Bad taste and smell after 1 week

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npre

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Made an all-grain beer last saturday, mostly wheat malt and pilsner malt. I usually mash 60 min and boil 60 min but this recipe wanted a 90 minute mash and 45 min boil. The only equipment change was I made a wort cooler from copper tube. It was immersed in the boiling wort for 10 minutes before the end of the boil.

One week on, I opened the fermenter and it smelled like feet. When racking to a carboy the colour was slightly green. It also tasted like feet, with a slight wheat beer taste. OG & FG were pretty normal. There were no obvious signs of infection (although I have never seen one before) and the yeast cake looked normal, actually pretty healthy. After racking and rinsing the fermenter smelled normal.

I have heard that copper needs to be treated before it touches wort, something I didn't do. I'm guessing this is why the beer tastes and smells so bad, there is green copper in it. Do you think this is the problem? If it is, how should I treat the copper before the next batch? Will the beer "get better?"
 
This happened to me once, where my beer had a funny green tint to it.. I think it was the fact that I used brewing salts in my cheap aluminum mash tun and it somehow reacted with the metal. I ended up tossing it.. I don't know about copper needing to be treated.. I bought a pre-made IC and it's never turned my beer green..
 
I have to give you props for tasting it even though it still smelled like feet. :eek:

Not sure why it has that off taste, but I don't think it's from the copper.
 
I never treated my IC or any copper dip tubes I have and never had a problem.
 
Sounds like a typical wheat beer to me :D

Seriously! All jokes aside you most likely had an infected batch...I would brew it again and can almost guarantee you get different results...make sure your using good yeast and water.
 
Sounds like a typical wheat beer to me :D

+1 to this, you can't tell anything at only one week into fermentation, the green color is probably from hops, did you use pellets? I'd let this finish and clear, then assess the brew.:mug:
 
I always recommend the wrong things...I read a thread go do something then come back and answer. This is what you shouldn't do. If its only 1 week into primary let it be...Be patient and you shall receive greatness in return. You cant rush these things and if you do it will taste "Green" and young.
 
In the future, you should consider doing a longer boil whenever you use Pils malt. Usually 90 minutes. Pils malt can give more DMS than most other malts, which could smell like corn, cabbage, and vegetables in general. DMS is driven off by longer boils and quick chilling.
 
It's my first all-grain wheat beer so I didn't really know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect feet. I considered throwing it away, I guess continuing as normal was a good choice... after all it doesn't cost me anything to keep it in a carboy.

I found the recipe on this web site, I think it was called Bee Cave Hefeweizen. It asked for the 45 minute boil.

I'll taste it again next week, thanks for all the comments!
 
Like so many other people have said on this board. Never throw it out. Especially if it just has a bad scent to it. If there isn't anything growing on the surface, it can't hurt to let some more time pass to see what happens. Remember, as long as you have it, you always have the option to ditch it and not drink it. Once it's gone though, you'll never know.
 
Come to think of it, there was another change in method. Usually I use leaf hops and screen them out when I pour into the fermentor, but this time I used pelletized hops in a bag during the boil, then lifted them out and squeezed out the wort before siphoning. It was my first time using pelletized hops with all-grain. I doubt boiling a bag would make a difference but who knows.
 
Yea that's the green, you will have all manner of smells from fermenting beer (Search Rhino farts) We had one that smelled exactly like cooking venison or liver, it was great.
 
You used hefeweisen yeast, too? Notoriously stinky :)

Leave it in secondary a good long time - Give it time to clean up. In hindsight, you might have left it in primary for two or three weeks before racking. I think it's going to be fine :)
 
I have a witbier in primary right now. The smell is so bad that I had to open windows. It smells like a Ford Pinto crammed with fratboys after 10 cents taco night.
 
A little update, it has been in secondary. The smell is not so bad now, but is far from pleasant. It tastes exactly the same, awful, however the smell probably has a lot to do with it. The colour is normal, and exceptionally clear.

another beer, an english bitter, fermented in the same bucket after washing and sanitizing, is turning out well.
 
I had a similar sour/feet smell coming from my fermenter after a few days in the primary last week(M.O./Cascade SMaSH). A few days later and the smell is gone.
 
I've never heard of a 90 minute mash and a 45 minute boil with pilsner malt- usually its the exact opposite of that! You want to do a 90 minute boil with pilsner malt because of the DMS precursors.

Anyway, I don't like wheat beer because of the way it tastes/smells. Maybe it's supposed to be like that? ;)
 
I found the recipe on this web site, I think it was called Bee Cave Hefeweizen. It asked for the 45 minute boil.

The recipe calls for a 60 minute boil

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/bee-cave-brewery-bavarian-hefeweizen-35679/

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 10-13
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 3-4 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days at 68 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): None
 
That's right... must have glossed over that part and skipped to the 45 minute hops.
 
Tried the first bottle, still tastes bad, but tastes more like a banana. An unripened banana grown in desert sand. Maybe a few more weeks?
 
I'm interested to see what you find out with this -- I too experienced similiar problem with a recent AG batch - smell like cheese or feet and tasted bad too. This was at less than 2 weeks old so mine may be a green beer issue too. Also, I saw a greenish tint to my problem beer -- this has go to be the same problem your having. Some folks on here suggested oxidized hops as a culprit.
 
Based on the DMS show on the Brewing Network, I'm going to agree with Yoop and say do a 90 min boil next time. Easy as pie.
 
I wouldn't worry about the taste in the slightest until it has bottle conditioned for at least a couple of weeks. I think time will be good to you.
 
I just brewed a wheat beer too (granted, mine was extract, so we can't compare completely)... a week or even two into fermentation it smelled terrible... feet would probably be a good way to describe it, I almost started a thread here :). When I bottled at 3 weeks it smelled and tasted great!
 
It's drinkable now, still a bad beer but better than some especially bad store-bought wheat beers I've had. Aroma is completely sour banana, taste is plain and slightly sour, but greatly improved with the addition of a slice of orange. It's refreshing, hopefully by the next hot summer day it'll improve even more so I can enjoy it properly (on a patio chair) but I doubt it'll last that long.
 
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