Mystery of the Lazarus Lager

[StevieB]

I've been making lagers for about a year now. I'm using all grain and force carbonating in a corny keg. I've converted a freezer with an external thermostat for use in lagering @ 3 weeks 34 degrees. Most batches have been very good.

As I've experimented with different ingredients, yeasts and temperatures, I made one particularly poor batch when I tried fermenting near the top temp range of the German Lager yeast I was using (~60 degrees). It had a strong, bready/skunky smell and flavor. I went ahead and bottled it anyway, thinking I might be able to sneak it past my tastebuds when served ice cold. No dice. I drank about a 6 pack out of 4 cases and then there is sat. And sat, and sat. I just couldn't stand the off flavors. I kept the cases in my guest bedroom for about 3 months at a fairly constant 65 degrees, thinking I might experiment with distilling them. Never did.

The other day, being out of my most recent batch, I chilled a bottle of the now 3-month old brew and drank it. Bad beer has to be better than no beer, right? When I tasted it, I couldn't believe my tastebuds. My awful, bready, skunky beer smelled and tasted clean and refreshing. No trace of the off aroma and flavors that almost caused me to dump the whole batch. Best lager I've ever made! Tasted like Stella or Peroni. Clean, light hop, crisp, perfect. I wish every batch tasted like this! Randomly tried 3 more since, from different cases and they all taste the same...great. So my question is, HOW? What the heck happened here? Can anyone help me explain this? What was wrong with the batch? How did letting it age 3 months in the bottle improve it? I had assumed the off flavors were from the overactive fermentation. Would aging in bottle correct this somehow?

 

[djfriesen]

Obviously. Time heals almost everything. "bready/skunky" doesn't sound like a specific off flavor, so I have to think it was due to the fermentation temps and aged out well. Now try to recreate it, and see if it's a viable process.

 

[OldWorld]

Bottle conditioning is the best...

I hate kegs...Kegs are for wussy cheaters...and fat guys with big beer bellies...Hey don't look at me

 

[Brew_4iT]

Lager yeast are a powdery yeast that like to stay in suspension if at higher temperatures and give off interesting off flavors higher in their optimal range. I'm not sure the strain you used but I would bet a few different things happened. Given that you brought the temperature up in the bottles to 65 degrees for as long as you did gave it another diactyl rest (become more active and being highly present in beer, this is why lagering is so important because the yeast flocculate and fall out of suspension leaving a very clean and clear beer) and the yeast did a better job to clean up after themselves. I'm surprised that the "bready" yeast taste you were describing wasn't still their since you didn't leave the bottles at colder temperature (just because the presence of the yeast), but I would think that the long conditioning settled the yeast out of suspension, leaving out any "bready" tastes and also cleaning up themselves.

Prost!