Extended primary cause of off flavor beer?

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

About 9-10 weeks ago I brewed a California Common Beer. It is only my 4th brew so I am still learning quite a bit.

This time I decided to only use a primary. I left it in the primary for 5-6 weeks before moving it to a bottling bucket. It was in the bottling bucket for about 30-40 before being bottled. It has been in the bottle for about 4 weeks.

I sampled one the other day and it was not exactly something to be proud of. Bad taste to say the least. On my third brew I did a Belgium and from my memory it had an off taste at 2 weeks but at 3.5 weeks int he bottle it started to taste awesome.

I was hoping for a similar maturation with this beer but the local beer store owner told me that this beer will never correct in taste. The length of time I left the beer in the primary created a problem. After a certain point the yeast started feeding on itself which created the off flavors I am tasting now. more or less he referred to it as a make shift sour beer.

...anyway, does this diagnosis sound right?

 

[samc]

Autolysis - burnt rubber smell ?

Most brewers are going to tell you it isn't going to happen in 5-6 weeks with a healthy ferment. Really need a lot more info to figure out what is going on. Describe the off flavors.

 

[Pivzavod]

Did you use California Lager yeast and at what temp did you ferment?

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

I will try one again later tonight to see if I can determine the flavors. The ability to do decipher flavors effectively is not one of my strong points.

Yes I used SF Lager Yeast, and the fermentation was roughly 69-73 F.

 

[Batinse]

I've not used that yeast, but I bet dollars to donuts that the problem is you fermented way too high. Lager yeasts should be fermented at 50-55F (although that strain recommends 58-65F), and the temperature inside a fermenter can be 5 degrees or more warmer than ambient. So plenty of ales would develop off flavours at those temps. Not to mention six weeks is almost standard fermentation time for many brewers for a lager.

In my experience, poor fermentation temps are the cause of off flavours nine times out of ten.

The myth of off-flavours from extended primary fermentation has been soundly refuted on this forum--here's the best thread explaining why.

 

[RM-MN]

About 9-10 weeks ago I brewed a California Common Beer. It is only my 4th brew so I am still learning quite a bit.

This time I decided to only use a primary. I left it in the primary for 5-6 weeks before moving it to a bottling bucket. It was in the bottling bucket for about 30-40 before being bottled. It has been in the bottle for about 4 weeks.

I sampled one the other day and it was not exactly something to be proud of. Bad taste to say the least. On my third brew I did a Belgium and from my memory it had an off taste at 2 weeks but at 3.5 weeks int he bottle it started to taste awesome.

I was hoping for a similar maturation with this beer but the local beer store owner told me that this beer will never correct in taste. The length of time I left the beer in the primary created a problem. After a certain point the yeast started feeding on itself which created the off flavors I am tasting now. more or less he referred to it as a make shift sour beer.

...anyway, does this diagnosis sound right?

The beer was in the bottling bucket for 30-40 what? Seconds? Weeks? Months?

How good is your sanitation of the bottling bucket? If it has a spigot do you take it our and disassemble it each time you use it? If not that could be the source of an infection.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

...

 

[Revvy]

I've not used that yeast, but I bet dollars to donuts that the problem is you fermented way too high. Lager yeasts should be fermented at 50-55F (although that strain recommends 58-65F), and the temperature inside a fermenter can be 5 degrees or more warmer than ambient. ]

If he use lager yeast in the 60-70's you're right, that's more likely the cause of the off flavor.

 

[Piratwolf]

In my experience, poor fermentation temps are the cause of off flavours nine times out of ten.

The myth of off-flavours from extended primary fermentation has been soundly refuted on this forum--here's the best thread explaining why.

This.

I saw someone else looking to do amcali common as one of the first brews, and suggested a different choice for this very reason. Getting ferm temp under close control is in my opinion the most important thing you can do to improve beer quality early on. And it's challenging even with ale yeasts that ferment well at "room temp" without tackling the further complexity of lager yeast temps.

We all make mistakes. I've had to dump two batches this year b/c of ferm errors. It's part of the learning curve... But learning from my mistakes has made my beer much better

"All your home brew are belong to us!"

 

[Piratwolf]

D'oh!

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

After sampling a bottle 2 days in a row I am becoming increasingly convinced that the beer is setting up ok but there is still an underlying flavor. This underlying flavor tastes like it came from my santization method, which I failed to mention earlier.

When I was brewing this batch I discovered I was out of santizer and the brew store was closed. I improvised by picking up hydrogen peroxide and doing calculations to dilute it to a proper santization strength.

As I was saying in the beginning the beer itself seems to be setting up fine but there is something off. As I drink the bottle I start to notice a numbing sensation on my tongue. This sensation is familiar to anyone who has gargled with hydrogen peroxide when they have a sore throat.

I could be crazy on this but it would also explain why I can't finish a bottle of the beer. By the time I finish half of the bottle I don't have a desire to finish the second half.

So that is where my thoughts stand as of now. Maybe the flavors will clear some more, but at this point I am not willing to put money on it.

 

[Batinse]

Did you rinse thoroughly? If your description is accurate you almost certainly have fusel alcohol off flavours from high fermentation temps that won't settle out. You may also have Hydrogen Peroxide in your beer--I wouldn't use that again if I were you. Soap and hot water will do the job in most situations, particularly if you're a new brewer with new equipment.

Anyway, this is just all the more reason to look forward to your next brew!

 

[Pivzavod]

I will try one again later tonight to see if I can determine the flavors. The ability to do decipher flavors effectively is not one of my strong points.

Yes I used SF Lager Yeast, and the fermentation was roughly 69-73 F.

California Lager & SF Lager are the same thing but from WY & WL.

The off flavors are definitely from high fermenting temperature. A few years ago I attempted to use California Lager yeast to do a Baltic Porter. Everything went fine in primary but my temp skyrocketed during secondary and I was unable to properly maintain it. The resulting beer tasted like **** even though most of fermentation was done at proper temps.

Had to dump that bad boy and learned a lesson - dont brew "lager" brews during summer.

Try cold crashing it for a month.