Off Flavors and Aging

[burninator]

I have a sour beer that's been in the carboy for about 5 months. Saturday I finally pulled a sample to check gravity and give it a taste. Gravity is at 1.010. Aroma is very nice. It has ample sourness, but there's a strong off-flavor that I'm calling smoke, for lack of a better description.

So what I'm wondering is what common brett-produced off-flavors can be reasonably expected to diminish or disappear with age? I know that acetic acid is permanent, but there are so many others, like my smoke, or band-aid, or acetone.

Will my beer be saved by another 6-8 months in the carboy, or is it a loss already?

 

[Agate]

Smokey/phenolic is an off-flavor with brett, and in my experience won't age out of the beer. I think there's a post on sour beer blog that goes into this. YMMV.

 

[Agate]

Here it is... Scroll down to the brettanomyces character part:

http://sourbeerblog.com/understanding-brewing-blending-lambic-style-kriek/

Of course, if the character isn't too strong, maybe it could be tamed with a blend?

 

[secondbase]

Curious as to what yeast/bugs you pitched for this, fermentation temps, type of vessel, etc.

Smoke can definitely come from brett. A few people claim White Labs Brett L throws a bunch of smokey medicinal weirdness. I haven't experienced it, so I can't tell you if it'll age out.

 

[burninator]

Curious as to what yeast/bugs you pitched for this, fermentation temps, type of vessel, etc.

Smoke can definitely come from brett. A few people claim White Labs Brett L throws a bunch of smokey medicinal weirdness. I haven't experienced it, so I can't tell you if it'll age out.

Initial pitch of Wyeast 3278 and S-33, along with dregs from JP and Crooked Stave. It's since gotten dregs from Orval and Goose Island, as well as my house sour culture.

It's sitting at 70F right now, but my concern is that I didn't control the temp during that first week.

Smokey medicinal weirdness is exactly how I would describe it

 

[burninator]

I sampled this again over the weekend next to a bottle of St Louis Fond Tradition Gueuze. I don't know if the beer is improving (it is certainly changing), or if the lambic provided the proper calibration, but I perceived the flavor this time as more of a mineral-like component with some smokiness.

A very similar note was present in the gueuze. It became more prevalent as the beer warmed, and the excess carbonation subsided, which makes me think this is going to be just fine with some bottle conditioning.

 

[burninator]

Thought I'd put a ribbon on this one. I took another sample tonight, as I'm planning to bottle this weekend, and my how it's changed! This is hardly recognizable as the same beer I tasted 2 months ago. It's more sour, fruity, and minerally. It's much less smoky and medicinal. It's also telling me I have to put blackberries in it, which I'll do for half the batch.

View attachment 1452308719658.jpg

 

[505-Brewer]

Good news. Glad this cleaned up for you.

 

[LakesideBrewing]

Nice! This is why I tend to not even try my sours before they're at least a year old.

 

[burninator]

I'm really happy with it, and I sort of wish I'd left it until the 1 year mark. But it was tasting really nice at bottling, and I want to use the harvested cake for a red ale I'm brewing tomorrow.

2 gallons of it went onto blackberries. I seriously can't wait to get into that one.