Too Toasted?!?

[roflomingo]

I made a Toasted Belgian Amber a couple of weeks ago, and just racked to secondary last night. I tasted the beer coming out of primary and it had a very toasted almost roasted flavor. Kind of like popcorn that you overcook. I used the following grain bill:

10# Belgian 2 row
2# Munich 10L
1# Caramunich
1# Biscuit

From the 2# of Munich, I toasted 0.5# on the stove (medium/low heat and constantly moving it) for 10-15 minutes. it turned a nice light toasted brown color, definitely not burnt.

My question is whether this roasted flavor will subside in the secondary/bottle conditioning or is this flavor going to stick around. I did think I over did the toasting at the time, but man is it roasty! I know the grain bill is very light and so the toasted flavor would stick out, but as of now, its almost undrinkable. Has this happened to anyone? Does it get better?

 

[daksin]

Biscuit malt also adds a lot of toasty flavor- and a pound is a lot in a 5g batch. It sounds like you did over-toast your munich, though, and that's probably the source of most of that burnt popcorn flavor. I wouldn't expect it will subside much, but it's sometimes too early to judge a beer right out of the fermenter.

 

[SteveHeff]

I go through the same thing every time I try one of my brews, both before the primary and then after fermentation. Out of the 30+ brews I've done, only 1 has been over-biscuity after bottling/kegging. Give it time in the bottle/kegged and report back in a month.

 

[roflomingo]

Hey thanks for the feedback guys. I always found biscuit to add more of a bready flavor then toast. I didnt think I over toasted the munich (didn't smell anything over done while toasting) and the color seemed perfect. I guess I will just have to wait this out.

Steve, were you referring to the presence of biscuit malts in these brews, or did you toast some grains as well?

 

[SteveHeff]

I've done both. The toasty taste I had on a brew came from over toasted vienna. However most of mine usually have biscuit malts. The toasted vienna was the 3rd or 4th AG batch I brewed...I haven't been too keen on toasting my own malts since then. I have toasted flaked oats and rye before with good results, but to compare those to munich malt just wouldn't be right.

 

[roflomingo]

Gotcha. Yeah it seems toasting your own malts imparts alot of toasted flavor. Hopefully it subsides some, because out of primary it was very very apparent. The other thing with this brew is that it is very cloudy. I used safale-33 yeast and it took off right away, first day. Then it went into a lull and was clear for a week. I racked to secondary, and it was immediately cloudy and seemed like fermentation picked back up. Its been 4 days and it is still cloudy. I am going to let it hang out and see if it clears. Not sure if toasting has any correlation to this (probably not) but I wonder if the strong toasted taste was brought out by whatever is making it cloudy (again, I doubt there is a correlation). Just have to sit and wait!

 

[SteveHeff]

Did you use a whirlfloc tab or irish moss during the last 10 mins of boil? I had notoriously cloudy beer until I started with the moss. I agree that there is no correlation between the cloudiness and the flavor. Not a whole lot you can do about it now. Wait and see. I think this is the single most difficult thing to do in brewing. You can always tweak technique but you can never change time.

 

[GrogNerd]

from what I've read, most toasted grains are set aside for at least a week before use in a grain bill

you didn't mention if you had let them sit

 

[roflomingo]

Didnt use any whirlfloc, moss, finings, etc. Also, I let the toasted grains cool down before mashing, but no I did not let them sit. I have read this as well, and in the same post, some of the responses said they have used malts right after without a problem.

The curious thing about the cloudiness is that it was clear in the primary. It was only after racking to secondary that it became cloudy. Its not a concern, I do not mind the appearance of it, just more curious what would cause that (fermentation kicking back up, temperature change, etc)