a tragedy occured today:(

[kickflip_mj]

my oktoberfest turned out to have aweful taste. had to dump it all. after 2 months i carbed it and checked it to make sure it was ready for drinking tomorrow and yep it was nasty.. oh yeah i forgot to mention my porter just ran out so now im high and dry

i think what went wrong is i went with a oktoberfest yeast and i should have gone with something that does better in warmer temps. it was weird because the color was way to light. has anyone ever recieved the wrong ingrediance from LHBS?

 

[ReeseAllen]

What was bad about it? Can you describe how the flavor is different from what you wanted?

 

[bschindl]

i think what went wrong is i went with a oktoberfest yeast and i should have gone with something that does better in warmer temps

Was it a lager yeast, and what temperature was it fermenting at?

 

[kickflip_mj]

way to estery, i want to say the yeast was the one to blame.. the recipe was the bee cave oktoberfest and it just didnt turn out the same color either as their pictures. im stumped. i hit the OG exactly. but whats with the color? it was really light.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I checked my Oktoberfest/Marzen hybrid (brewed with Wyeats 1007) a couple of days ago. It smelled pretty rank, but I also kind of expected. It was brewed at 68 deg and I expected some sulfur, but it's pretty ridiculous right now. I'm going to leave it at least another month.

Why dump it? If it wasn't infected, just store it away and forget about it. Especially if the only prob was esters.

 

[KYB]

Man I would have done SOMETHING with it. I had a Blonde Ale turn out like ****, one of my first brews I tried to have BMC appeal, backfired. I added some Strawberry extract and it at least made it drinkable. I had a Dry Stout turn out not very good and it got better with age (couple of my friends thought it was ok though). I would give it lots of time or throw something in there for flavor before you toss some beer. People are so quick to dump beer, I don't get it.

 

[Nugent]

I just brewed an alt and have had it in my ghetto fermentation chamber on my deck. It hasn't gone above 58 F since I brewed it (as per Jamil's instructions), so I'm hoping that the lower fermentation temps will help keep in good shape.

Am hoping to drink it in three weeks (through force carbing), but now thinking that this might be unreasonable.

Thoughts?

 

[kickflip_mj]

well im in college and i wouldnt even drink it.lol.... i always try to fix things but this recipe to me seemed completely unfixable... i used an oktoberfest yeast and it was my fault because its a lager yeast and i fermented at my ambiant air temp of 75 to 80( no room for a fermentation chamber)

 

[elmetal]

hell, at that temperature even an ale yeast would make it taste like crap.

chances are you had sulfur taste from the lager yeast which WILL go away given enough time. or at least not be so strong.

time heals most wounds.

 

[tdavisii]

its a lager yeast and i fermented at my ambiant air temp of 75 to 80( no room for a fermentation chamber)

enough said.

 

[frolickingmonkey]

Tell people it's a Belgian beer ("it's supposed to taste like that") and maybe they'll drink it and love it, even though they wince with every sip...

 

[Zeno-25]

75-80 ambient? The fermentation chamber temps were probably more like 85 due to the activity of the yeast (think exothermic is the word I'm looking for?). You could brew some tasty, dry saisons at those temperatures but for anything else you really need to get it down a good 5-10 degrees. My basement stays at a constant 68 degrees so I've never needed to worry about methods for keeping the temp down for what I've done so far, but I've read about people keeping the carboy in a tub of cool water with a moist t-shirt over it to absorb some of the heat. Some ice packs in the tub might also be necessary.

 

[Jkane101]

I have a chocolate stout that has a fairly metallic taste...i'm not dumping it. I'll wait it out and if i have to will add a ton of bourbon in it and call it a chocolate bourbon stout ....lol. time will tell

 

[dontman]

I had a lager that tasted like crap when I first tasted it.

I put it in a corner expecting to throw it out when I needed the keg space. 5 months later and it was fantastic. People are still talking about that being one of the best beers I ever made.

You're right there was a tragedy, but it just might have been you throwing out that beer. Could have been unsalvageable though with that ferment temp.