I just poured 42 bottles of HB Dunkelweizen down the drain

[MaxStout]

I can't remember the last time I poured out a whole batch of beer.

Tonight, after drinking the 5th or 6th bottle of home brew Dunkelweizen, I realized it's undrinkable. I tried to give it a chance, I really did. Smells like wet doggy, tastes like hot dog water. Fermented with Munich Classic, let the temps free-rise up to 70 or so. Otherwise, I did what I've done with countless brews before. Fastidious about sanitation, try to reduce oxidation as much as I can with bottling. Fresh ingredients. Even use the LODO trifecta to scavenge O2.

My last few brews have had the wet dog aroma, but tasted OK. This was the first where I got the meaty flavor too. Dunno what's going on. I've read that the meaty flavor is due to yeast autolysis. Didn't think that was likely at the homebrew scale, but here it is.

 

[Willy]

I can't remember the last time I poured out a whole batch of beer.

Tonight, after drinking the 5th or 6th bottle of home brew Dunkelweizen, I realized it's undrinkable. I tried to give it a chance, I really did. Smells like wet doggy, tastes like hot dog water. Fermented with Munich Classic, let the temps free-rise up to 70 or so. Otherwise, I did what I've done with countless brews before. Fastidious about sanitation, try to reduce oxidation as much as I can with bottling. Fresh ingredients. Even use the LODO trifecta to scavenge O2.

My last few brews have had the wet dog aroma, but tasted OK. This was the first where I got the meaty flavor too. Dunno what's going on. I've read that the meaty flavor is due to yeast autolysis. Didn't think that was likely at the homebrew scale, but here it is.

Sorry to hear that. It happens. For me about 1 out of 50 batches. About as much fun as losing a tank of CO2 due to a bad seal.

 

[tracer bullet]

My last few brews have had the wet dog aroma, but tasted OK.

Well, even if you aren't looking for solutions, you'll probably get conversation about it

Were you using the same hops each time, or the same bag of grain or something? Maybe one is "bad".

If not, you might consider a thorough cleaning of all the equipment, take apart every valve, outright replace every plastic item such as hoses or spigots...

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Welll that bites the big weiner!
I made a blonde ale back when I was just getting started, my swamp cooler idea failed and the temp reached 90.. I bottled it anyway,,but calling it puke worty is a complement..i dumped the entire batch, then built a l egit cooling tower and chiller
Since then, I've only had one,"dumper" my grandson had a kit ftom his college days, it was over a year old, i knew better, but he begged me to brew it with him, I brewed it, WE drank it, truth be told, I should have dumped it..i have 6 bottles l left, I'm thinking of pouring down a chipmunk hole, it tastes like the bilge of my boat smells!
I'm sure you will review your notes and all will be right with the world..

 

[madscientist451]

A yeast re-pitch?
That’s all I can think of….

 

[mashdar]

Is the yeast a repitch? Could it be an infection?

Do commercial beers taste normal? Maybe a perceptual change?

 

[Pennine]

Always disappointing to dump all that hard work and patience.

Sounds like maybe a warm temp trend if the last few batches have had similar issues?

What do you do for water?

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

harvested yeast or fresh yeast?

maybe mix up the sanitizer with iodophor instead of starsan in case its an infection

sometimes glassware from the dishwasher tastes like wet dog. Are the glasses you are using handwashed or in the dishwasher?

 

[IslandLizard]

Ouch! Sad to read this...

Fermented with Munich Classic [...]
My last few brews have had the wet dog aroma, but tasted OK.

All using fresh yeast or repitches?

Can it be something harboring in the bottles?

 

[homebeerbrewer]

That’s alcohol abuse!

On a more serious note, you said the last few batches had a wet dog aroma. You should do a thorough cleaning of everything that touches the wort/beer after boiling. Replace anything with scratches. Replace anything plastic. Sounds like you have some kind of infection going on.

 

[estricklin]

Sorry to hear about this, it happens to all of us homebrewers. As the saying goes, your either a liar or haven't brewed enough batches yet.

Thanks for posting this, you never know what new homebrewer may come across this on google. I almost gave up brewing entirely in my early days because I had a string of bad batches.

We live to brew another day, and you've got lots of amazing batches ahead of you.

 

[MaxStout]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! This is frustrating, but I'm trying to work through it in my head. Something needs to change.

I pitched fresh, dry yeast, within its use-by date, rehydrated with Go-Ferm. I started using the Go-Ferm not too long ago. Could that be leaving something that breaks down into an off-flavor component? Next brew I'll rehydrate with plain water, or pitch dry.

Only plastic I have contacting cold-side beer is a bottling bucket and silicone tubing. After each use the spigot gets taken apart, cleaned, stored in a jar of Starsan until next time. On bottling day I put a gallon of Starsan in the bucket, shake it every so often, then dump it just before filling with beer. No scratches I can see inside.

The silicone tubing gets a thorough rinse and starsan rinse, but that might not be enough due to its porosity. Don't want to store it in Starsan as that corrodes the silicone. Maybe I should boil it. Same with the silicone tubing I use to rack from BK to FV.

I ferment in Brew Buckets and use a Cold Crash Guardian to collect extra CO2. I don't open the lid any time during ferm.

I try to keep bottles clean and sanitized. After pouring a beer I rinse 3 times, then another rinse with a few shakes, dump that, then squirt some Starsan inside, invert & drip-dry. I store them in boxes. On bottling day I dunk each in a bucket of Starsan, and set inverted in a FastRack. Caps get dunked in Starsan. I cap on foam with about 1/2" headspace.

Could be taste perception. My taste and smell had changed a little after I had Covid 2 years ago, so what I'm tasting and smelling could be some other off-flavor. However, commercial beer never has those off-flavors, so it's definitely something in my HB.

People I serve it to think it's ok, but they probably wouldn't comment anyway. I generally don't enter in comps, but maybe I should have an experienced brewer taste some.

My water is RO from a Buckeye system at home. Fairly new filters and TDS is around 4 ppm. I measure salt additions on a gram scale. Mash pH has always been well within range.

I've been using the LODO trifecta, but that has predated this new issue. I do a few of the LODO methods, and try to minimize stirring, splashing. I still can't help think that this is oxidation, even though this recent batch is fairly new. I found out in another thread that I can add a gram or so of AA per gallon at packaging. Might try that.

Grains and hops are fresh. I store grain in ziplocs placed inside gamma seal buckets in a cool location. Hops are vac-sealed and kept in the deep freeze. Dry yeast stays in the fridge.

 

[mashdar]

I notice your process doesn't include any cleaning agents - maybe you've got something forming biofilms?

If it was primarily in bottles, I'd expect variability from bottle to bottle. Ditto for short-contact in tubing/bucket, unless it was a huge dose.

Do you taste it while bottling? Curious when the flavor is developing.

 

[Snuffy]

Perhaps this is a style whose flavor profile benefits from some slight oxidation.

https://brulosophy.com/2017/04/10/t...ow-oxygen-brewing-method-exbeeriment-results/

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

maybe mix up the sanitizer with iodophor instead of starsan in case its an infection

Earlier this spring I had a couple of batches in a row seemed a little off. I replaced soft plastic tubing (but not bottling wands, spigots, or carboys), cleaned everything well, then sanitized with iodophor (normally I use StarSan). So far, no further problems.

 

[MaxStout]

I notice your process doesn't include any cleaning agents - maybe you've got something forming biofilms?

If it was primarily in bottles, I'd expect variability from bottle to bottle. Ditto for short-contact in tubing/bucket, unless it was a huge dose.

Do you taste it while bottling? Curious when the flavor is developing.

Forgot to mention the cleaning part--hot PBW wash and rinse. Ball valves disassembled, parts cleaned with a toothbrush or test tube brush with PBW. Sanitized and reassembled.

I always taste the hydro samples, never noticed off-flavors then.

Don't think it's bottles. All the beers have the off-flavor.

 

[tracer bullet]

Forgot to mention the cleaning part--hot PBW wash and rinse. Ball valves disassembled, parts cleaned with a toothbrush or test tube brush with PBW. Sanitized and reassembled.

I always taste the hydro samples, never noticed off-flavors then.

Don't think it's bottles. All the beers have the off-flavor.

Not unexpectedly you seem to have all the things covered. Kinda leaves oxidation but I'm sure you've got that covered too.

 

[day_trippr]

I would not use silicone tubing for any cold side process because of its porosity, preferring vinyl/pvc...

 

[Early8]

I feel your pain; I have been struggling with something similar. In more than fifteen years of kegging my beer I have not had such a problem; I didn't loose any beer, but I noticed an increasing off flavor. I am not going to call it a win yet, but I think I am on it now, I discovered a little bit of beerstone on a couple of seams on the dip tubes in my corny kegs. My cleaning and sanitizing regiment revolved around hot PBW and hot rinsing along with starsan. I am realizing that the beerstone seemed to have managed to survive that in my environment somehow. Beerstone is new to me, so I pivoted to an acid soak after the PBW and am working that process through all of my gear now. I also took the opportunity to change all of my lines and rebuild my regulators. I have no idea if this is useful, but I am sharing in the even that it might be.

 

[BongoYodeler]

@MaxStout I can't think to suggest anything that's not already been covered here.

I've recently drank three of your homebrews - a doppelbock, an oatmeal stout, and a malt liquor. They all tasted very good to me and none of them had a wet dog aroma or any off flavors that I could detect. Did you personally notice this on any of these three?

 

[IslandLizard]

I try to keep bottles clean and sanitized. After pouring a beer I rinse 3 times, then another rinse with a few shakes, dump that, then squirt some Starsan inside, invert & drip-dry. I store them in boxes. On bottling day I dunk each in a bucket of Starsan, and set inverted in a FastRack. Caps get dunked in Starsan. I cap on foam with about 1/2" headspace.

These bottles never get brushed inside?
Or cleaned with an alkaline (homemade) PBW solution?

Same for your fermentation buckets and bottling bucket?
As you know, Starsan is only a sanitizer, not a cleaner.