Irish stout lacking flavor

I have an Irish stout that has been in the fermenter for two weeks now. I took a gravity reading today and that looks good. I tasted my sample, and although it wasn't bad, it wasn't as good as I'd have liked. There isn't a bad flavor. There just isn't much of a flavor IMO. I was expecting to taste some of that coffee aftertaste but that wasn't there. Will another week in the fermenter and about three weeks bottle conditioning change anything. This is pretty much my first brew and I am just glad that it turned out ok. I just wish it was a little better. Oh yeah, it was the Midwest supplies Irish stout extract kit.

 

Flat green beer in the fermenter often has little resemblance to real beer - especially if you are a newbie.

Watery, bitter, fruity, bland, boring are all VERY common complaints for newbies tasting beer in a fermenter. You'll be amazed what a little age and some carbonation will do for your beer.

 

sweet. looking forward to it then.

 

No problem. Let us know how it turns out!

 

Take another sample after three weeks in the primary. If the taste is much better give it four weeks. I have a milk stout that was in the primary four weeks and is still bottle conditioning after three months. It is just becoming great.

 

Why does it take so long sometimes?

 

I had that problem with a stout recently. Just thought it was boring. I mentioned it to lhbs owner, and he had 2 suggestions. One was to add some vanilla, and the second was to add oak cubes. I bought the oak cubes, but never uses them. But I thought both were good suggestions. I eventually just dumped that beer. I have since brewed a vanilla porter that has to be one of my best beers to date.

 

There is a vast difference between boring beer and flat, green beer in the fermenter.

OP, please pretend that you never read the quoted post. Newbies are always worrying about what is wrong with their beer, devising ways to fix it... when, in fact, there is likely NOTHING wrong at all.

Give it another week or two, then bottle. Give it three or four weeks in the bottles. If the beer isn't drastically different than it is now, I'll eat my hat and post a video of it to youtube.

As to why some beers take time to improve? Sometimes, it has to do with process. Homebrewers - especially new ones - may not have a great grip on process yet (don't pitch enough yeast, don't control temperatures well, don't aerate well, etc). Yeast can help fix some of these mistakes, but it takes time.

Other than that... some beers really need time to mellow, to age. Good beer can be more than the sum of its parts. You may taste it when it's young and get a malt flavor, a hop flavor, a yeast flavor... but when they age, you get a harmony you don't get with young beer.

 

Don't worry. I had and still have no plans on doing anything drastic. I was wanting to bottle on the 4th which would have been just shy of 3 weeks in the fermenter. If you think I should let it sit even longer then I will. I trust the judgement of those who have been doing this a lot longer than me. Another thing. The OG was much higher than it was supposed to be and I ended up with only 4.5 gal in the fermenter instead of 5. It was at 1.015 last weekend and again today. So I am pretty sure that it is finished fermenting.

 

Just shy of 3 weeks is perfectly fine to bottle. I'm a guy who always waits 4+ weeks... but that doesn't mean my way is the only way. Lots bottle as soon as gravity is stable. If gravity is stable, bottle away. All I'd say is don't rush it in the bottles - give it at least three weeks @ 70 degrees F before you open one. Don't be shocked if it improves beyond that with time.

 

The room where it is fermenting stays right around 65 degrees. The rest of the house stays between 70 and 72. Do you think I should move it in to warmer part of the house after bottling?

 

65° = great for fermenting

70-72° = great for bottle conditioning

definitely move it after bottling. it will condition at 65°, just takes longer

 

This.

 

I want to hear how this turns out. Mine was pretty bland out of the fermenter but after bottle conditioning for three weeks its awesome.

 

Did you do the same kit from Midwest Supplies?

 

No mine was brewers best, but again it tasted almost watered down out of the fermenter but now it tastes almost exactly like guiness extra stout. It's so good. My wife is getting pissed because I'm putting them down pretty fast!

 

I think as newbies we don't know what to expect with early tastings but in the end we may just end up with...

 

Yes, homebrewing can seem topsy-turvy sometimes.

 

ah yes the wife. I said something about going ahead and getting another batch in my second fermenter and she was all like "the first one isn't even done yet. do you really need that much beer?"

 

You need another wife then. Mine just wants me to brew all the time and gets pissed if we run out, of course since she is 2" taller than I and was in the WWF I pretty much do what she wants...

 

First of all, I am not a "newbie". And I take offense at your presumption. I merely offered a couple of suggestions as I had experienced a similar problem with a beer.

By the way, not all beers will mellow with time. And sometimes beers are just too mellow. My suggestions are just that. Do what you feel is correct with YOUR beer.

 

I appreciate your input. I am hoping that the others are right and it will get better. But like I said in the original post, it isn't actually bad. I just want it to be better than it is right now. I believe it will be.

 

It would be helpful if you posted the recipe/kit ingredients, og, etc. Your kit might be a bit weak, but we can't tell without more info. I bought a stout kit once that looked pretty thin, so I beefed it up a bit. It turned out to be one of my best beers.

Either way, welcome to homebrewing! It's a wonderful obsession. Beats the pants off of golf, I daresay.

 

Take offense, then, if that's what you feel is appropriate. Before you do that, though, please re-read my post.

I have no idea if you are a newbie or not. I know that the OP is - he's told us as much.

He's the one that feel like his beer doesn't have much flavor. Have a gander through the beginning brewer forum, and I guarantee that you'll find tons of similar threads. It's VERY common for beer to present as bland or watery in the fermenter, but most of the time, carbonation and age really bring the flavors out.

Your stout that you dumped may have indeed been hopeless. The thing is, your beer was carbed and bottled, correct? The OP's is not. Comparing the two is apples and German shepherds (i.e. less in common than apples and oranges). The only problem I had with your post was you using your stout as a reference for the OP's problem. They aren't the same issue.

As an aside - there have been MANY superb stouts brewed without oak or vanilla. Just saying.

Does age fix every beer? Of course not. It does fix (or help) a huge portion of beers - there is a thread with a couple hundred pages of examples of this.

My point is, newbies are often trying to diagnose problems with their beer when it's still in the fermenter. An experienced brewer like you may be able to do just that, whereas newbies usually cannot. If you try to correct something that may well not even be an issue, congratulations... you may have just screwed your beer up for no reason whatsoever.

Be patient, OP. Bottle your beer, and let it carb up. If you don't like it then, you can start looking into ways to improve the next batch. Screwing with it now will almost certainly not end well.

 

I got it. Not gonna touch it. Newbie has heard and understood. Gotta ask questions or will never learn. Could just use the wait and see method, but why do that when there are experienced people who can satisfy my curiosity.

 

Absolutely! The homebrewing community, by and large, is very supportive and helpful. Most all of us have been in the exact same spots as we see posted here again and again.

My very first beer was a brown ale. When I pulled a gravity reading after a couple of weeks, I had the exact same impression - the beer was watery without a whole lot going on. Once it was bottled and carbed, it was night and day... and once it had been in bottles for four months, it was a MUCH better beer.

Please never feel stupid for asking questions. That's what the beginner forum is for! I use the term "newbie" as a simple description, not as an insult. All of us were newbies once.

Sure, you can search the forums, and you'll probably find that any question you ask has been asked dozens (hundreds?) of times... but it's YOUR beer, and it feels nice to have encouragement about your specific situation. No worries, man.