Meaty Taste

[alcoadam]

The more i drink it the more i'm thinkin an infection.

One that i've never tasted before, but still.

Tried a second keg and it's there as well.






I'm nearly four hours drive from Newcastle.

I gotta laugh at how much your sounding like me when having the same problem...."it must be an infection" but persist on drinking it :lol:

I had put on a FWK between AG batches with the US05 without a hint of this problem and ruled out infection, I'd really consider the mashing side of things.

I've many times put a good quality wort through not so great fermenting temperatures as well, but still ended up with something very drinkable....

 

[freezkat]

I'm thinking, if he's willing, posting a bottle for detailed feedback wouldn't be too much to ask if you're a regular postal/delivery type customer.

Just a possibility.

drink a beer while eating meat. That will give you other clues to the flavor

 

[Where's Jim?]

I had a beer that ended with a moderate bacon taste and smell with it. It was a beer that we had f'd up to start with. Second batch ever; water volumes were nowhere near correct, boiled too long and vigorously - ended up with about 5L of super concentrated wort. Topped up to 23L, pitched a packet of dry yeast and left it in the cupboard to ferment. It become stuck at 1.020 and we shoved it aside and left it for a few months in the fermenter before deciding to bottle half and tip half.

It stayed on the primary yeast cake the whole time. Gravity checks and tastings stopped after about a month; at which point in time the flavours were fine. A few months later during bottling, we discovered the bacon notes. Bottled and carbed it up and my mates megaswill drinking dad has deemed it 'drinkable' and is now making his way through 10 pints of our bacon beer!

Based on Manticles links about autolysis and my (very limited) experience, I'd say it's got something to do with the yeast health.

Did you proof your dry yeast before pitching? Or just sprinkle it over the top of your wort and close the fermenter? Palmer and Zainasheff speak about how half of the dry yeast will die if you use the latter method.

 

[pcmfisher]

now what did happen to those pork chops I was thawing out for the bbq........

 

[Nick JD]

I think the best descriptor for "meaty" in a beer is umami.

I've had it from using a couple of Wyeast euro lager strains, and it's not an unpleasant flavour at all. It's a flavour I associate with strong lagers. It's just there as a background hint, and could also be described as "yeasty", even though the beer is filtered bright. Certain hops promote it (I especially find Tettnang and Willamette suit it as they are "earthy" in a 'shroom way - Fuggles too I suppose if I liked it).

It's flavour enhancer 631 IIRC, and wouldn't be at all surprised if sometimes yeast produce it (or something similar) under certain conditions that favour the breakdown of glutamic acid way before age-affected yeast autolysis has started. Yeast dies constantly in fermenting beer.

To be honest, I have thought of putting a bit of 631 in a robust smokey (Wey smoked) porter before.

 

[drsmurto]

A few of the simple thiol compunds produced by yeast if they are unhappy can be described as meat like. I smelt some wine ferments last week that had a definite boiled meat flavour/aroma.

The likely suspects are hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and methanethiol, both produced by yeast naturally but in elevated levels when they are stressed. H2S by itself is more commonly described as smelling like rotten eggs but when other thiol compounds are present the smell/taste changes to a more pungent, meat-like.

When you have large hopping rates you often hide the aromas of these compunds but in high enough concentrations you can taste them even when you can only smell the citrus from the hops.

Pitching at 28C is not ideal but if the temperature is brought down reasonably quickly then you should be ok.

How much yeast did you pitch? What was the lag time?

If you have any 1 or 2 cent pieces (or better yet, an english penny) drop it into a glass of the beer. If you don't have any use some copper wire. Does the flavour change?

 

[donburke]

funny enough, i have had a meaty flavour in my beer twice, the first time was 2 years ago, and the second was a month ago, it is the same flavour that i best describe as raw beef

i had a look at the 2 recipes, and they had completely different grain bills, and completely different hops, and different yeasts, in fact one was an ale the other a lager

the common denominator of these two brews were that they were pitched quite warm (s-189 @ 24deg and us05 @ 30 deg)

the more recent brew was of 60 litres, 40 litres using s-189 and 20 litres using a belgian saison yeast

the 20 litres fermented with saison yeast does not have that flavour

i have concluded that in my case it was the yeast being pitched too hot

 

[Nick JD]

H2S by itself is more commonly described as smelling like rotten eggs but when other thiol compounds are present the smell/taste changes to a more pungent, meat-like.

Meat? Dead body covered in shit found in a sewer more like...

I think the OP means a "meaty" taste, rather than something that makes you retch.

 

[punkin]

It's an infection, one that i've never had before, but rapidly swelled to undrinkable stage.

Had to disconnect the gas from two kegs in the keezer cause i was starting to taste it in the other beers. :angry:

I'm getting rid of the 100l blue drum i got for quad batches, and going no chill in a 60l fermenter. no problem to ferment two batches a week instead of one a fortnight.
This one has been nothing but problems.

 

[manticle]

Damn.

Sorry for your loss.