Help me fix this batch

[Coastalbrew]

Disclaimer: Long post

Several years ago I made an extract kit from my LHBS that came out really good. They called it a "Medium Irish Ale". It was a mildly hopped light Irish Red Ale about 25 IBU and 7-8 SRM. The original recipe called for 6.6 lbs golden light LME, 1 # golden light DME, .5# Honey Malt, .25# Carapils, and .25# Biscuit with 1 oz EKG @ 60, 1oz EKG @ 20, and 1 oz EKG @ flame out , WLP004 Irish Ale yeast.

I made the move to all grain this past fall and wanted to try to recreate this recipe since I enjoyed it so much back in the day. This is where the train may have gone off the rails: I converted the recipe to all grain as a 5.5 G batch, which is the original batch size, then I scaled it down to a 3.25 G batch using the percentages of grains from the larger batch. I also remembered from the original batches of this beer that I had wanted a little more hop presence, both in the bitterness and in the aroma and flavor so I decided to alter the hop schedule a bit. The new recipe looked like this:

3.25 G batch
70% efficiency
OG - 1.064
FG - 1.018
SRM - 7.9
IBU - 35 ish (don't have the printout in front of me right now)

3.625 # Marris Otter
3.625 # 2 Row
.5 # Honey malt
.25 # Carapils
.25 # Biscuit

1 oz EKG @60
.7 oz EKG @20
1.3 oz EKG @ Flame out

1pk WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast pitched yeast @ 67 and fermented at 65 -67 for 3 days then ramped up to 70 for the next 4 days.

This was my first small batch brew and it ironically took almost an hour to cool down because my chiller was mostly out of the wort. I have since fixed this problem. Fermentation was slow but steady, but there has been continual air lock activity even last night it was releasing a bubble or two every 5 minutes or so. This has me a little puzzled so I checked the gravity this morning on day 8 since pitching and it was at 1.016. I of course tasted the hydrometer sample and it did not taste anything like the original beer. The best way I can describe it is that it tastes strongly of dirt. Very earthy flavor and aroma like the garden when you turn the soil, but not what I would call barnyard. I had my wife taste it for her feedback, she said "It tastes like Budweiser." It does have that sort of metallicy twang right at the finish that I get from Bud, but to me before that hits it just tastes like dirt. The beer has a very light body, and nice light copper color. It is still very hazy, but that is to be expected only 8 days in. On opening the fermenter there are no obvious signs of infection, no floaters (other than the odd hop particle). There were some bubbles at the surface, but like I said it seems to still be slowly fermenting. I re-sanitized the lid and air lock and re sealed the fermenter after taking the gravity reading, and plan to leave it at 70* for another week or so to see what happens.

In the meantime I'm wondering if the earthyness I'm experiencing could be my use of the EKG? I've heard that they can be very earthy hops, and I did use a fair bit of them in this smaller batch. Can I possibly dry hop with something like Cascade and maybe save this batch? Open to any thoughts you all may have regarding my recipe and how I may bring this one back. Thanks!

 

[bkboiler]

If still hazy, it sounds like you should cold crash and fine with gelatin or other suitable fining agent. Then try tasting it cold. Then see if you still think it needs fixin'

 

[Coastalbrew]

If still hazy, it sounds like you should cold crash and fine with gelatin or other suitable fining agent. Then try tasting it cold. Then see if you still think it needs fixin'

Thanks for the advice but I think it's still a bit early to cold crash as there is still fermentation happening, from the looks of the air lock. Plus I have had plenty of beers that were hazy and didn't taste like dirt.

 

[IslandLizard]

Since you're new to all grain, what kind of water did you use?
Any treatments?
Minerals added?

Earthiness can surely point to your EKG hops. Can also be from the Honey malt. Maris Otter gives a bready, sometimes even a biscuity flavor.
Give it another week, it should be done fermenting by then and start clearing, then take another sample. If you really hate the flavor, Cascade can make it more appetizing, sure.

Strange you didn't have the strong earthy flavor using extracts. But hops aren't always the same crop to crop, grower to grower. That can be the culprit.

Definitely don't use a secondary. Let it clear where it is, even dry hop.

 

[Holy_Grail_Reference]

I concur with Island, the equal parts Maris and 2-row will give you that bread flavor. Next batch I would lean a bit more on the US 2-row side as that will generally give you the sugars that you are looking for while allowing the Maris to back off a bit on the malty taste. As far as the haze, Gelatin is a good fining to use and should remove that haze quickly with a cold crash.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Since you're new to all grain, what kind of water did you use?
Any treatments?
Minerals added?

Earthiness can surely point to your EKG hops. Can also be from the Honey malt. Maris Otter gives a bready, sometimes even a biscuity flavor.
Give it another week, it should be done fermenting by then and start clearing, then take another sample. If you really hate the flavor, Cascade can make it more appetizing, sure.

Strange you didn't have the strong earthy flavor using extracts. But hops aren't always the same crop to crop, grower to grower. That can be the culprit.

Definitely don't use a secondary. Let it clear where it is, even dry hop.

Thanks! I use di water and add minerals. For this batch I tried the mineral additions suggested by Chris Colby in the home brew recipe Bible. There was a baking soda addition as well as CaCl and gypsum. The additions were pretty small since this was just a 3.25 gallon batch. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I think the CaCl and gypsum were around 4 g and the baking soda was 1g .

It is bubbling away now so we'll see what happens over the next week or so.

Cheers!