So, I'm really hoping this thread's advice pans out in my case. After taking the plunge recently and stepping up to all grain after years of extract brewing , I brewed my first 10-gallon batch a little over two weeks ago, Northern Brewer's cream ale kit. I used a starter made from safale-05 I recycled from a previous batch.
I think I may have either picked up some nasties from the recycled yeast (maybe I didn't properly wash it, I'm pretty new to re-using yeast), or made a bad call by insufficiently aerating before pitching the yeast - I tried the olive oil trick instead. Even though I used yeast nutrient, there was about a 24-hour lag before visible fermentation began.
I realize it's still pretty green, but it now has one heck of an off flavor and odor - hard to describe, but kind of sharp, unpleasant, and licorice-y. The off flavor *really* lingers in the aftertaste. I need to drink a good beer after tasting to get it to go away. I can't decide if it's just yeast bite, or something worse (seems worse). I racked to secondary this past weekend and have been cold crashing to settle the yeast out, but the taste is still just as strong in the clear beer from the top of the carboy. There was also quite a bit of clumpy yeast in suspension when I racked them to secondary, I think I've read in other threads that clumpy yeast is a sign of possible infeciton.
Anyway, my only question would be, am I more likely to age out this terrible off flavor if I bottle and condition the beer, or if I just let it sit in the secondary? I'd originally intended on kegging it, but I'll bottle if there's more of a chance that this can be salvaged that way. It's be a real bummer to have to dump a 10-gallon batch....
I think I may have either picked up some nasties from the recycled yeast (maybe I didn't properly wash it, I'm pretty new to re-using yeast), or made a bad call by insufficiently aerating before pitching the yeast - I tried the olive oil trick instead. Even though I used yeast nutrient, there was about a 24-hour lag before visible fermentation began.
I realize it's still pretty green, but it now has one heck of an off flavor and odor - hard to describe, but kind of sharp, unpleasant, and licorice-y. The off flavor *really* lingers in the aftertaste. I need to drink a good beer after tasting to get it to go away. I can't decide if it's just yeast bite, or something worse (seems worse). I racked to secondary this past weekend and have been cold crashing to settle the yeast out, but the taste is still just as strong in the clear beer from the top of the carboy. There was also quite a bit of clumpy yeast in suspension when I racked them to secondary, I think I've read in other threads that clumpy yeast is a sign of possible infeciton.
Anyway, my only question would be, am I more likely to age out this terrible off flavor if I bottle and condition the beer, or if I just let it sit in the secondary? I'd originally intended on kegging it, but I'll bottle if there's more of a chance that this can be salvaged that way. It's be a real bummer to have to dump a 10-gallon batch....