goofiefoot
Well-Known Member
I got inspired by Jamil's DW article in BYO and set off to brew a "quick" beer for my empty kegerator. I've already detailed the problems with my 56% efficiency thread, but this is more of a taste issue.
I fermented the beer for 10 days at 62° from 1.044 to 1.012 and racked directly into a sanitized keg. I tasted the hydrometer sample and it was nice - malty and fresh. I hadn't cold-crashed, and noticed a large amount of chunks suspended in the carboy traveling through the racking cane into my keg, especially as I got down to the bottom. I went ahead and sealed it up, pressurized, and dropped into my kegerator.
The more I thought about all those chunks, the more it bothered me, so 2 days later I rigged up some cheesecloth over my autosiphon and racked from one keg to another. This is where I ran into problems.
The whole time I was racking, I had bubbles in the line - a lot of bubbles. Not sure if this was CO2 or not, but I had a pretty good "head" on the liquid in the keg by the time I got close to filling it. When the siphon petered out, I realized there was still a good deal of beer left in the bottom of the original keg (probably about a quart or more). Not wanting to waste it and not being able to draw it out with the siphon, I decided to "carefully" pour out the remainder from keg to keg, trying to avoid transferring chunks. Not an easy task, and there was a good deal of splashing.
Frustrated, but willing to continue the process, I sealed it up, pressurized it, and threw it back in the kegerator. I waited a few days and started force-carbing it. I tasted it a couple days ago.
So, the taste is strange. It's not necessarily BAD - I don't gag or anything, but it's got an almost vegetable broth quality to it. Maybe the color and cloudiness add to that perception, but it just tastes a little bland. The malty character I tasted before has all but disappeared. It's not supposed to be a bitter beer, but I get almost no hop character. It's just kinda funky. I ran off about 1.5 pints to get rid of the bottom funk, then ended up drinking 2 pints. The 2nd pint was noticeably better tasting, but not great.
So, is my poor efficiency the culprit? Oxidation? Infection? Is this what dunkelweizen is supposed to taste like?
I fermented the beer for 10 days at 62° from 1.044 to 1.012 and racked directly into a sanitized keg. I tasted the hydrometer sample and it was nice - malty and fresh. I hadn't cold-crashed, and noticed a large amount of chunks suspended in the carboy traveling through the racking cane into my keg, especially as I got down to the bottom. I went ahead and sealed it up, pressurized, and dropped into my kegerator.
The more I thought about all those chunks, the more it bothered me, so 2 days later I rigged up some cheesecloth over my autosiphon and racked from one keg to another. This is where I ran into problems.
The whole time I was racking, I had bubbles in the line - a lot of bubbles. Not sure if this was CO2 or not, but I had a pretty good "head" on the liquid in the keg by the time I got close to filling it. When the siphon petered out, I realized there was still a good deal of beer left in the bottom of the original keg (probably about a quart or more). Not wanting to waste it and not being able to draw it out with the siphon, I decided to "carefully" pour out the remainder from keg to keg, trying to avoid transferring chunks. Not an easy task, and there was a good deal of splashing.
Frustrated, but willing to continue the process, I sealed it up, pressurized it, and threw it back in the kegerator. I waited a few days and started force-carbing it. I tasted it a couple days ago.
So, the taste is strange. It's not necessarily BAD - I don't gag or anything, but it's got an almost vegetable broth quality to it. Maybe the color and cloudiness add to that perception, but it just tastes a little bland. The malty character I tasted before has all but disappeared. It's not supposed to be a bitter beer, but I get almost no hop character. It's just kinda funky. I ran off about 1.5 pints to get rid of the bottom funk, then ended up drinking 2 pints. The 2nd pint was noticeably better tasting, but not great.
So, is my poor efficiency the culprit? Oxidation? Infection? Is this what dunkelweizen is supposed to taste like?