Very bitter taste in Mango Blonde

[kef300]

Hi guys,

I know, I know. Mango beer is bleh, sometimes. A couple of years back, a friend had asked me to brew him a mango beer for a party. I took it as a personal challenge and brewed him a mango blonde. The beer turned out quite good, lots of people liked it. For my taste, I felt the mango taste was barely detectable. That time, I used one pound of chopped up mangos per gal that I boiled for a couple of minutes before throwing in a hop bag in secondary.

Several weeks ago, a friend who had been at that party, asked me to brew him a batch for a party he has this weekend. I said sure, and used the same recipe except I used frozen pulp I bought at the supermarket (ingredients mentioned pure mango pulp as sole ingredient). I chopped up the frozen pulp (5.5lb for 8 gal) and threw it in the secondary, assuming the yeast and frozen pulp would mean the bad guys would have no chance. This was thrown in a hop bag.

The other difference was I wanted to dry hop with Citra, to enhance the mango aroma, but my lhbs had none. They recommended Eureka as a similar hop, so I bought an ounce. When I opened the Eureka hop bag, in my opinion, it was no substitute at all; smelt more piney to me. However, I still three the oz in with 1 oz of citra I had in the fridge.

The mango, along with dry hops, spent 4 days in the fermenter before I kegged it last Saturday.

Here's the problem: I have sampled the beer twice, once last Monday and once yesterday, and it tastes very bitter and a bit dry. The beer does not look or smell funky, in fact, it smells quite a bit like mango. However, it tastes close to undrinkable to me.

I'm seriously considering throwing the beer away, as I don't want to give him a crappy product, nor risk my reputation. Any chance these flavors will subside as it reaches carbonation levels? Any ideas on what could have caused it? It does NOT taste like fermented fruit, though.

Recipe, for 8 gal batch (wanted to keep 3 gal for myself)

12.7 lb pale malt
1.7 lb wheat malt
1.25lb 10L crystal malt
1.62 oz ahtanum @60 min
0.4 oz willamette @10 min
US-05

Thanks guys

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I never toss a batch unless it's infected or still sucks after months and months. Flavor can change a lot during carbonation and after. I've had brews that were undrinkable a month after bottling and excellent 6 months or a year later. Tell your buddy it didn't come out well and hang onto it for a few months. It will likely improve. Or let him try one and let him make the call.

 

[ong]

Any chance your sample pours are picking up hop residue? I would assume the dry hopping provided a lot more hop character than your earlier version. At least some of that should subside in the keg. You could also try backsweetening (e.g., with lactose) to push the fruit flavor forward a bit. Maybe try stirring a bit of sugar into a sample pour to see if that improves the flavor?