Why am I the only one who can taste this off taste?

[sudsmcgee]

I'm a noob whose second extract batch (American Amber Ale kit) has an off flavor that I have to assume is maybe acetaldehyde but I don't know. I liken it to a fruity almost apple cidery flavor that's not disgusting but not appealing to me. It's slowly mellowing with time and the batch is not infected. It has spent 3 weeks in primary and almost 5 in bottles. I know that I fermented this too warm (75-6 ambient temp, nottingham yeast, no swamp chiller) and have learned my lesson.

Anyway, that's not my point. Whatever the flavor is, I appear to be the ONLY one who can taste it. My parents and in-laws swear they have no idea what I'm talking about and they think it tastes great. My mom doesn't even like beer and she loved it. As soon as I smell or taste this batch it's the first thing I pick up and it turns me off a little. It's still completely drinkable, but not what was I was hoping to make.

Any thoughts? Are some people more sensitive to off flavors than others? Am I gonna get slapped for asking this question?

 

[weirdboy]

Diacetyl is not cidery...what you are tasting is probably acetaldehyde.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Different people perceive flavors differently. Everyone has certain flavors that they cannot detect easily, and some that seem overpowering that others don't seem to notice at all.


Get your fermentation temperatures under control and see if you still get these flavors. Even keeping a wet t-shirt around your fermenter will help out. Moreso if you can get some air circulating on it.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Diacetyl is not cidery...what you are tasting is probably acetaldehyde.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Different people perceive flavors differently. Everyone has certain flavors that they cannot detect easily, and some that seem overpowering that others don't seem to notice at all.


Get your fermentation temperatures under control and see if you still get these flavors. Even keeping a wet t-shirt around your fermenter will help out. Moreso if you can get some air circulating on it.

Thanks, I realized I wrote the wrong thing right after I posted.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Forgot to add that I used a swamp cooler to keep my current batch of beer at 65 or so and I did put a t-shirt over the primary. However, after fermentation was done I let it get back up to ambient temps again (75). Hopefully this will be OK. I will probably have to cold-crash it before dry hopping because the US-05 yeast haven't flocculated out after 12 days, although I've read it can take up to 16 or so days.

I plan on dry hopping this batch, so I want to get the yeast to flocculate before I dry hop, right?

 

[weirdboy]

Don't worry about the yeast floccing out before dry hopping. In fact, I think it's easier to keep it at normal temps for dry hopping, then cold crash so that all the crud introduced by the hops can drop out with the yeast and other miscellaneous particles.

 

[sudsmcgee]

...cold crash so that all the crud introduced by the hops can drop out with the yeast and other miscellaneous particles.

Great point! Thanks for your help.

 

[prosper]

does it taste similar to Bud? That crap's the gold standard for acetaldehyde/green-apple flavor in beer (though apparently it's intentional)

 

[northernlad]

I taste flavors in my beer all the time that nobody else is bothered by. I attribute that to being my own worst critic. Let it go.

 

[sudsmcgee]

does it taste similar to Bud? That crap's the gold standard for acetaldehyde/green-apple flavor in beer (though apparently it's intentional)

I honestly can't remember that last time I had a Bud, so I don't know.

 

[Neutrino]

I taste flavors in my beer all the time that nobody else is bothered by. I attribute that to being my own worst critic. Let it go.

Yeah, that's how it is for me too. I taste my latest IPA and know what it's lacking, but everyone that drinks it (that DOESN'T homebrew) says it's the best IPA they've ever had. I think both of those opinions are probably true.

N.

 

[Justibone]

I taste flavors in my beer all the time that nobody else is bothered by. I attribute that to being my own worst critic. Let it go.

+10. Beer or wine, I always taste stuff that others don't, and I think they are complimenting me just to protect my feelings... then they ask for another bottle. Hmm... must be good I guess!

 

[Homercidal]

Strange. I would think that if you kept it down in the upper 60s for the initial fermentation, that there it no problem letting it rise to the 70s to finish. almost all of the fermentation is complete at that point and the chances of getting a discernable off-flavor is very low.

And I know for a fact that some people are better tasters than others, and some people just can't taste certain things very easily. It could be that you are hyper sensitive to certain flavors.

Just keep brewing and see if you still get the same flavors with other styles.

 

[atlphenom]

I had the same experience with my second brew. I tasted it with an uncle who used to homebrew and I kept telling him that there was this flavor I couldn't describe that just shouldn't be there. It really bothered me and I thought the beer had turned out bad, but he insisted there was nothing there. Eventually the flavor went away with aging and I figured it was probably a mix of the beer not being ready and me being too critical of my own beer. When it's your own creation, you tend to be more critical because you want it to be perfect.

 

[Erythro73]

Meh, in the last batch I did, which was a belgian white (Who's in the garden grand cru from Papazian's book), I put 3x too much orange peel.

The beer is very good, but very, very "citrusy". A little bit too much (I think using 2x instead of 3x would have perfectly fit my liking...)

And when I tell people that it is way too much citrusy, they go like "I don't taste this...!" or the infamous "No, it tastes like beer to me...".

 

[fardy]

I'm also tasting it everytime I brew a batch. I really think it's due to aging time. That must be why people are saying to taste a brew after 6 months to see the difference.

I now try to brew darker beers like Porter or Stouts. The little "cidery taste" is more noticable on lighter beers.

 

[Krelja]

Notty doesn't taste so good at higher temps. I've had two "bad" satchets of notty and its given the beer and off aroma more than flavor but it's still there. Thank god I'm up to 10 gallon batches so i can drink that 1/2 of the batch after I'm feeling good and less critical

 

[weirdboy]

Strange. I would think that if you kept it down in the upper 60s for the initial fermentation, that there it no problem letting it rise to the 70s to finish. almost all of the fermentation is complete at that point and the chances of getting a discernable off-flavor is very low.

Right but that's for a batch he hasn't tasted yet, at least from what I understand. The ones he's tasted have been fermented much higher...definitely a potential source of the type of off flavor he's describing.

 

[sudsmcgee]

That's correct. The batch in question was fermented at 75 or so degrees. The batch in the primary now was cooled, but I have not tasted it yet.