Sampled a fellow HBer's work... Something very wrong...

[Gixxer]

Kinda feel bad... My bro in law has a friend that brews, and I was interested in trying a few. He did a couple different styles, a PA from only Australian hops, one with all NZ hops, and a pumpkin ale... The Australian brew was fantastic!! Really enjoyed it. Didn't get to try the NZ brew yet. But... I opened the bottle of pumpkin, and immediately got a huge dirt aroma, Faint root beer, dirty vegetable smells... I took a small sip... Tasted exactly like the aroma!!! I had to spit it out... I have no idea what happened there but geez!!! I hope I got a bad bottle cause I don't think anybody could move that to a bottling bucket and not think something was wrong... I have no idea what his recipe or process was, but I definitely need to let him know something was wrong...

What's your worst HB tasting experiences?

 

[firestem4]

I was given a sample of an IPA that was dry hopped with fuggles. The brewer said it was terrible but most of us at the Brew club meeting tried it anyways. He didn't lie, It was terrible. lol

 

[Malric]

I got an IPA at a brew club meeting. Huge citrus hop aroma, but the first sip was all butterscotch.

 

[Darwin18]

At a homebrew club meeting a few months back a new member passed out a rye IPA and told us that he was going to enter it into an expensive homebrew competition. After trying it, I almost told him to not bother entering it because it was obviously fermented too hot. I could tell though that he was proud of it and decided to let the judges do it for him. If your brother in law's friend is looking for feedback then tell him, but if he was just sharing then don't bother. Thank him, and if he asks how it was, tell him something seemed off with the pumpkin ale and then go into further detail if he asks.

 

[unionrdr]

Did the bottle have a lot of trub in it? Maybe the pumpkin trub had something to do with it. Dry hopping for too long can give vegetal flavors & aromas as well.

 

[Gixxer]

There was a minimal amount of trub in the bottle, and i kept all of it in the bottle

 

[unionrdr]

Idk,maybe he secondaried for too long? That pumpkin got old somehow?

 

[frazier]

Was the pumpkin growing along the barnyard fence?

I would say something like, "I really liked the Australian ale (which is true, right?) but vegetable beers just aren't my cuppa tea." It's reasonably honest, and he'll probably choose to remember your praise of the one beer, over your very mild diss of the other.

Honestly, I just don't understand the pumpkin beer craze. I mean, people don't even eat the stuff unless they first spice the holy bejeezuz out of it with enough cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg to gag a goat. If you wouldn't eat it, why would you make a beer out of it?

Ummm, YMMV. Cheers!

 

[Braufessor]

Yeah - I try to let the situation dictate. If it is just folks sharing beers and B.S.ing I treat it as such and don't go out of my way to say - "hey, here is what I don't like about your beer." If someone is asking me for constructive feedback, I am honest with them and make sure I point out something(s) that are good and then whatever is not good and some thoughts on where the trouble could lie/something to try differently.

The one's that seem to pop up the most often in my opinion are phenolic/plastic/bandaid type stuff often from chlorine, astringency/harshness from the high bicarbonate water we have around here and sometimes hot/fusel flavors from high fermentation temps. Sometimes infections as well...... but you can often "see" that before you even drink it with foaming bottles, etc.

 

[Braufessor]

Honestly, I just don't understand the pumpkin beer craze. I mean, people don't even eat the stuff unless they first spice the holy bejeezuz out of it with enough cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg to gag a goat. If you wouldn't eat it, why would you make a beer out of it?

Ummm, YMMV. Cheers!

I am with you there -honestly, that was my first thought - it did not taste good because it was a pumpkin beer.

 

[Gixxer]

Sidenote... I do like most pumpkin beers a lot except Weyerbacher pumpkin (see note about cloves). I do indeed eat a lot of spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squash. Mostly only salt and peppered. cloves make my tongue numb.

I am just gonna be honest about the experience. Maybe it was infected somehow. I halfway ruled that one out though cause the beer was neither overcarbed nor was it a gusher.

 

[Zuljin]

Aside from some of my own sci-fi experiments?

An apfelwein made with garden hose water. It tasted like garden hose.

 

[davekippen]

Guy at HB club brought a beer and warned us that he scorched it with an electric brew stick. Never used one of those so I don't know how he did it, but yeah it tasted burney-metalicy-scorchey. Couldn't get the taste out of my mouth so all subsequent beers suffered.

 

[timrox1212]

Tasted a fellow brewers hefe that he added lemon zest to. Tasted like banana pudding and Lysol fell in the garbage together and he picked them out and bottled it. I tried to be nice and tell him that it wasn't awful but I would scale back the flavors and go for a more beer taste.