Beer taste different after several weeks

[Kmcogar]

I brewed a weizen. It can out quite well. It took first in its category at the kona homebrew contest.when I bottled it and for the first month it taste amazing. Now that I have about 30% left in the keg and it taste off. The banana/clove aroma and taste has dissipated. It now has a buttery/bready flavor. What could have happened? The keg was never opened. It's a great session beer but....well it's not so great anymore.

Any thoughts?


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[brewmeister13]

The natural aging process at work? The beer may have peaked and you are now seeing the decline.

 

[WileECoyote]

Beer flavor will change with age, I personally like the age/conditioned beers taste better.

With a Weizen when it is finished, you will want to drink it fresh, the older it gets the more the flavors meld and the less they will stand out.

Cheers

 

[mabrungard]

Weizen is a very short lived beer. It is a thing of youth and does not tolerate aging. Drink young and enjoy!

 

[ajdelange]

I brewed a weizen. It can out quite well. It took first in its category at the kona homebrew contest.when I bottled it and for the first month it taste amazing. Now that I have about 30% left in the keg and it taste off. The banana/clove aroma and taste has dissipated. It now has a buttery/bready flavor.

All, alas, perfectly normal for Weizen. I even stopped brewing it because while I used to love it I now always wind up in December with half a keg left and you don't want to throw beer away so I'd drink it. Whenever I think of Weizen I think of that oxidized taste.

What could have happened? The keg was never opened. It's a great session beer but....well it's not so great anymore.

I used the term 'oxidized' above but I'm not sure at all that this is the cause as my wheats get exposed to no more oxygen than any of my other beers (none once the wort is in the fermenter) and there are plenty of yeast in the keg. My rough recall is that it is not so good a week in the keg, drinkable after 2, pretty good after three, continues to improve for the next 6 weeks and then the slow decline starts. After 3 or more months it just isn't fresh any more.

 

[cheezydemon3]

All that has been said is true, but add to this the fact that your tastes change also, and become used to a certain style the more and more frequently you drink it, or the more you ingest salt or other strong spices.

 

[Callacave]

Could it also beer that the yeast have settled out in the keg? Maybe if you give it a shake you'll get some of that flavor back?

 

[Jayhem]

Wheat beers and hoppy beers...drink em young!

 

[Kmcogar]

Could it also beer that the yeast have settled out in the keg? Maybe if you give it a shake you'll get some of that flavor back?

I'll give it a try. I guess it couldn't hurt


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[ajdelange]

Unfortunately, that isn't going to work. Would that it did!

 

[Kmcogar]

Ok a different note. What are the best beers to brew that last a good amount of time? I find myself being the only one drinking my beers since I moved recently. So they get drunken slowly.


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[ajdelange]

The obvious answer is the lagers. Supposedly 3 mos. lagering is good with longer for O'fest. I've found you can drink them after a month and then for over a year beyond that. They do change but slowly. The change is not always for the better but sometimes it is. This supposes that you have been absolutely scrupulous with respect to excluding oxygen from the package.

 

[brewmeister13]

Big beers, barley wine, Russian imperial stout, ect, last a long time too and generally get better with time. Problem is they can be difficult to brew.

 

[WileECoyote]

Ok a different note. What are the best beers to brew that last a good amount of time? I find myself being the only one drinking my beers since I moved recently. So they get drunken slowly.


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Hello, I would say (Depending on your definition of a good amount of time)
ambers, porters, stouts, IPAs and before everyone jumps on the drink IPAs fast and fresh bandwagon, just remember why IPAs came about in the first place.

I would say even yellow beers as long as your drinking them within 2 to 3 months after its on tap or bottled.

What you will want to stay away from is wheat beers/weizen's, cream ale's and real light beers as they have a shorter good drinking shelf life.

Hope this helps !

Cheers

 

[brewmeister13]

Hello, I would say (Depending on your definition of a good amount of time)
ambers, porters, stouts, IPAs and before everyone jumps on the drink IPAs fast and fresh bandwagon, just remember why IPAs came about in the first place.

I guess I'll take the bate. I'm not very familiar with English IPAs (which for all I know may age beautifully), but I would definitely say American IPAs are like weizens and best young. So much that makes American hops special is lost when aged and they become dull and the balance is thrown off. To each his own though and if you like it, do it.

 

[WhyBeNormal]

I guess I'll take the bate. I'm not very familiar with English IPAs (which for all I know may age beautifully), but I would definitely say American IPAs are like weizens and best young. So much that makes American hops special is lost when aged and they become dull and the balance is thrown off. To each his own though and if you like it, do it.

I suspect what he meant was that IPAs will still taste good after a long time sitting on the shelf, not that they won't change at all.

I once had a year old Hazed & Infused and the hops were damn near all gone but it had turned into a pretty good amber ale. (That isn't a perfect example since it's an APA and not an IPA, but I think it illustrates my point. The hops will fade but the beer won't go "bad.")

 

[WileECoyote]

I guess I'll take the bate. I'm not very familiar with English IPAs (which for all I know may age beautifully), but I would definitely say American IPAs are like weizens and best young. So much that makes American hops special is lost when aged and they become dull and the balance is thrown off. To each his own though and if you like it, do it.

Hello, In short, Hops are a preservative, the more hops you add the longer beer will last.

I know IPAs are meant to drink fresh in modern brewing.

If you haven't yet read some history on beer, its pretty interesting how it evolved and how hops came to be used and how IPAs came about.

Cheers

 

[brewmeister13]

Hello, In short, Hops are a preservative, the more hops you add the longer beer will last.

I know IPAs are meant to drink fresh in modern brewing.

If you haven't yet read some history on beer, its pretty interesting how it evolved and how hops came to be used and how IPAs came about.

Cheers

Damn you semantics!:fro: I guess that I would have to know what the OP meant by last a while. I know, personally, that I've had IPA's that after as little as a month I didn't want to drink anymore. Sure they were still fine beers, unspoiled, uninfected and identifiable as beer, but I knew what they were supposed to taste like and they no longer did. I've also never had to worry about my beers surviving a long sea voyage.

 

[WileECoyote]

Damn you semantics!:fro: I guess that I would have to know what the OP meant by last a while. I know, personally, that I've had IPA's that after as little as a month I didn't want to drink anymore. Sure they were still fine beers, unspoiled, uninfected and identifiable as beer, but I knew what they were supposed to taste like and they no longer did. I've also never had to worry about my beers surviving a long sea voyage.

Nice !

Cheers my friend