Fantastic Stout, until bottled.

[vegas20s]

Recipe

8 lbs.Light Malt extract
1 lb Oat Meal
1 lb Brown Sugar
1 lb belgian pilsner
.5 lb. Crystal malt (60 L)
.5. chocolate malt
.25 roasted barley
4 oz Malto-Dextrin
.5 oz. Glena, (45)
1 oz. East Kent Goldings, (45 )
1 teaspoon Irish moss (15 min)
Nottingham 2packs

Used purified arrow head spring water.

Mini mashed grains which I kinda jacked up. I never got my temp over 140.
I had to much wort for my 3 gal. pot and ended up boiling sugar with a bit of wort in a separate pot. I cooled it separate and added it to fermenter separate. Added 3 gallons after cooling to the fermenter for a total of 7 gallons and pitched at 70. I let it get a bit warm, 73 degrees, for a few hours until I realized what happened. I fermented for 3 weeks in the mid 60's. I primed with corn sugar and conditioned for 2 weeks at room temp. 65-75 degrees.

So you know I rinse my bottles right after I poor them. Then I sanitize with Io-star before bottling. Also I make sure to sanitize all of my bottling equip.

When I bottled, the samples that I had tasted were fantastic. A creamy rich stout with some moderate bitterness and sweetness. It had notes of coffee or chocolate in there.It was what I was going for, I was ecstatic, because I've haven't had much success with stouts. My best brew to date has been a Belgian style wit.

I tried a bottle after a week and it has become very bitter. Same thing after 2 weeks. Something similar to the other stouts I've done but much more pronounced. It's got an astringent quality to it.

So after some reading here are my thoughts:

1) The astringent nature of the taste makes me think tannings, but why didn't the samples have the bitterness?

2) The room temp got over 72 degrees could it be very bitter esters?

3) When bottling I move the fermenter to a table, this shakes the fermenter and I did notice some of the crusty stuff on the sides fall off, which is supposed to be incredibly bitter, but again why were the samples so good?

4) My bag of corn sugar is about 9 months old, could it have gone stale or something?

5) My bottling equipment, my bottles, or my process led to a contamination.

6) I used to high a concentration of Iodine sanitizer and it left and aftertaste.

Any Ideas guys or gals, I would like to figure out whats going on before my next batch.

thanks.

 

[Stout-n-Braggot]

I've had a couple stouts do this, and it subsided after a few more weeks. I think its just bottle shock.

 

[vegas20s]

bottle shock?

 

[koerd85]

bottle shock?

When the temp is too low in the bottles so yeast give off wears flavors that don't meld well with the hop components

 

[vegas20s]

interesting....

 

[pwndabear]

give it time.

 

[TTB-J]

It's only been two weeks since you bottled, right? That's too early to pass judgment on flavor - wait another two and then tell us how it tastes. I'm guessing that you didn't do anything wrong. If it tastes good in the bottling bucket, it should taste good in the bottle, but only if you give it enough time to carb up and settle down before you start cracking open bottles.

 

[rasherb]

Might be carbonic acid from carbonating. Are they highly carved?

Might be an infection....

 

[pwndabear]

its probably not an infection if your sanitation was good. man, don't make 'em worry!!!

 

[vegas20s]

Might be carbonic acid from carbonating. Are they highly carved?

Might be an infection....

1/2 tsp of corn sugar per bottle and they are not over carbed.

 

[vegas20s]

I guess we'll have to see if they mellow out after a few weeks.

 

[vegas20s]

Do darker malts usually take more time to mellow out in the bottles, cause it seems that the fewer dark malts I use that it has less problems.

 

[weirdboy]

That may have to do with your water profile.

 

[PIGMAN]

I think you're expecting too much from your stouts too soon. You should put them in an environment condusive to proper conditioning, and forget about them for awhile. I'll bet after 2 or 3 months, the stout will be great. I brewed my first stout yesterday, and I don't plan on breaking it out until the Fall at the earliest. It will probably be even better around the Holidays. Brew something else in the meantime. Good luck.

 

[troub]

I think you're just tasting the byproducts of active yeast. I've had a couple of beers do this...one was with Nottingham. The taste from a green/young bottle was similar to the taste of the hydrometer sample after a week in the fermenter (still fermenting). Unpleasant, bitter, astringent, whatever. When it was finished and clear in the bucket, it tasted great; after a week in bottles it was terrible again. I pretty much decided that active Nottingham just tastes terrible. The beer (a brown ale) turned out very nice when it was ready (3-4 weeks in bottles).

 

[vegas20s]

I think you're just tasting the byproducts of active yeast. I've had a couple of beers do this...one was with Nottingham. The taste from a green/young bottle was similar to the taste of the hydrometer sample after a week in the fermenter (still fermenting). Unpleasant, bitter, astringent, whatever. When it was finished and clear in the bucket, it tasted great; after a week in bottles it was terrible again. I pretty much decided that active Nottingham just tastes terrible. The beer (a brown ale) turned out very nice when it was ready (3-4 weeks in bottles).

The way you describe the taste makes me think this might be it. It's kinda hard to describe the exact thing it taste like, it is just unpleasant.

 

[vegas20s]

Should I look at the time spent in fermentation separate than the time spent in bottles? What I mean is if I were to let something ferment for a month or two would I still have to let it age 3-4 weeks in the bottles?

The reason I'm asking is I've always added the times together. (ie: if total time to make is suggested to be 1 1/2 months then 5 weeks fermenting and 1 week in the bottles would get me to 1 1/2 months.)

 

[Revvy]

Should I look at the time spent in fermentation separate than the time spent in bottles? What I mean is if I were to let something ferment for a month or two would I still have to let it age 3-4 weeks in the bottles?

The reason I'm asking is I've always added the times together. (ie: if total time to make is suggested to be 1 1/2 months then 5 weeks fermenting and 1 week in the bottles would get me to 1 1/2 months.)

Time spent in bottles only....it really doesn't matter how long you've done anything before, once you cap the bottles the clock begins...when we recommend 3 weeks @ 70 we mean 3 weeks in the bottles, when I say over and over that stouts and porters have taken 4-8 weeks to come into their own, I mean in the bottle.....You can long primary, or second for a year, and you will still need time for the yeast during carbon to do their thing, and the flavors to marry in the bottle.

If you say a week in the bottle, then I'm gonna say don't even open til it's been at least 3...and if it's a higher longer....but it's all about the bottle (or keg)

 

[vegas20s]

Time spent in bottles only....it really doesn't matter how long you've done anything before, once you cap the bottles the clock begins...when we recommend 3 weeks @ 70 we mean 3 weeks in the bottles, when I say over and over that stouts and porters have taken 4-8 weeks to come into their own, I mean in the bottle.....You can long primary, or second for a year, and you will still need time for the yeast during carbon to do their thing, and the flavors to marry in the bottle.

If you say a week in the bottle, then I'm gonna say don't even open til it's been at least 3...and if it's a higher longer....but it's all about the bottle (or keg)

HHHMMMMMM. I'm going to have to readjust my process a bit.

 

[Krrazy]

Can anyone comment on the taste of a stout made with a really soft mineral profile for the brewing water? The OP said he used spring water but I'm wondering about that after all the reading I've been doing about water lately.

 

[Revvy]

HHHMMMMMM. I'm going to have to readjust my process a bit.

Watch poindexter's video from my bottling blog.




The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.


A lot of new brewers who tend to kill their two cases off in a few days, don't experience true carbonation/comnditioning and the pleasures thereof, until they actually get a pipeline going, and have their first 5 or 6 week old full carbed and conditioned wonderfully little puppy! Then the come back with an "aha" moment.


Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

 

[Wakadaka]

i brewed AHS double chocolate stout a while ago. when i bottled it was good, but 3 weeks later it was bad. tried one on the 4th 5th and 6th week and they were all bad. Last weekend I had one ( I think 8 or 9 weeks in bottles) and it was finally good. I figured it just needed more time, but after a month and the half in bottles I started thinking it just wasn't going to be that great. It wasn't really big beer either. 1.056 OG.

Most of my beers are great in 2-3 weeks, but this one took much longer.

 

[troub]

Should I look at the time spent in fermentation separate than the time spent in bottles? What I mean is if I were to let something ferment for a month or two would I still have to let it age 3-4 weeks in the bottles?

The reason I'm asking is I've always added the times together. (ie: if total time to make is suggested to be 1 1/2 months then 5 weeks fermenting and 1 week in the bottles would get me to 1 1/2 months.)

When you add the priming sugar to put it into bottles, the clock starts on a "refermentation" inside the bottle. The yeast wakes up again because of the new food (sugar), and starts eating it and doing all of its fermentation business again. The CO2 produced from this fermentation, rather than bubble out the airlock, creates the carbonation in the beer due to the sealed bottle. Then it cleans up, clears, and settles. This whole process takes time, completely independent of any fermentation or conditioning time in previous steps.

 

[1ratdog]

i had the same thing happen to a brewers best oatmeal stout kit i did and it never cleared up. had 2 dump every bottle. if you find out what went wrong let me know.

 

[Wakadaka]

i had the same thing happen to a brewers best oatmeal stout kit i did and it never cleared up. had 2 dump every bottle. if you find out what went wrong let me know.

how long after bottling did you dump it?

 

[drkaeppel]

My stout tasted sort of bitter and harsh for well over a month. Over a month in primary. It's just now coming into character at three weeks in the bottle. Flavors have rounded out a bit and it's getting a mellow, roasty// coffee character to it.

A buddy of mine brewed a stout and he swore it tasted like olives the first 2 months in the bottle, but that olive flavor ended up disappearing and it transformed into a nice earthy flavor.

Maybe it just needs time. I would put it on a shelf and forget about it for a few months.

Good luck!

 

[hadabar]

Watch poindexter's video from my bottling blog.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

A lot of new brewers who tend to kill their two cases off in a few days, don't experience true carbonation/comnditioning and the pleasures thereof, until they actually get a pipeline going, and have their first 5 or 6 week old full carbed and conditioned wonderfully little puppy! Then the come back with an "aha" moment.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

yes...very true...mine was I accidently forgot about a bottle in the cabinets...it was a glorious moment. 3 months = a beautiful saison. it was my second brew ever. atleast I learned quickly.

 

[vegas20s]

i brewed AHS double chocolate stout a while ago. when i bottled it was good, but 3 weeks later it was bad. tried one on the 4th 5th and 6th week and they were all bad. Last weekend I had one ( I think 8 or 9 weeks in bottles) and it was finally good. I figured it just needed more time, but after a month and the half in bottles I started thinking it just wasn't going to be that great. It wasn't really big beer either. 1.056 OG.

Most of my beers are great in 2-3 weeks, but this one took much longer.

I would say the same thing for all my batches except the stouts. Which is why I have been so perplexed.

 

[vegas20s]

Can anyone comment on the taste of a stout made with a really soft mineral profile for the brewing water? The OP said he used spring water but I'm wondering about that after all the reading I've been doing about water lately.

I thought about the water profile being a problem but the thing is I'm doing a mini mash. I am under the assumption that the water hardness/softness doesn't matter so much if you are doing a mini mash. Most of the science I use for brewing comes from Palmer and he doesn't really address the mini mash.

 

[1ratdog]

i tasted a bottle every other week for 6 months or longer. then dumped. i wanted to cry