3 weeks in primary. Beer tastes awful.

We bottled our very first brew today, and we of course tasted the batch before priming and bottling. It tasted absolutely awful. It's supposed to be an IPA, but it didn't taste anything even resembling as IPA. I understand the beer may still be green, and it was at room temperature and uncarbonated, but shouldn't it have at least resembled an IPA? There was no hop character, and it was very abrasive. I'm kind of bummed. Will the beer end up okay, or do we have 41 bottles of something slightly worse than Coors Light?

no way to tell before carbing/aging. it could be bollocks or brilliant. carb it and see what develops

Bottle it and let sit for 3 or 4 weeks......should be good to go after that.

You might try to describe the awful flavor. It may help diagnose any problems. But generally awful beer at bottling doesn't transform to even good beer from sitting in a bottle.

IMO it depends on how awful. I have had several that I didn't like the taste of at bottling, a couple that were not too good at 3 weeks in the bottles and very good at 4 weeks.

If it tastes "bad" there might be something going on that will not cure with age. The only real way to know is to wait and see.

Okay, it's not awful. It's bitter, but that's about it. In tasting it again, I can't honestly say that's it all that bad, it's just not what I expected. This being our first batch, I don't have anything to compare it to, other than the dozens and dozens of IPAs I've had. I might be over exaggerating, come to think of it. I should probably just relax, and let the yeast do their thing. It seriously looks abysmal though. Just horrible.

My first IPA smelled amazing in primary, then awesome in secondary until bottle time. Then it tasted okay, but smelled kinda gross. After 6 weeks it was one of the best beers I've had, and my hophead friends took more than their fair share of it.

If you're not getting enough aroma, it could be because you either didn't dry hop in secondary, or steeped your aroma hops too long, etc. Remember, a lot of the great commercial IPAs are technically closer to IIPA and DIPAs and the great IIPA and DIPA out there are pretty much INSANE hop amounts right now (which is a beautiful thing, to me) so an easy rule of thumb with a kit is to BUY MORE HOPS. Go to town. Let the beer sit in bottles for a good 2 weeks, and then in the fridge overnight. See if you don't change your mind.

Sea_of_Shells said:

Okay, it's not awful. It's bitter, but that's about it. In tasting it again, I can't honestly say that's it all that bad, it's just not what I expected. This being our first batch, I don't have anything to compare it to, other than the dozens and dozens of IPAs I've had. I might be over exaggerating, come to think of it. I should probably just relax, and let the yeast do their thing. It seriously looks abysmal though. Just horrible.

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A slightly better description than the first post. It might get better. Try to picture, remember that taste. If you can describe any off flavor it will help. I hate waiting 3 weeks to taste a beer that may be flawed when I know I'm going to brew again before that.

There's kind of an oxidized, wet cardboard thing going on. It feels medium bodied in the mouth, but I don't get any real flavor. It's really just a bitter, medium bodied water. No malt character, and no real hop character. It does have a legitimate IPA bitterness. But honestly, that's it. I'm probably just overreacting. This was an extract kit with steeping grains from Brewer's Best. We followed the hop schedule perfectly, and dry hopped it for about 10 days.

Let it ride... Let it sit 3-4 weeks in the bottle before declaring it horrid. It may turn out awesome! I've had a few IPAs that tasted nothing but bitter before racking to secondary or bottling, then tastes great after mellowing out a few weeks.

To follow some of the previous posters' advice, I agree that you should just wait a few weeks then chill it and try it again. I usually don't care for the taste of the beer at bottling. Sometimes a particular beer may be exceptional at that time, but most of them (especially IPAs) just don't taste anything like the finished product. The aroma should be there, but the flavor will generally improve immensely in the bottle. Cheers

Just out of curiosity, what was the recipe? It might help point someone on here in a helpful direction.

It was BrewCraft Dry-Hopped West Coast IPA

1lb. Crystal Malt
6lbs. Briess Pilsen Light DME
1lb. Brewer's Crystals

1oz. bittering hops (mixture of columbus, centennial, cascade and nugget)
2. oz flavoring hops (same mixture)
1oz. Aroma (same)
1oz. Dry hopping (same)

Fermentis US-05 ale yeast

I honestly would not worry at this point. Being your first brew, I wouldn't be surprised if your yeast have extra by-products to clean up (I know mine did!). You likely still have quite a bit of yeast in suspension (which gives it a weird sort of bite). And you have no carbonation which can change a beer quite dramatically.

Bottle it up, let it sit 3-4 weeks, and then chill for a week. I bet it will change quite a bit for the better. In the mean time, get a 2nd brew going. Pay special attention to sanitation, to pitching enough healthy yeast at the optimum temp, and controlling temperature near the yeasts low end of temps.

At what times in the boil were the flavoring hops and aroma hops added?

I tried my first ipa (IIPA) and I wasn't thrilled, but I am dry hopping now , and expecting once I bottle for this to come through greatly. My second beer, my RIS, was so bold and strong, I couldn't drink more than a few sips, after some time in the bottles it's coming out great. Of course this needs a lot of time in the bottles to age, I'm sure yours will turn out fine.

sweed said:

At what times in the boil were the flavoring hops and aroma hops added?

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I'm pretty sure the hop schedule was 60, 45 and 15, but that's going off the top of my head. We dry hopped it for about 10 days.

We wrote down everything we did wrong, and we're going to make sure that we don't do those things again. Chief among them, was high fermentation temps during the first 48 hours. I believe it got up to 86 at one point. I know this can lead to off flavors. I'm sure the yeast just needs to clean up a bit more. We'll open one after 3 weeks and see what the damage is. If they need to sit longer, so be it. I want a good beer, damnit!

So two things.
1) 45 is a little early for flavor hops. They should typically be between 30-15. And I would also bump the aroma addition to either 1 minute or flameout. But neither here nor there since its a kit and not your recipe.
2) Wet cardboard... If that's really the flavor, that's probably not going to go away. It's probably going to just get worse. If the beer is oxidized and skunky then time will not heal that one. However its still worth bottling and waiting on. 86 is way high, even US-05 can get some funky flavors going on. That may be the cause of your flavor as well. Just wait and see. Is there any point you could have oxidized it?

So focus on temp control for next round, and make those slight modifications to the kit for a little more flavor an aroma. See what happens!

As far as oxidation, when we transferred the beer from kettle to bucket, we didn't rack it. Instead, we "gently" poured it from the kettle into the bucket.

The best beer I have ever made tasted awful before I bottled it. Bottle it and forget about it. Let it sit for 4 or 5 weeks, you will be amazed! Start planning your next brew!

i've never liked the taste of any of my brews during the process really.. unless its at least slightly chilled and slightly carbonated, i never know if its good or not

From my own experience most IPA's and some Pale Ales taste really, really bitter when they're green. Give it a few weeks bottle conditioning and it should turn out fine.

Sea_of_Shells said:

As far as oxidation, when we transferred the beer from kettle to bucket, we didn't rack it. Instead, we "gently" poured it from the kettle into the bucket.

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If your referring to the boiled wort, after chilling, you want to pour that in the primary, aerating it, before you put the yeast in. So you don't have to be gentle with the pour, I always get a bunch of foam.its only after fermenting you want to worry about not aerating it.

A fermentation temperature of 86 degrees can cause some pretty awful flavor in the finished beer, unfortunately.

A couple of things for next time- go ahead and pour the wort from kettle to fermenter- you want to aerate the heck of of your wort. Yeast need the oxygen before fermentation begins. They even sell oxygen kits to aerate your wort, so it's a good thing to do for good yeast health.

Of course, temperature control is crucial. Try to never let your beer get higher than 68 degrees. Use good quality yeast, and the proper amount (often more than one package for an IPA).

A really bad tasting beer doesn't turn into a good beer with age. But maybe it will be drinkable once carbed up.

Let it carb and sit. Hydro samples usually dont taste AMAZING lol. You get a general idea for what to expect, but it's young beer with a different mouthfeel amongst other things. Dont get nervous yet.

So what ever happened to this beer?

I made the same kit as my first attempt at home brew early last month. My batch has been in bottle since Halloween the sample I took last week had champagne-like taste to it... not very pleasant; which is the 3rd time I've heard of that with this kit. I know I messed up the fermentation process (3 days primary, but extended secondary nearly 3 weeks... my mistake in reading the directions) but I also know my temp was 68-70 the entire time because I had it temp controlled in my kegerator with the thermostat in a 2 gallon jug of water next to it (to simulate the carboy temps).

I'm starting to think it may be the recipe. Anyone know someone who pulled it off? The Stone IPA clone I have in primary for 10 days now will hopefully be much better.

It was an infected beer and the guy is dead now. So unfair to not tell how it came up.

I think I recall a news story where a man's bones were discovered during an explosion/fire/gas cloud investigation. Remember that? Half the town was evacuated after that tainted beer explosion...

Sea_of_Shells said:

I'm pretty sure the hop schedule was 60, 45 and 15, but that's going off the top of my head. We dry hopped it for about 10 days.

We wrote down everything we did wrong, and we're going to make sure that we don't do those things again. Chief among them, was high fermentation temps during the first 48 hours. I believe it got up to 86 at one point. I know this can lead to off flavors. I'm sure the yeast just needs to clean up a bit more. We'll open one after 3 weeks and see what the damage is. If they need to sit longer, so be it. I want a good beer, damnit!

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My guess is the bolded part is where your issues lie. 86 is hot, really hot for US-05. Give it some time. I will say though, I've never had a beer I've tasted on kegging day that tasted, "Aweful" You can definitely tell it's not finished beer, but I at least get a good indication of the potential "Goodness" of the beer. It also took me a couple of brews to get past the flat beer perception. That seemed to dominate the first couple of beers I tasted off of the gravity sample. Once your mind adjusts to the fact that you are in fact tasting warm flat beer, you'll get past that and actually taste the beer for what it is.

It will change pretty drastically though once cooled and carbed up. More than likely for the better too. I find I'm able to pick out more subtle off flavors that may have happened in my beer when tasting the gravity sample as opposed to after it's chilled and carbed up. And I find the carbonation will bring out more of the subtle hop flavors you might be missing now. Those bubbles help get that hop aroma in your nose, imo.