Good beer gone bad?

[darkeagle03]

I made my 4th batch of extract beer a while ago. The first 3 came out pretty good. So did this one, at first. After waiting the requisite period of time for fermentation and bottle conditioning I brought a case camping where 5 of us enjoyed them. Both the straight kit and the ones we added flavoring to were good.

They were clearly young though and needed time for the flavors to meld. It's been about a month more now and I tried a couple that were sitting in my fridge during that period. They tasted terrible! Both with and without flavoring were nearly undrinkable. Something clearly went wrong, but I don't have any idea what that could be. Do you? Additionally, I just talked to one of the guys that went camping with us. He recently had a few of the leftovers and said they were even better than before (as I was expecting). I'm confused.

 

[Newbeerguy]

I made my 4th batch of extract beer a while ago. The first 3 came out pretty good. So did this one, at first. After waiting the requisite period of time for fermentation and bottle conditioning I brought a case camping where 5 of us enjoyed them. Both the straight kit and the ones we added flavoring to were good.

They were clearly young though and needed time for the flavors to meld. It's been about a month more now and I tried a couple that were sitting in my fridge during that period. They tasted terrible! Both with and without flavoring were nearly undrinkable. Something clearly went wrong, but I don't have any idea what that could be. Do you? Additionally, I just talked to one of the guys that went camping with us. He recently had a few of the leftovers and said they were even better than before (as I was expecting). I'm confused.

Can you be a bit more specific about what tasted terrible? You say you flavored some as well? What flavoring and what was the original recipe? What was the specific length of time you let it ferment/bottle condition and at what temps.

I know it's alot of info, but the more we know, the more we can help!

 

[darkeagle03]

lol it's not a problem to provide more info. Thanks for being willing to help out

I'm not entirely sure how to describe the taste. It was overly alcoholic and kind of had a gassy taste to it as well IMO, like it had gone totally skunky. I tried asking the other person that tried the bad ones and he couldn't describe it any better either, though he somewhat disagrees about the gassy part.

The original kit was a honey wheat extract kit from the same company I'd bought the previous 3 kits from (though our first time with the honey wheat). I followed the directions that came with it as far as the length of time. Unfortunately, I don't have the directions in front of me, and that was about 2+ months ago now, so I can't give you exact numbers (I might be able to look them up when I get home). I believe it was a 15 day fermentation, followed by 3 weeks of bottle-conditioning. The temperature would be a potential problem as I live in a small condo with very limited space and don't have any way to set up a well-regulated environment for that. However, I once placed a thermometer in the cabinet I ferment in and it seems to stay around 68 degrees or so which is well within the range of desired fermentation temperatures. I also have not had a problem with any of the previous kits.

Everything up until the bottling process was done according to the normal directions and procedures for the kit. During bottling time, I bottled half the batch before making any modifications. For the second half of the batch, I added about a shot of a homemade cinnamon extract (soaked cinnamon sticks in rum for about a week beforehand), and a 1/2 shot of a store-bought, but never opened almond-extract (the exact amounts might be a bit off, I wrote them down but don't have them in front of me). I then stirred it into the beer and continued to bottle the rest of the batch.

The thing that gets me is that both the flavored and non-flavored ones turned out like this. If it was just the flavored the ones then I'd automatically assume it was something I did with that (first assumption would be the almond-extract introduced something since I never boiled it), but the ones that never received any modifications also had this problem. Additionally, they all tasted fine shortly after the bottle-conditioning was done and the ones I left with other people were apparently good even just a few days ago. The 4 (2 flavored, 2 non-flavored) that we left in our fridge were bad (they refrigerated theirs as well). I haven't tried any of the ones that have been laying around in a cabinet yet.

 

[Aschecte]

My guess is one of 2 things . The first being contamination in the bottles causing infection in the bottles. The second is that you have fussel alcohols which would explain the overly alcohol hot taste. What are you using to sanitize your bottles, racking cane, hoses, and bucket ? As far as the fussel's are concerned temperature (hot) is the culprit there. I'm also somewhat thinking the beer may have still been green, meaning it hadn't fully matured to a stable flavor.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,any off flavors will get worse with age rather than better...generally. Maybe those bottles weren't sealed well? Not sanitized properly before filling? Some nasties do take time to develope in a bottle under pressure.

 

[darkeagle03]

Thanks. What I'm really hoping for is that it's just a set of bottles that we didn't sanitize well enough. I don't see how it would be contaminants in the whole batch since the 15 or so we left with friends apparently didn't have any off flavors.

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on the sanitizer right now. It's a white powder that we mix with water. I'll get back to you on that tomorrow when I get home.

 

[Aschecte]

Thanks. What I'm really hoping for is that it's just a set of bottles that we didn't sanitize well enough. I don't see how it would be contaminants in the whole batch since the 15 or so we left with friends apparently didn't have any off flavors.

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on the sanitizer right now. It's a white powder that we mix with water. I'll get back to you on that tomorrow when I get home.

Sounds like maybe one step your using. I would recommend from expierence using a separate cleaner like pbw or b-brite which are only cleaners than a separate sanitizer right before you bottle or rack or whatever like starsan or iodophor.

 

[unionrdr]

Yup. I do all my cleaning/de-labeling with PBW. All sanitizing with Starsan,a no-rinse sanitizer. The PBW has to be rinsed though. Both do a great job & are worth the money.

 

[WileECoyote]

I would ask your friends how they cared for the bottles of brew you left with them, then look back how you have taken care of the ones you have, Ill bet there is a difference between the two, maybe sunlight, storage temps, traveling with them will shake yeast up, I would write down everything you can think of, write it down, then ask your friend the same questions and compare notes, bet you'll find your answer.

Cheers

 

[darkeagle03]

Its possible but if anything they would have shaken it up more and exposed them to more light since the bad ones had none of either

 

[darkeagle03]

The sanitizer is Brewer's Edge. Yes, it's a one-step.

The more I think on it, I really think some of the bottles might just have not been sanitized well. Now that I think back on it, the timing of the process for this batch wound up being pretty poor. This is usually a 2-man operation between my brother and I, but he was out of town at the time of the bottling. I had to fly across country the next morning, still had to pack, and didn't get home until about 11pm. So the whole bottling thing was done solo and was very rushed. I guess it's going to be a crap-shoot as to which beers are OK and which are infected. It's kind of unusual though that the first set of 12 that were drank didn't have any bad bottles.