Slightly off flavor on first brew

[ncoutroulis]

Just had a bottle of my first brew, a kit brew of a Belgian pale ale. Was in bottles for 3 weeks, had a few bottles chilled for several days.

Good carbonation but just tastes a little off, just more bitter than it should, and not in a hippy kind of way.

Any thoughts on what I may have done wrong would be great

Thanks

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Just had a bottle of my first brew, a kit brew of a Belgian pale ale. Was in bottles for 3 weeks, had a few bottles chilled for several days.

Good carbonation but just tastes a little off, just more bitter than it should, and not in a hippy kind of way.

Any thoughts on what I may have done wrong would be great

Thanks

Too many variables and too little information. Let's make some assumptions and tell me if I am right:

Extract only kit with no grains at all
Dry packet of yeast with no designation stamped on it
couple of cans or a can and bag of dry extract
couple little baggies of hops

If all of this is accurate the directions probably told you to bring the water to a boil, add extract, bring to a boil and start adding hops at intervals. Then it told you to chill to 80 f and pitch yeast.

If all of this is true, the main F-up is the putching temperature...should likely be at least 10-15 degrees cooler.

That being said, is no grains are involved, the most common "bitter" flavor not from hops is actually a metallic taste from oxidation. This often happens in the transferring from primary to secondary, secondary to bottling bucket and bottling bucket to bottle. So splashing of any source after the wort is in theprimary is an issue.

 

[jethro55]

I thought that oxidation was a wet cardboard/sherry like off flavor. And doesn't oxidation happen over time? - this was fresh beer?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I thought that oxidation was a wet cardboard/sherry like off flavor. And doesn't oxidation happen over time? - this was fresh beer?

Who knows, maybe I mis-remebered but I thought it was a metallic taste.

To the OP I very briefly scanned your old posts and it appears the was an extract plus specialty grains so another possibility is reallllly overheating lthe grains like at +200 f.

 

[ncoutroulis]

This was a partial mash

Wyeast liquid yeast pitched around 68 degrees.

No secondary fermentation.

During the first few seconds of racking I did aerate slightly, but then fixed that issue.

The beer just tastes as if it should be slightly sweeter. The finish is more bitter than it should be.

Tough call, I know

Thanks

 

[TycoRossBrewing]

Oxidation gives a stale cardboard taste and as for the 80 degrees bit, i have yet to come across a recipe that suggests that.

 

[TycoRossBrewing]

What were the alpha acids of your hops and how many ounces did you use? Might want to use a secondary next time. Did you boil for more than a hour? When you added the extract did you remove from heat?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

This was a partial mash

Thanks

Did it by chance take a very long time to chill. Extended periods over 180 f after the boil is done apparently affects the bittering/IBU's contributed by all those later addition hops...this is why I SHOULD have accounted for this in my recent no-chill experiment were the wort stayed over 180 f for more than 6 hours.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Might want to use a secondary next time.

Why?

 

[jethro55]

I think that some of the Belgian yeast strains work at higher temperatures. I remember pushing a couple to 90 degrees for a few days at the end of the ferment.

 

[kh54s10]

I didn't know that hippies were bitter...

Thing that I would think of are the warm pitching temperature, maybe some of the extract got scorched. The off flavor may mellow with some more conditioning time.

Added:

Was the Wyeast a Belgian strain? Do you drink many Belgians? They will have a very different flavor than American style yeasts that may be mistaken for bitter.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

This was a partial mash

The beer just tastes as if it should be slightly sweeter. The finish is more bitter than it should be.
Thanks

Just thought of another one...if you mash temp was low due to either insufficient stirring (so parts READ at 155'ish while most of it was 148) or an inaccurate thermometer (amazingly common) you could end up with a very dry beer...hence the lack of sweetness, hence the bitter hops being much more pronounced.

 

[ncoutroulis]

I used a wort chiller so it only took about 15 mins to cool off to 68 which was when I pitched. The yeast was a Belgian ale yeast. I've had many Belgian beers and this taste was not the same kind of "bitter".

The beer looks great, smells great, has a nice taste, it's just the finish that's a bit off.

It fermented at around 68 I think. It was room temperature.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

So outside of the partial mash, mash portion being too fermentable from too low a mash temp (again, thermometer inaccuracy or large variation in mash temp) which cannot be verified after the fact, your process seems pretty good. I would begin to suspect the recipe itself be it the early hop additions, not enough crystal/caramel malts or even the specific Wyeast strain as mentioned above.