My First Bad Brew?

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FSBrewer

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I've been homebrewing on and off since 2008, but you'll notice I'm still posting in the beginner's forum. :) On May 1 of this year I brewed batch number 22, a LME with grain bag recipe kit, Falconer's Flight Pale Ale from Austin HBS. Here's the thing, though: I ordered the kit in 2018 and never brewed it because I was living in Austria at the time and never felt the need to brew on account of the selection of affordable and delicious lagers abound!

Now that I've relocated to a location in SE Asia where the beer is expensive and plain, I decided to brew my kit. I don't think anything can go wrong with the LME over time. The grain bag was vacuum sealed, but still 3 years old. Bottling day was the first time I didn't enjoy drinking the wort. It was both sour and bitter at the same time, a wee bit like the taste of vomit (forgive the details), but no overwhelmingly so. I bottled it anyway. It's only been in the bottle two weeks, but still has the same taste. What's the verdict, bad batch? Give it a few more weeks in the bottle? I guess I was bound to have a bad batch eventually. But I don't know if it's due to the age of the kit or maybe just contamination during the process. I still have another kit from the same 2018 shipment that I'm considering brewing. Appreciate any thoughts.
 
It could have been stale (cheesy) hops. Three year old ingredients aren't likely to be great - they'll make beer, but probably not good beer. The yeast could be suffering as well, which could lead to off flavours. Personally, I'd throw away the 2018 kit. Either buy a fresh kit/ingredients, or move back to Austria!
 
I don't think anything can go wrong with the LME over time.
Basic Brewing Radio back in 2005 (Aug 25 & Nov 17) has information as to what can "go wrong" with LME over time if it isn't stored properly (off flavors, darker color, ...)

Occasionally, some people here will mention adding old LME late in the boil in big dark beers. With this approach (which I haven't tried), 1) the color of the LME doesn't matter, and 2) apparently the off flavors from stale LME are hidden by the other flavors in the recipe.
 
Interesting. The vomit off-flavor is normally associated with butyric acid, which is produced by anaerobic bacteria and thus a sign of infection. There's also isovaleric acid, which is more like stinky cheese or dirty feet and can be produced by brett or bacteria and thus could also be a sign of infection.

As @Gnomebrewer pointed out, though, I'd be most concerned about the hops; three year old hops can be ok if they were kept vacuum sealed and in a freezer, but hops can fairly quickly deteriorate if not stored properly, and their oxidation also produces isovolaric acid and the "stinky cheese" smell (though this is actually desired in some lambics).

At any rate, none of the above will go away with time in the bottles. Unfortunately this sounds like a dumper to me. Better luck on the next one!
 
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