Failed First Batch (small batch)

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Leach

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Hi guys,

Just took my first batch out of the fermenter and was about to bottle, gave it a taste and something has gone really wrong :(.

There is almost no bitterness to speak of in the beer just very very fruity and slightly astringent. I've read that fruity flavours can be caused by too high fermenting temps but I was sure to keep it around 18C in a temp controlled fridge (temp probe was insulated and on the fermenter) so I doubt that is the problem. I assume that I have just over-hopped it terribly with the dry hopping (also read that over-hopping can give astringent flavours?). The only other thing that might have effected it is I didn't manage to get a rolling boil on my stove, although the water was at ~99.7C for the whole hour.

I estimated the amount of hops to use for dry hopping by simply looking at 5 gallon batches and using about a third of what they do, from my results I assume you can't simply do this? All other values I got from beersmith. I suppose the hop utilisation it has worked out is way off and that's why the beer is so lacking in bitterness? Is there any way to sort this out so beersmith will give me a better estimate?

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Batch Size - 8L
Style - American IPA
OG - 1.059
IBU - 42
Est ABV - 6%
Boil Volume - 8.16L
Top-up - 2L

Grain/Extract
100g Crystal
1.5kg Pale Liquid Extract

Hops
5g Simcoe @ 60 min
4g Citra @ 30 min
4g Mosiac @ 30 min

12g Mosiac Dry hop (last 7 days)
8g Citra Dry hop (last 7 days)

Yeast
Safale US-05
 
Give it time, if it's just out of the FV it's not ready. The taste of a beer will change with conditioning and maturing.
 
It had been in there for 21 days, is such an unpleasant taste normal at this stage? I'm not talking a little unpleasant either, it is totally undrinkable.
 
Getting a good rolling boil with the lid off is essential for driving off sulphury off flavours, failure to do this will leave an overcooked cabbage/vegetable taste which will spoil the beer. Not sure if that is your issue, hopefully it will be ok
 
I left my first batch for 2 weeks then bottle conditioned for another two weeks.

It's getting better everyday.

Try bottling and leaving it to get better
 
Getting a good rolling boil with the lid off is essential for driving off sulphury off flavours, failure to do this will leave an overcooked cabbage/vegetable taste which will spoil the beer. Not sure if that is your issue, hopefully it will be ok

Not my field as an AGer, but is a full rolling boil needed for LME? I would assume its production would have done enough.

Leach, if this is your first batch, my advice would be to bottle it, as you may just be unfamiliar with the taste of unconditioned beer. If it is ruined, at least you'll have experienced bottling. There's stuff you'll learn that is unique to your setup.

As for beersmith, I wouldn't change anything until this beer is ready to drink and assessed properly. I can't see 0.3C making much impact on hop utilisation and not hitting the predicted IBUs. What year harvest were the hops, their AA% and were they from freshly opened vacuum packs?
 
I can't see anything wrong with your process or recipe (I plugged it into Brewmate).

You didn't need to boil the LME but some say doing so helps hop utilisation. One thought: could it have sunk, stuck to the bottom of the pan and burned a bit? I've boiled extarct with the lid on and never had a bad brew.

Did you measure the FG, if so how low did it drop? If it's very fruity then it could have finished high.

Like everyone else has said, I'd bottle it then sample it after a couple of weeks. If it's as bad as you say, it could be infected but such infections usually take weeks/months to take hold.
 
Citra can be a very fruit tasting hop, i akin it to something between grapefruit at the front that turns slightly orangey and it can mask bitterness quite well, I've never used mosaic hops but going by there description they are also a fruit intense tasting hop, i would go ahead and bottle as conditioning will improve it and those dry hop flavours will subside a bit overtime.
 
I left my first batch for 2 weeks then bottle conditioned for another two weeks.

It's getting better everyday.

Try bottling and leaving it to get better

You do realize (and everyone else that replied to the OP's question) this thread is 4 years old and the last time the OP logged in was 24-10-13?
 
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