byronyasgur
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2016
- Messages
- 208
- Reaction score
- 17
I have done about 10 beers or so; and while they're getting better with practice there's an off aroma in most of them which is really bugging me. I have no frame of reference is the problem - I've read a lot about off flavours and aromas but I can't get to the bottom of it - I was hoping that some people might comment on the likelihood or unlikelihood of the candidates - guesswork I know, sorry, since nobody can taste my beers - obviously it's all a bit of a shot in the dark but any thoughts would be appreciated - a problem shared is a problem halved
I haven't really done proper taste notes on the beers really but in general this phantom aroma is diminishing through successive batches - though I don't really know what I'm doing to effect that change. So far I've done a couple of of IPAs, a couple of pale ales and a couple of wheat beers ( strangely while the first wheat beer was a bit of a disaster for other reasons its the only one that doesn't suffer from this problem at all ... go figure ) that and a small batch of cider I did
The biggest problem is I literally can't describe the aroma - it's driving me nuts I've thought about it for months and while I totally recognise it I can't put my finger on it - or worse I can't really even compare it to anything - none of the stuff I've read really rings a bell and worse again there's about 5 or 6 things that sort of "could" be it - see below but I mean it might be fusel alcohols, it might be dms, it might be astringency ...
Another difficulty I'm having - maybe someone can help with is that in the earlier beers I could taste this as an off flavour but the last couple I can't taste it but I can smell it clearly and it ruins the dry hopping - but most of the off flavour/aroma material i've come across is to do with taste not aroma
The Candidates
I hope this post isn't just boring ranting, asking the impossible - any thoughts or comments appreciated
I haven't really done proper taste notes on the beers really but in general this phantom aroma is diminishing through successive batches - though I don't really know what I'm doing to effect that change. So far I've done a couple of of IPAs, a couple of pale ales and a couple of wheat beers ( strangely while the first wheat beer was a bit of a disaster for other reasons its the only one that doesn't suffer from this problem at all ... go figure ) that and a small batch of cider I did
The biggest problem is I literally can't describe the aroma - it's driving me nuts I've thought about it for months and while I totally recognise it I can't put my finger on it - or worse I can't really even compare it to anything - none of the stuff I've read really rings a bell and worse again there's about 5 or 6 things that sort of "could" be it - see below but I mean it might be fusel alcohols, it might be dms, it might be astringency ...
Another difficulty I'm having - maybe someone can help with is that in the earlier beers I could taste this as an off flavour but the last couple I can't taste it but I can smell it clearly and it ruins the dry hopping - but most of the off flavour/aroma material i've come across is to do with taste not aroma
The Candidates
- Fusel alcohols - I don't have a fridge but I am careful with temperature and rarely if ever do my ferments get higher than manufacturers instructions ( US-05) especially in the first few days
- Infection - I don't know this one really pickles my noodle - I am full on OCD about sanitation and cleaning so I don't see how all the batches would be infected but I have no way to know how sanitary things have to be - and I thought I'd recognise an infected batch I'm very sensitive to bad tastes
- High mash ph - I really thought it could be this and I spent a lot of time in brew and water and now I use RO water with some salts ( mainly going for tasty's hoppy water ) at this point - I noticed an improvement when I switched from what I had been using ( sometimes bottled, sometimes filtered tap water, sometimes well water - none of them tested but all of them tasted fine ) ... but even with the improvement it's still not right.
- Chlorine in the bottles - I used VWP in the dishwasher for bottle wash and sterilisation as recommended by a few people - I was not sure about it I thought I could still detect the chlorine smell and taste from the bottles after the wash - I now think this might have affected 2 batches ( making them astringent ) but my last batch I didn't use VWP on the bottles and though I didn't get the taste I can still get the off aroma so I don't know how this could be the culprit
- DMS - there's a possibility it might smell like cooked corn but I have yet to sit down with a beer and some cooked corn and compare - what type of corn do people mean - we have mainly tins of sweetcorn here in Ireland but there's not a big smell off them - not sure how I'd set up a test and I do pay attention to things like leaving the lid off and I haven't done any really short boils or anything - still this is the one I'm "liking" for the crime lately - but I thought DMS wouldn't be a problem given that I'm doing ales, 60 min or longer boils and leaving the lid off.
- Beer not ready - maybe I'm just not waiting long enough - mainly I'm waiting 3 weeks after bottling ( having carbed at room temp ) .... I thought that would be enough for at least getting rid of off flavours and aromas
I hope this post isn't just boring ranting, asking the impossible - any thoughts or comments appreciated