briantompo
Member
Hello,
I'm a new brewer and recently brewed an AG Red Chair clone that had a wort-y flavor, like unsweetened ice tea or maybe uncooked squash. After 17 days in keg at 40f, that flavor never improved. Instead of dumping it, I let it sit another week at room temp and then bled the CO2 off and racked it onto a newly-available Wy1318 cake from a Hobgoblin clone. I'm hoping the beer will ferment some more and magically become drinkable.
Has anyone done this with success and salvaged a crappy beer? I searched this forum as well as the interweb in general and didn't find any guidance, only reference to "re fermenting for bottling".
Worst case, it's still a dumper, but I'd like to know what caused that batch to taste like wort and learn from this. I suspect it was just my own impatience and I kegged it before it was ready but maybe I under pitched or there's something in my process that will stand out as a red flag to more experienced brewers. Here's how that brew went down:
This was my 8th BIAB batch, OG 1.068, expected FG 1.020. I fermented at 65-68f with Wy1968 harvested from a previous starter. This sample had been in my fridge for 2-1/2 months and was used to build up a 1.8L starter, chilled, decanted and pitched. Blowoff started bubbling at 18 hours and went gangbusters for a couple days before slowing. On days 6 and 7 there was no visible activity and gravity was 1.027. I expected 1.020 but instead of letting it sit longer, I crash cooled it, kegged and fined with gelatin so I could use the fridge to serve an older IPA. In hindsight, I wish I'd let this batch sit at room temp for a few weeks while I drank the IPA. I now have a second fridge so I won't have to choose between ferm temp and serving temp.
If that's not enough, I made MANY process changes between the first batch of Red Chair that was so delicious and this batch, mostly related to doubling the size of this batch. I choose to brew inside on the stovetop because I live in a bug-infested swamp next to a honey bee apiary, but my stove has a 50lb weight limit. This 5-gal batch was actually 2 stovetop batches brewed back-to-back on the same day and then combined and chilled to pitching temp together. While brewing the second half, the first half did essentially a 3-hr hop stand in a plastic bucket between 175f and 145f. When the second half finished its 60 min boil, I poured the first half back into the kettle and chilled the whole thing down to 63f with my immersion chiller. I did not use whirlfloc this time, transferred lots of break material and fermented in a bucket for the first time. This batch was poured agressively into the bucket instead of my normal rack to 3-gal BetterBottle and shake. Fermentation started a little slower than I'm accustomed to but then bubbled more agressively than I've seen before. The previous (delicious) batch finished lower at 1.020 then spent 18 days in secondary because of my schedule. It was a smooth, delicious, malty beer that I subsequently keg-hopped with an ounce of citra. It kept getting better as we drank it and it disappeared quickly.
If you've read this far and are willing to offer advice, or see any obvious no-no's, I'll listen. If nothing else, I'll post a follow-up report when this beer either improves or gets dumped.
Thanks, Brian
I'm a new brewer and recently brewed an AG Red Chair clone that had a wort-y flavor, like unsweetened ice tea or maybe uncooked squash. After 17 days in keg at 40f, that flavor never improved. Instead of dumping it, I let it sit another week at room temp and then bled the CO2 off and racked it onto a newly-available Wy1318 cake from a Hobgoblin clone. I'm hoping the beer will ferment some more and magically become drinkable.
Has anyone done this with success and salvaged a crappy beer? I searched this forum as well as the interweb in general and didn't find any guidance, only reference to "re fermenting for bottling".
Worst case, it's still a dumper, but I'd like to know what caused that batch to taste like wort and learn from this. I suspect it was just my own impatience and I kegged it before it was ready but maybe I under pitched or there's something in my process that will stand out as a red flag to more experienced brewers. Here's how that brew went down:
This was my 8th BIAB batch, OG 1.068, expected FG 1.020. I fermented at 65-68f with Wy1968 harvested from a previous starter. This sample had been in my fridge for 2-1/2 months and was used to build up a 1.8L starter, chilled, decanted and pitched. Blowoff started bubbling at 18 hours and went gangbusters for a couple days before slowing. On days 6 and 7 there was no visible activity and gravity was 1.027. I expected 1.020 but instead of letting it sit longer, I crash cooled it, kegged and fined with gelatin so I could use the fridge to serve an older IPA. In hindsight, I wish I'd let this batch sit at room temp for a few weeks while I drank the IPA. I now have a second fridge so I won't have to choose between ferm temp and serving temp.
If that's not enough, I made MANY process changes between the first batch of Red Chair that was so delicious and this batch, mostly related to doubling the size of this batch. I choose to brew inside on the stovetop because I live in a bug-infested swamp next to a honey bee apiary, but my stove has a 50lb weight limit. This 5-gal batch was actually 2 stovetop batches brewed back-to-back on the same day and then combined and chilled to pitching temp together. While brewing the second half, the first half did essentially a 3-hr hop stand in a plastic bucket between 175f and 145f. When the second half finished its 60 min boil, I poured the first half back into the kettle and chilled the whole thing down to 63f with my immersion chiller. I did not use whirlfloc this time, transferred lots of break material and fermented in a bucket for the first time. This batch was poured agressively into the bucket instead of my normal rack to 3-gal BetterBottle and shake. Fermentation started a little slower than I'm accustomed to but then bubbled more agressively than I've seen before. The previous (delicious) batch finished lower at 1.020 then spent 18 days in secondary because of my schedule. It was a smooth, delicious, malty beer that I subsequently keg-hopped with an ounce of citra. It kept getting better as we drank it and it disappeared quickly.
If you've read this far and are willing to offer advice, or see any obvious no-no's, I'll listen. If nothing else, I'll post a follow-up report when this beer either improves or gets dumped.
Thanks, Brian
