First brew concerns

[lbaker]

"Amarillo Face"
3.0 lbs Wheat dry malt extract (Bavarian wheat)
1.0 lbs Light dry malt extract (Pilsen light)
1.0 lbs Rice syrup solids
.75 lbs Wheat malt crushed
.75 lbs Flaked wheat
.50 oz Amarillo hops, added at the beginning of the 60 min boil
.50 oz Amarillo hops, added at 30 min into the boil
.50 oz Amarillo hops, added at 45 min into boil
.50 oz Amarillo hops, added at 55 min into boil
1.0 oz Amarillo hops, added as a dry hop

1. Place crushed grains in musk in bag and add to 2-3 gallons of 150F water. Allow grain to steep for 30 mins. 2. Remove grain bag, rinse with hot water and gently squeeze liquid from bag into "grain tea".
3. Add malt extract to "grain tea" while being sure to completely dissolve extract to avoid scorching.
4. Add Amarillo hops and begin 60 min boil.
5. Continue to add hops to above schedule.
6. Chill wort asap with immersion chiller, pour cooled wort into 6.5 Carboy with enough chilled bottled water to equal 5 gallons. Aerate well by shaking Carboy.
7. Pitch yeast.
8. Transfer from primary to 5 Carboy and add remaining pellets for dry hopping.

The recipe has a projected OG of 1.048-1.050.. the projected FG is 1.010-1.012..mine hit 1.008. Sat in primary for 2 weeks, secondary dry hopping for 1 week, and currently sitting at 12 psi for 10 days. My concern is that my first batch doesn't nearly taste the way I was hoping. I understand this beer is relatively green, but that taste hasn't changed much from the sample after week 2 as it did today. Smells great, but does have some off flavors strong alcoholic bite for sure. I also realized that everything in the brew process went great, from sanitation to transfer. I do admit that I could have over squeezed the grain bag and transferred too much sediment from Carboy to Carboy to keg. I was focused too much on getting every drop and in the process brought a little floaties around for the ride.

Be concerned about the taste or give it more time?

 

[Six_O_Turbo]

What temperature did you ferment at? Sometimes you can get hot alcohol flavors from fermenting at too high a temp or severely fluctuating temperatures.

Also, what yeast?

 

[lbaker]

What temperature did you ferment at? Sometimes you can get hot alcohol flavors from fermenting at too high a temp or severely fluctuating temperatures.

Also, what yeast?

Sit in my closet that was at 65-70 throughout the weeks. Used a wyeast 1010 American wheat smack pack

 

[themashedone]

u shouldnt squeeze the specialty grains after steeping it will release tannins into your wort which can create off flavors. I usually heat my water to about 160 and steep for twenty minutes then rinse the grains into the wort. but thats me

 

[Malintent]

at what temp was it during the 10 days in keg at pressure? cold or same as fermentation temp?

 

[TTB-J]

u shouldnt squeeze the specialty grains after steeping it will release tannins into your wort which can create off flavors. I usually heat my water to about 160 and steep for twenty minutes then rinse the grains into the wort. but thats me

Respectfully, squeezing your grain bag has nothing to do with tannin extraction, that is almost entirely dependent on pH and temperature of your water.

Read what Palmer has to say about off-flavors and see if you can trace back what you're tasting to something that might have happened during the beer's creation:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[Kaz]

I think the tannin issue is overrated, unless maybe using darker steeping grains. If your closet was 70F, the fermentation could've hit 80F so you may have gotten some more fruitiness and fusel alcohols from the yeast than you expected. It is still a little green at only 10 days in the keg. I would give it another week and hopefully the flavors will mellow out for you.

 

[elpenoso]

Yea What Kaz said. Your just beginning and the truth is you wont be entirely happy with your brews for a number of batches but the quicker you learn the importance of yeast and fermentation temps the better.
My advice once its drinkable drink all of it because it will only get worst with time. Im now just figuring all of this out. After 20 something batches that is.

 

[lbaker]

at what temp was it during the 10 days in keg at pressure? cold or same as fermentation temp?

Cold, got my kegerator pretty low for it. Pretty constant at 38*

 

[unionrdr]

With those off flavors,I'd of left it on the yeast cake 3-4 weeks to clean them up. Then dry hop. I did that on my last batch,& the beer was way better.

 

[Malintent]

Cold, got my kegerator pretty low for it. Pretty constant at 38*

hmm.. Then I don't suspect it has anything to do with carbonic acid. At that temperature I think it would have been reabsorbed quickly... if not, then it should already be starting to taste better.

 

[lbaker]

With those off flavors,I'd of left it on the yeast cake 3-4 weeks to clean them up. Then dry hop. I did that on my last batch,& the beer was way better.

I think u nailed what went wrong. I must have more patience with the next batch, but had people telling me since it was a wheat it needed to be consumed young. Oh well. Lesson learned. 3-4 weeks in primary!