What went wrong 1st brew

[ori0]

Heya,

I'm kinda left scratching my head, my first brew tastes completely wrong. I'm not sure if it's infected but the taste is, i dunno, green/grassy or young, maybe even soapy?.
I had this happen years ago and wrote it off as infection, but i have been pretty serious about cleaning and sanitation since then.

Things that were not so great during fermentation:
- Temps were way too low, so the fermentation took 3 weeks and stalled at 1.014 from 1.047, decided to bottle anyway because hydrometer test didnt go anywhere for 3 days.
- Dry hopped at end of week 2, so hops might have been in there too long? 1 week roughly.
- Bottles have been conditioning for 2 weeks, might be way too short, but not enough to make the beer taste un-beer like?

Thanks for all your help and hope some of you could shed some light on it.

cheers.

 

[QldKev]

green/grassy. You mentioned you dry hopped it for a week. Which hop variety did you use. Saaz = green/grassy, but so do some others. What temperature have the bottles been at, 2 weeks is the minimum at fermenting temperatures. Not sure where you are, but if they are too cold they would easily be too young.

Soapy. Which cleaning and sanatising products did you use. Household detergents are soapy, and a few people have reported keg king sanatiser to produce the same result.

 

[manticle]

What hops for dry hop, how much and how long exactly?
Soapy sounds like fatty acids from yeast breakdown, grassy sounds like excessive dry hopping. Age will help the latter.

 

[yum beer]

I wish I could have read the title of the topic before I opened it, something about that yellow font!

 

[ori0]

Haha, the yellow font. The yellow font broke my beer!

- It was dry hopped with 30g cascade pellets. I used the included kit cleaner and sanitizer (copper tun cleaner/sanitizer).
- The bottles are just in the garage so not much in the way of temp control, its been about 16-24.
- The hops were left in for 2 weeks.

manticle - excessive hoppiness might be the cause, it definitely tastes excessively hoppy, but not in a nice IPA way.

 

[manticle]

Dry hop for about 2 days at the end of fermentation in the cols and I reckon you'll notice a difference. Was the sanitiser a rinse or no-rinse solution?

 

[ori0]

Dry hop for about 2 days at the end of fermentation in the cols and I reckon you'll notice a difference. Was the sanitiser a rinse or no-rinse solution?

Alright i'll do less time in dry hopping next time. It was a no rise solution.

 

[manticle]

Soapiness could be the sanitiser depending on what it is.
Starsan or iodophor are popular, good value for money over the long term and leave no taste when used at correct dilution rates.

 

[Byran]

The yellow font is super shit. I cant read it on my computer screen at all. Why is it becoming in vogue for post titles?

 

[ori0]

The yellow font is super shit. I cant read it on my computer screen at all. Why is it becoming in vogue for post titles?

Sorry byran, I'm pretty new and didn't know that I had to select the title colour. Thought it was determined by either forum or member status?

 

[manticle]

Orio - font colour of title has nothing to do with you. Bryan is just using this thread as an avenue to express his disgruntlement with administrative experimentation.

 

[Byran]

Lol nah mate sorry not trying to offend I literally cant see the font on my screen? Sorry bout that!

 

[ori0]

Nah its ok. Its not a popular colour and you could just swap it for something with better contrast against the topics background.
Just put down another brew. Even after so many screwed up batches you still hafta keep trying.

 

[MastersBrewery]

A couple quick questions to the OP do you have temp control on your ferment process? And if not was your temp stable through out ferment?

 

[ori0]

Hey Masters,

Sorry to say as im starting out, i have pretty much no control over the temps.
Temp ranged 8-18C. I put on a heater belt after i realised that it was getting so low overnight, but the temps would have still been up and down.
I need some ghetto insulation or something.

 

[MastersBrewery]

yep stabilizing temps will give you a cleaner beer finish, also depending on the yeast type, a D rest at 25 or so may have been in order