snow16
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2014
- Messages
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In the spirit of RDWHAHB, I thought it would be interesting to start a thread in the Beginner's Forum about off-flavors that you've experienced that either dissipated or disappeared entirely - with a little hope and patience.
The hardest skill to master in homebrewing is patience (I've far from mastered it), yet it's undoubtedly the skill that rewards us more than any other. Only a fellow brewer can understand the heart-wrenching feeling of taking that long-awaited first sip out of the primary, only to find that it doesn't taste anything like what we expected. Or even worse - it tastes funky or foul. Share your experience(s) of an off-flavor-turned-awesome-beer, and maybe we can prevent some folks from dumping all of their effort down the drain before giving the beer gods a chance to make it right.
MY STORY: I recently brewed a DIPA (OG: 1.074; US-05 pitched according to yeast calculator; 62-64F) that started out wonderfully. After 10 days or so, I popped off the airlock to take a hydrometer reading and within seconds the entire room smelled like Band-Aids and doctors office. And it tasted even worse. Wild yeast I was absolutely heartbroken. To make matters worse, in my experience at least, chlorophenols are not one of those off-flavors that fade over time. If anything, they become more pronounced. My beer was doomed, I thought. I nearly dumped it right then, but something stopped me. I was away from home for 2 weeks after that, and when I came home I went to confirm its nastiness and dump it. Lo and Behold! It smelled incredible, and tasted even better. I have NO IDEA what happened, but time healed my beer and perhaps it will heal yours. At 2 months in the bottle, its perhaps the best DIPA Ive ever brewed.
Tell us about your off-flavor-turned awesome.
The hardest skill to master in homebrewing is patience (I've far from mastered it), yet it's undoubtedly the skill that rewards us more than any other. Only a fellow brewer can understand the heart-wrenching feeling of taking that long-awaited first sip out of the primary, only to find that it doesn't taste anything like what we expected. Or even worse - it tastes funky or foul. Share your experience(s) of an off-flavor-turned-awesome-beer, and maybe we can prevent some folks from dumping all of their effort down the drain before giving the beer gods a chance to make it right.
MY STORY: I recently brewed a DIPA (OG: 1.074; US-05 pitched according to yeast calculator; 62-64F) that started out wonderfully. After 10 days or so, I popped off the airlock to take a hydrometer reading and within seconds the entire room smelled like Band-Aids and doctors office. And it tasted even worse. Wild yeast I was absolutely heartbroken. To make matters worse, in my experience at least, chlorophenols are not one of those off-flavors that fade over time. If anything, they become more pronounced. My beer was doomed, I thought. I nearly dumped it right then, but something stopped me. I was away from home for 2 weeks after that, and when I came home I went to confirm its nastiness and dump it. Lo and Behold! It smelled incredible, and tasted even better. I have NO IDEA what happened, but time healed my beer and perhaps it will heal yours. At 2 months in the bottle, its perhaps the best DIPA Ive ever brewed.
Tell us about your off-flavor-turned awesome.
