Brewed beer. Final product = carbonated water.

[Catnip_X07]

This was my 5th batch and I modified a wheat beer recipe to include blackberry extract.

Here's the happenings:
After brewing, transferred wort to primary and added enough water on top of the wort to get to the 5 gal mark. Took a sample, then pitched yeast on top of a partial yeast cake. When returned to the sample, realized I never got a reading. Reading was 1.010. I figured this was because my sample probably got most of the water I poured on top. No biggie.

Heavy fermentation for 5 days at 66*F, then continuous airlock bubbling for about 5 more. About 16 days in primary, took a sample. 1.009. Seemed off. repeated. Range from 1.010 to 1.012. Shrugged it off.

Added a little shy of 2 oz extract then transferred beer to keg. Followed all sanitary precautions and no concerns with excessive O2 exposure. Conditioned in keg for 1 week. Drank my first glass.

Tasted of awful carbonated water, with hint of sickly blackberry syrup. Dumped the glass. Poured another. same. Gulped it down trying to imagine a better beer.

Thought I'd condition the beer further for one more week. Tried a glass tonight. A little better, but first touch to my lips feels of carbonated water (like drinking from a freshly bottle of club soda), with slight coloring of what wheat beer should be. Same blackberry taste.

Not planning on dumping beer. If have to condition for months, I will. My question is, what went wrong (not concerned on extract)?

 

[Gremlyn]

Recipe...?

 

[Malticulous]

Low gravity beers can easily taste watery. Time will probably help.

 

[dummkauf]

I'm assuming you are doing partial boils? If you are doing full boils I'd say skip the top up water next time. Though a partial boil would obviously require top up water.

 

[Catnip_X07]

Extract, partial boil.

6lb LME wheat
1oz Hersbrucker (60 min)
1oz cascade (15 min)

Brewed this before and got great results.
Difference with the carbonated water batch is adding extract when kegging and pitching onto a partial yeast cake.

 

[Gremlyn]

Neither should make the beer taste like carbonated water. It may be a stupid question, but are you ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE you added 6# of LME?

 

[Catnip_X07]

very good question Gremlyn1. That was my first fear as well, if I had actually add enough extract. I went through everything and only thing I didn't do was weigh the 6lbs of LME. Yet I haven't had any other problems with beers being carbonated water while trusting the weights of LME packed by HBS.
Low extract is plausible for watery taste, and the offspec OG (which I still attribute to obtaining a large water sample). IF there was low extract, would the fermentation still have been rampant and long?

 

[Walker]

what temp are you serving the beer at? a mild flavored beer at a cold temp will have almost no flavor. Let it warm up a bit and see what you think.

 

[Catnip_X07]

Kegerator is at 40*F or so. Following the warming up, I let it sit for 5 minutes before drinking. while it was a little bit more manageable to drink, it just wasn't there. I've got another batch ready for kegging so I think I may just tuck this awful blackberry wheat away and let it age. May try it again during preseason football.

 

[Airborneguy]

Have you ever confirmed the measurement on your fermentor? If you are relying on the marks it came with, that could be off. I found one that was 1/2 gallon off. You may have inadvertently watered down your beer.

 

[Catnip_X07]

That is also quite plausible. Haven't had any problems with measuring 5 gal on my other batches, but a culmination of more water and possibly less extract would be reasonable effects of my carbonated water. I probably should start checking/measuring/weighing/etc everything just to be safe.
Anyway to "dewater" the beer?

 

[Airborneguy]

hmm... you could try brewing up a high gravity beer and blend the two. Could be an interesting experiment.

 

[patrck17]

The hollow watery taste can be somewhat subjective, but the amount of alcohol shouldn't be. Quaff down 9-10 of them in an hour or two and see how drunk you get. You'll be able to tell if you added enough extract that way!