Hey guys! I'm pretty new to beer, but been making fruit/vegetable wine for a while. I made my first batch a couple months ago, a barleywine with homemade base malt. It fermented pretty well, although I was worried in the beginning because I had some heavy vegetable smells, which I decided were probably from the ****ty homemade malt.
Anyway, I've been sampling it, about a bottle a week, to see if it's carbonated well. It finally has, and today I had a brewday and had some friends over to celebrate the beermaking process. It's the first time anyone besides me has had this barleywine, and nobody liked it at all. My pal who also brews immediately called me out on 'off flavors' and I took a taste of it and noticed it for the first time. The stuff I'm used to making has some weird hot flavors and that really works for a lot of it, and I'll drink anything, but after having it pointed out to me, this is a pretty disagreeable thing to have in my beer.
We looked through John Palmer and couldn't nail it to anything besides acetaldehyde. I've been chalking it up to the massive hopping that comes with barleywines, although it is really very different from any hop flavor I've tasted. Anyway, it doesn't really taste like green apples or any of the flavors I've seen acetaldehyde described as, so I'm not sure if that's what it is. It does taste kind of chemical and also quite bitter, and slightly astringent. So, here are my questions for you cats:
Do you think it's acetaldehyde? What are some other things it could be?
I know barleywine has to age a long time (this guy was 1.090 OG, which is a bit low for my taste, but pretty high for beer I guess), and this has been bottled for like a month. Does acetaldehyde condition out? I have no doubts that the beer in general will get better with age, but I really want this flavor gone now that I've had it pointed out to me.
Anyway, I've been sampling it, about a bottle a week, to see if it's carbonated well. It finally has, and today I had a brewday and had some friends over to celebrate the beermaking process. It's the first time anyone besides me has had this barleywine, and nobody liked it at all. My pal who also brews immediately called me out on 'off flavors' and I took a taste of it and noticed it for the first time. The stuff I'm used to making has some weird hot flavors and that really works for a lot of it, and I'll drink anything, but after having it pointed out to me, this is a pretty disagreeable thing to have in my beer.
We looked through John Palmer and couldn't nail it to anything besides acetaldehyde. I've been chalking it up to the massive hopping that comes with barleywines, although it is really very different from any hop flavor I've tasted. Anyway, it doesn't really taste like green apples or any of the flavors I've seen acetaldehyde described as, so I'm not sure if that's what it is. It does taste kind of chemical and also quite bitter, and slightly astringent. So, here are my questions for you cats:
Do you think it's acetaldehyde? What are some other things it could be?
I know barleywine has to age a long time (this guy was 1.090 OG, which is a bit low for my taste, but pretty high for beer I guess), and this has been bottled for like a month. Does acetaldehyde condition out? I have no doubts that the beer in general will get better with age, but I really want this flavor gone now that I've had it pointed out to me.