Off Finish Taste to Extract Brew

[pvtschultz]

I just bottled my third extract brew (fifth brew if you count the Mr. Beer kits that I made) and this is the first time that I've been concerned about it.

I boiled up a Northern Brewer Caribou Slobber Ale on 12/16/10 and pitched a Wyeast smack pack. I sampled it periodically and noticed an off finish to the taste that reminds me a bit of dandelions. It is a bit sour on the tongue, mostly towards the back of the mouth and it the taste lingers. The nose is very nice and reminds me of toffee, the mouth-feel is fine with a pleasant brown ale taste, but the finish is concerning. I used tap (chlorinated...) water and tried to mind my sanitary P's and Q's with Star San as best I know how. What do you think the cause may be and is this one going to be a "Do not share with others" beer? The beer stats are below.

Specialty Grains
0.25 Briess Caramel 80L
0.25 Fawcett Pale Chocolate
0.125 Black Malt
-Steeped 20 min

Fermentables
6 lbs Amber LME
1 lbs Amber DME

Hops
1 oz Goldings (60 min)
1 oz Liberty (45 min)
1 oz Willamette (15 min)

Yeast
Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale Yeast

OG: 1.053
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.33

Pitched yeast at 70 degrees F and fermented at 64-66 degrees ambient. Pitched 12/16, racked to secondary 01/05 and bottled today 01/11.

 

[starrfish]

Liquid malt extract? did you full boil extract? On my partials I've gone to a late addition ( 2 to 3 lbs last 15 min) helps keep color light and scorching to a minimum) just a thought.

been thinking about the all grain slobber kit as a house american brown... I usually do my own recipes but that one has gotten good reviews.

 

[pvtschultz]

Yup, full 60 min boil on DME and LME.

 

[starrfish]

try backing down on the dme until the last 15-20... and try to work your way off liquid completely

I stopped using liquid early on and was much happier with results... and my second coming into brewing used late extract method before going all grain (if i do a partial I add last few lbs last 15 min) and have found it to be cleaner on the finish... no twang.

just something to try... I never liked liquid results as much as dry... I've carbed with the left over dme and had smaller carb buubles too... great for english ales.

EDIT: I've found dry is easier to work with too... much easier to save for carbing.
have a brown with molasses I brew 2 times a year... MOLE ASSES brown. I 'm still playing with the hops on that one... haven't hit the perfect one yet... just love brown ales..

 

[Brasco20]

I have that beer kegged right now and time is not helping it, has a funny flavor that almost seems like cardboard but not quite, i cant seem to pin down the flavor.

 

[starrfish]

card boardy is oxidation...

 

[Brasco20]

i dont secondary, and have a pretty quiet transfer to the keg. I do see a few bubbles in the arc of my cane at the end of the transfer, but the tip is completely submerged. Is it possible for co2 to rest at the bottom, or am i getting a leak some where.
The flavor is much worse than cardboard, but its the only thing i can think of to compare it to.

Starfish i wasnt able to send you a pm, so i wrote it here.

 

[pvtschultz]

Don't feel bad for "hijacking" this thread Brasco, we can get help together on this one.

The previous beer that I made was NB AK47 Pale Mild which turned out phenomenally and I intend on keeping that one in stock at home someday once I work through a few more brews that I want to do. This was the first higher gravity beer that I tried though and the first time that the off finish was there. The extract kit gets rave reviews on their website so I can only guess that I did something to my attempt that has set off the flavors. I also have the NB Mild Ale in primary now that I am going to bottle tonight. It had a quick fermentation and low gravity so I am going to kick it out after only a week so I can move onto my next attempt, hopefully tonight. Sampling that beer from primary gives a slight metallic finish but not too unpleasent. The beer is far from being complex though and might be the last time I make it depending on how the finished product turns out.

I smelled the band-aids in my home last night and they must be too old to have a quality smell to them. I really can't describe the taste other than it is like chewing on flower pedals or that taste you get from the white milk of a dandelion. It lingers a long time on the tongue and back of the mouth too.

I plan on doing a stove-top PM Spotted Cow clone soon so I'd like to avoid this in the future if I can. I do have an RO filter left over from my marine aquarium days that I am going to re-deploy to filter my tap water of chlorine/chlorimine as prevention.

What does a burnt LME beer taste like? I tried to make sure that I stirred it in very well and had the burning on the lowest setting while I was mixing everything in. The initial boil volume was 2.5 gallons for 60 min which left about 2 gallons at the end.

 

[Brasco20]

I shut the burner off when i put in the lme, my next brew im going to try putting it in at the end of the boil.
I bottled AK47 last night, so you say its really good huh?

 

[pvtschultz]

I really liked the AK47, the only caveat being that I felt it was over carbonated using 2/3 cup priming sugar. I'm going to brew it again soon with less carbonation. Give it at least two weeks in the bottle, preferably three, for best taste.

I tried the Caribou Slobber cold tonight after just one day in the bottle. I may have overreacted initially because of drinking flat, warm beer. The noise is the same, a bit green now from priming, the mouth-feel is quite dry (drier than I had expected but it was very cold), and the finish is clean. There is a hint of roasted malt in there as well but the dandelions are gone for the most part. I'm going to try one each week and note the tastes as the bottles condition. I really don't need this beer until the third week of February so I have some time to wait. I can confirm though, that one bottle was enough to make feel a bit warm inside so the calculated 5.3% ABV is all there compared to my normal Busch Light.

 

[flabyboy]

I really liked the AK47, the only caveat being that I felt it was over carbonated using 2/3 cup priming sugar. I'm going to brew it again soon with less carbonation. Give it at least two weeks in the bottle, preferably three, for best taste.

I tried the Caribou Slobber cold tonight after just one day in the bottle. I may have overreacted initially because of drinking flat, warm beer. The noise is the same, a bit green now from priming, the mouth-feel is quite dry (drier than I had expected but it was very cold), and the finish is clean. There is a hint of roasted malt in there as well but the dandelions are gone for the most part. I'm going to try one each week and note the tastes as the bottles condition. I really don't need this beer until the third week of February so I have some time to wait. I can confirm though, that one bottle was enough to make feel a bit warm inside so the calculated 5.3% ABV is all there compared to my normal Busch Light.

One day?!?

 

[pvtschultz]

One day?!?

I know, I know... I just wanted to try it cold.

 

[Brasco20]

Do you bottle condition cold?

 

[pvtschultz]

Do you bottle condition cold?

Sort of...

At least two weeks in the bottle warm; I put them in the fridge as I needed more cold so some were conditioned longer than others. Overall, the batch only lasted a month.

 

[pvtschultz]

I keep trying these and finally after 8+ weeks the flavor is coming around. I think that the original terrible finish was from the hops; this has mellowed quite a bit but it is still a pretty hoppy beer. It's drinkable but the hops are over-powering and mask the taste of the beer.

 

[RM-MN]

Wait another 2 weeks and sample again. I'll bet it will still be bitter because you have nearly 2 ounces of bittering hops but I suspect the flavor will have mellowed considerably. Your beer is maturing.