First of all, I have to say I am impressed with this forum. I have been spending more time on this site than I have working!
My first attempt was an extract brew using Morgans hopped extract (1 can ~1.5kg Iron Bark Dark Ale) and another 1.5 kg of dark DME. The extract was hopped so no additional hops was used. It fermented 1 week in the primary and then 2 in the secondary. I primed using 1 1/4 cup brown sugar (boiled in water) for more flavour.
It has carbonated well, too much even, but it does not have much flavour. It was been over a month since I bottled it and it has gained a little but not much. It doesn't taste bad either, just... bland. I know that oxidation is supposed to give a wet cardboard taste but I can't say I have ever ate cardboard. I was careful with the racking so I can only think of two things: A) contamination or B) oxidation of the hot wort.
I was pretty anal with sanitizing so I don't think it was that. Oxidation doesn't sound likely either because this has no taste, let alone cardboard. The morgan's extract wasn't boiled (didn't want to loose the hops aroma) but the dme was. Everything there went fine until we cooled it. My wife, being the helpfull person she is, stirred it to help it cool faster. What I didn't tell her was that the wort wasn't supposed to be aerated until it cooled to avoid oxidation so it got a little bit of a beating until I remembered reading that little tidbit.
So, that leads me to my question: What could have gone wrong? Was it the littled bit of air while the wort was too hot? I also read that some bacterial infections eat up all the malt (which would explain the excess carbonation, assuming I didn't use too much sugar).
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible.
My first attempt was an extract brew using Morgans hopped extract (1 can ~1.5kg Iron Bark Dark Ale) and another 1.5 kg of dark DME. The extract was hopped so no additional hops was used. It fermented 1 week in the primary and then 2 in the secondary. I primed using 1 1/4 cup brown sugar (boiled in water) for more flavour.
It has carbonated well, too much even, but it does not have much flavour. It was been over a month since I bottled it and it has gained a little but not much. It doesn't taste bad either, just... bland. I know that oxidation is supposed to give a wet cardboard taste but I can't say I have ever ate cardboard. I was careful with the racking so I can only think of two things: A) contamination or B) oxidation of the hot wort.
I was pretty anal with sanitizing so I don't think it was that. Oxidation doesn't sound likely either because this has no taste, let alone cardboard. The morgan's extract wasn't boiled (didn't want to loose the hops aroma) but the dme was. Everything there went fine until we cooled it. My wife, being the helpfull person she is, stirred it to help it cool faster. What I didn't tell her was that the wort wasn't supposed to be aerated until it cooled to avoid oxidation so it got a little bit of a beating until I remembered reading that little tidbit.
So, that leads me to my question: What could have gone wrong? Was it the littled bit of air while the wort was too hot? I also read that some bacterial infections eat up all the malt (which would explain the excess carbonation, assuming I didn't use too much sugar).
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible.
tehe
You guys had a thread on it and it just dropped dead. I was considering this for a summer brew but wasn't sure.... 
