funk or cooked butt (either way unpleasant). The taste though is great, smooth, tasty and good color, nice hop flavor (though not aroma).

Any ideas why I smell raw beef and yet taste yummy beer?

How old is the beer?

The beef stew I make calls for a good amount of barley, maybe you are just mentally associating the smell of barley with beef stew?

The beer is just carbed in the keg, 1 month total age from brew to drink.

I too like a goodly amount of barley in my soup, and it isn't just that kind of smell. Really smells like a pot pie...strange really. Like raw beef and cooked bread (I will associate that with the yeast).

It smelled gamey before priming it too!

Interesting. Meaty, brothy aromas are usually associated with yeast autolysis. I'd be very surprised if your yeast died and started decomposing that quickly, but that's sure what it sounds like.

Chad

This is very strange.. first i have ever heard.

you can call it Madd Cow Otter

How long did you mash the beef for, and what kind of cuts? If it's roast beef that can cause too much beefy flavor, whereas sirloin is more subtle. Never mash with hamburger.

That sounds as good as pork cider.

You should use stout in beer recipes though.

you didn't throw rib eyes in your mash, did you?

EvilTOJ said:

How long did you mash the beef for, and what kind of cuts? If it's roast beef that can cause too much beefy flavor, whereas sirloin is more subtle. Never mash with hamburger.

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Funniest thing I've read all day.

What temp was the corney at when you pitched the yeast?

Also... Coopers dry? I've never trusted the stuff, and have heard it's awfully hit-or-miss... Could the yeast be the source of the problem?

Sounds like you need you a chiller, stat!

You could dry-hop in the keg with another .5 - .75 of either Willamette or Hallertau?

I say its a cooking beer... I can think of about a million things to do with a beef-stock-ale!

Matt Up North said:

When I first smelled it I got a touch or butt funk or cooked butt (either way unpleasant). The taste though is great, smooth, tasty and good color

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just because

If all else fails, blame it on hedgehogs.

is it just me or am i the only one that finds it odd to ferment in a corney? also im guessing the metal in the corney diffuses the heat away from the wort much slower than a cgass or plastic carboy would- maybe that has something to do with it?

I said beef...not ham. Too much ham in these posts!

Seriously though, I have been doing some more thinking (probably the reason I am in this pickle in the first place) and I think that my problem might be two fold.

Hot all night kept cooking the mash in the corny, hence more funky hops and barley flavors.

Next is that I didn't "ferment" in the corny as much as I did secondary in it. I do think though that some of the reductive qualities (fermenting in an anerobic environment without pressure releif) might be more apparent. Needed to vent it better I am sure...

...however, I did rack from my secondary corny into another corny for priming and kegging. So I kinda was hoping it might blow off the strange flavor.

By the way it smells like shoulder cut more than some rib and maybe even like Pork Butt that has been in the fridge a while. It is going away slowly...albeit far too freaking slowly. I got my first whiff of hops yesterday, though the next beer went back to beef.


EDIT: PS...I could cook with it if I had something else I was interested in drinking right now...sadly that isn't the case and so I press forward with the drinking of beef beer.

Chriso said:

Also... Coopers dry? I've never trusted the stuff, and have heard it's awfully hit-or-miss... Could the yeast be the source of the problem?

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Coopers produces copious amounts of Diacetyl, especially when you go up over about 68 °F.

I'm leaning towards heat as cause of the problem. While pressure could/would affect flavors in the primary, I would not think that it occurring during secondary would cause major problems. I vote heat pre-pitch.

Dry hop that sucka! I bet it fixes it, or at least masks it acceptably! 1/2 an ounce of Willamette should do it

FEARDIZ said:

you can call it Madd Cow Otter

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I like it! :rockin:

as far as i know preasurized fermentation doesnt affect the outcome of the finished product in a negative light although your probably right about the funk from all the hops and barley sitting heated for longer than normal. Check this out:
Closed-system pressurized fermentation - Home Brewing Wiki

oh and have you seen the porkelwein threads?

I love to have a good steak, and any red meat is good meat, but this is strange. Or maybe we all have just had a little more product and still be on keyboard. No, that can't be it, your all are just weird.

bigbeergeek said:

Funniest thing I've read all day.

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+1 I totally just laughed out loud in the office - I hate doing that in a cubicle...people think you're cracking up

I made a 100% Maris Otter ale a few years back, to flavor later with raspberries... it was phenominal! I love beef, just not in my beer.

I've been lagering a batch of German Pilsener for about two weeks now and plan on doing it for another two weeks. I have the strangest off-flavor which might be similar- it's more of a smell in the young product, and the best way I could describe it is as a corned beef sandwhich that's been sitting around for about 3 hours. Not 3 days, months, or years, you know that smell of corned beef that was in your locker from about 8 am until 11? Not entirely unpleasant, just *weird*. Seems to be mellowing out a little, can't tell if it's just my imagination that it's doing so.

I think that my want for it not to taste like beef tricked me a couple of times. I have to stop myself from telling my friends what I taste, and they seem to enjoy it and ask for more. Maybe I am just so over critical it really just smells like beer and I know the process so I smell beef... I don't think so.

I smelled beef last night again so...

Perhaps your sense of smell and taste have a slight problem with letters? Beef = beer if your sense of smell has sloppy handwriting.

I vote for DMS .. how long was your boil? If it was a 60 minute boil and you didnt chill it then put it in a corny and let overnight with the lid on then chances are that is what it is.

Typically it smells like cooked corn, but in this case its corned beef!

So I just checked around and I will agree that it might well be some of the DMS because of a long boil. I forgot that during this brew session my burner kept the wort around 209 for around a half hour until I switched it to a more powerful burner that got it to a boil. Then I boiled for 90 minutes...then didn't chill it.

I put a vote for that, it explains most similar what I am tasting in my beer.

How did you rack from primary to secondary to bottling bucket?

If you used cornies all the time, their dip tubes would have picked up the sediment at each racking, so basically your brew has been picking up excess yeast flavors for long time?

I went from super cleaned corny through a hose (not the dip tube) and into another super cleaned corny. It isn't infection for sure. It is brewing problems. I have access to some really good cleaners and pressure washing systems, so I know that those corny's were sparkling

Use this as a lesson, if you want your beer to smell like beef stew then don't invest in a wort chiller. $65 well spent.