Substantially bready flavours.

[lonlonmilklover]

I recently brewed my first batch of beer at home based on the Tittabawasee Brown Ale from John Palmer shown in his book "How To Brew". The All Extract version calls for:

Tittabawasee Brown Ale

4 lbs. of Pale Malt LME
2.5 lbs. of Amber DME
.5 lbs. of Dark DME

Hops
3/4 oz of Nugget (10%) at 60 minutes
1 oz of Willamette (5%) at 30 minutes
1 oz of Willamette (5%) at 15 minutes

Primary Ferment at 65°F for 2 weeks.

I changed the recipe very slightly as I wanted to add cacao nibs into the recipe for some bitterness, as well as have some dry cacao flavor in the beer's finish so this is what I did exactly:

At beginning of boil, fully dissolved:
2 lbs Amber DME
1 lb. Dark DME

I then started the boil timer at 60 mins and added 1oz of Nugget.
I then added 1 oz of Willamette hops at 30 mins.
At 15 minutes, in lieu of the final Willamette addition, I added 3oz of raw cacao nibs that had been soaking in 50ml of top shelf vodka for 48 hours.

At the end of the boil, I cooled the beer successfully to 70F, transferred to glass carboy with great successful aeration, and pitched the yeast, WLP002. One hour later, I put it in the fridge regulated at 65F for 10 days.

After 10 days, the beer looked and smelled textbook healthy. On the 10th day I added 3 more ounces of raw cacao nibs that had again been soaking for 48 hrs in 50ml top shelf vodka into the primary. I kept the beer 5 more days in the primary at that point, then bottled on the 15th day.

I then put the bottles in the fridge at a regulated 70 degrees.

After 5 days I took a bottle from the 70 degree fridge and put it in our big kitchen fridge - the "normal" fridge and about 2 hours later poured it. Very cloudy, as expected, but was just testing for carbonation as this was my Maiden Voyage of brewing and wanted to experience different stages as much as possible. It was very yeasty, very bready tasting not necessarily a sourdough flavor, but a similar feel of that yeasty waft in the nose and mouth.

I tried another bottle after the 10th day, and a bit less yeasty bready flavor, and a mild amount of cacao bitterness coming through. It actually tasted like a brown ale at this point

I tried a third bottle on the 15th day and much less yeast smell, less bready flavor, and much less milky looking but not exactly clearer. Brown unfiltered color, a touch more bitter cacao flavor, but also an odd fumey spicy zesty flavor in the background. Not a warm off-alcohol flavor, just odd.

It's the 20th day today and I poured another bottle, this time through a clean fine unbleached cheese cloth to be sure no excess yeast made it into the bottle.

Very brown, a bit clearer, but still murky, as an unfiltered beer seems to usually look, but ... finally, here's my question.

The current result is that the brown ale flavor is very decent, about 20% more flavorful than a NewCastle brown ale. Very mild nutty flavors - guessing from the Nugget Hops, and very present dark bitterness from the cacao nibs. No actual chocolate flavors, just the bitter tones like you get when eating 80%+ dark chocolate. In this case though, zero sweetness. I like those factors. The factor I don't like is after swallowing, I'm still getting a pretty substantial bready / toasted sourdough waft, that I'm guessing is perhaps either a natural flavor of the WLP002 yeast that I chose, or perhaps due to maybe not letting the beer ferment long enough in the carboy and/or in the bottles.

Any suggestions to ditch this bready/wafty/fumey sourdough-esque-but-not odd flavor that I can't place?

Edit: I should add - some forums I look at say you can get off-flavors from boiling cacao nibs and they should only be added to the end of primary or secondary, but I have spoken to a few homebrewers and they say that is not always correct, that you simply get more bitterness from cacao nibs by adding to the end of boil like I did, and more dry chocolate flavor if you add to the fermenter.

Any suggestions or tips would be very much appreciated Many thanks for your time!

 

[flars]

From the looks of this recipe I would give it 5 weeks to bottle condition. The extra aging time will blend the flavors as you are begining to taste now.

The odd flavors you are getting is the sediment made up of yeast and trub.

The next one you take from the conditioning frig handle gently to keep the yeast undisturbed. Chill the bottle for three days. Pour smooth and slow. I call it no glug pouring. Hold the bottle high so you can see when the sediment is approaching the bottle mouth. Stop the pour before you get any of the sediment. You will only lose a couple of ounces this way.

I think you will be happy with your creation.

 

[lonlonmilklover]

Ahhhhh ok. Many thanks. I am reading several topics that seem adamant that only 2 weeks should be more than enough, so I thought I had somewhat ruined the batch by doing something silly like tweeking the DME by a mere .5 lbs lol.

I will wait longer, then. When you mentioned from the looks of the recipe that 5 weeks is more likely - is that because of the cacao nibs that seems to demand much more time?

 

[flars]

Ahhhhh ok. Many thanks. I am reading several topics that seem adamant that only 2 weeks should be more than enough, so I thought I had somewhat ruined the batch by doing something silly like tweeking the DME by a mere .5 lbs lol.

I will wait longer, then. When you mentioned from the looks of the recipe that 5 weeks is more likely - is that because of the cacao nibs that seems to demand much more time?

No, not just the nibs. The amber to the hops and a bit of my personal preference. I'll sneak one of mine early, but at least four weeks has been best for the lowest gravity brews.

 

[lonlonmilklover]

Good grief, I forgot to add when I poured in the 4 lbs. Pale Malt Extract...

It was when the timer was at 20 mins. It was suggested by the proprietor of the Homebrew Supply store to not add the Pale at the top of the hour since it's liquid, to avoid any off flavors from it being in the boil too long, as it's a finished product.

 

[lonlonmilklover]

Well, as of 1/12, I have changed the fridge where the bottles are at from 72 to 55, and also put one in the kitchen fridge for 3 days to chill.

Opened it today and here's my harsh self-critique. A bit bummed:

-It's a bit overcarbonated and has the mouthfeel of club soda. Guessing b/c I used rapaduro cane sugar (unprocessed, unfiltered "Rapunzel" brand, still with all the natural color and mollases in the sugar granules when making the simple syrup) It's likely a big more potent than processed corn sugar. I'll simply use less next time?

-All flavors are very mild, due to being overcarbonated.

-There are cacao nib aromas, but about zero cacao flavor. In spite of my attempt as replacing some hop bitterness with cacao nib bitterness by using 3oz vodka-soaked nibs in leiu of the 3rd hops addition, all I got in essence, was simply less bitterness overall. However also instead of cacao flavor from the cacao nibs added to the 10th day of primary fermantation, I'm getting something humorous, disturbing, but in the end irritating lol...

-This disturbing flavor is - I kid you not - Anaheim Chile. If I didn't know any better and didn't brew this beer, I'd have guessed I was sipping on a Brown Ale brewed with Anaheim Chiles. Zero heat, as there is about zero heat from Anaheim Chiles to begin with, but a lot of roasted Anahem Chile flavor. I don't know if that is an "off flavor", and it's not unpleasant at all, but simply not what I intended.

I intended a crisp clean brown ale with a hint of dark chocolate dry bitterness. Instead I got a sharp brown ale, overcarbonated with roasted anaheim chile char.

I mean, it's not horrid by any means. It's more enjoyable than an anheuser-busch product, (intentionally not capitalized for several intentionally disrespectful reasons), but then again, so is my saliva. Thus, that doesn't say much.

I won't brew this exact recipe again, and I'm thinking of simply using the exact original recipe from John Palmer's book, but curious if I should change the hops type - as Nugget seems to have a very bold sharp flavor, but then again - I've never tasted a strong Nugget flavor before, and also never tasted a beer with cacao in the boil much less in the primary, so there are three new flavors that would require much experimenting, to single out each one.

Any suggestions to modify the recipe to simply get just a basic mild brown ale with cacao nib flavor? I'm thinking I'll just use original recipe and use only cacao nibs in the primary, in case I'm getting some odd flavors from using the nibs in the boil, unless suggested otherwise.