Help? Beer Tastes Good After Primary then Bad After Racking?

[J]

I have brewed a 60 litre batch of very dark amber ale (more a brown ale really).

O.G. 1.060 Sat 24 Nov
F.G. 1.014 Static from Sat 7 Dec

Racked this on 11 Dec (after 17 days in primary) to:
-2x 23 litre cask (after adding priming sugar)
-40 x 500ml brown glass bottles with crown caps (via bottling bucket with added priming sugar)

At this stage the beer both smelled and tasted great!

Tried bottle 1 Jan (after 21 days) and sample from cask 4 Jan (after 24 days):
-Taste: bad, slightly chemical, sour, dry flavours. Not drinkable.
-Smell: Maybe a bit fruity, very slight chemical odour.
-Carbonation: good, maybe a little weak.
-Clarity: Very good.
-Colour: Good

Is there any chance that this beer just needs more time in the bottles and casks?

I was very careful with sanitisation. I used VWP this time, and I rinsed thoroughly but plan to switch to StarSan.

This was an all-grain recipe.

The water (liquor) I used was all filtered.

Fermentation room was kept at 20 degrees celcius.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[liamtmt7]

Quite an interesting post - I am not able to answer your question I am afraid but I have had a similar experience (at the moment) with a Stout Kit - tasted great (ok good) straight from the secondary FV but after 2 weeks in the bottle a cheeky drink proved very disappointing, very "green" tasting

 

[J]

Thank you for the thoughts.

The recipe for the beer I brewed was:

90min mash @ 68 degrees C.
Filtered water (about 55 litres)
British Pale Ale Malt 12.6kg
Dark Crystal 1kg
Standard Crystal 2.2kg
Flaked Wheat 800g

After mash drained to boil kettle and then batch sparged grist with about 55 litres of filtered water @ 75 degrees C (I have a separate Liquor tank, Mash-Lauter tun and Boil Kettle, so a three pot system).

90 min boil
Centennial Hops (10%) 50g (added at 90min)
Mt. Hood Hops (7%) 100g (added at 60min)
Williamette Hops (5%) 100g (added at 15min)
Irish Moss 8g (added @ 15min)

Drained boil kettle via coarse filter (Hop Rocket) and plate chiller, connected with silicone hose direct into fermenting vessle (all sanitised).

Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you all.

 

[J]

I just read that apparently it is important not to cover the boil kettle during the boil, as the wort need to boil off certain chemicals.

Unfortunately I had the lid nearly full on my boil pot (about a one inch gap at most).
Could this be the cause of the problem?

Has anyone else heard of this? I just assumed using a lid partially covered would be good for energy efficiency.

Thanks again.

 

[thirsty in NY]

Yeah, been there. Did the same thing many years ago. You can keep the lid on to get it to boil faster, but as soon as it starts always remove the lid. The batch I made with the lid on sort of smelled like beer mixed with a can of corn. This was years ago so I don't remember if it got any better with time. :|

 

[thirsty in NY]

If you go to the "How to Brew" website, chapter 21.2 is very helpful in identifying off flavors and their causes.

I'd post the site address, but I'm too new!

 

[J]

Thanks for the tip. I will have a look at that site.

 

[Rolfster]

The lid being on gives sulphurous flavours apparently......Although I haven't experienced that!

 

[graysalchemy]

Supposedly boiling with lid on means that DMS (smell of sprouts) is returned to the brew but most of this comes from american sites using american 6 row malt which is high in nitrogen. Over here we use 2 row which you have less of a problem with DMS. DMS I think is quite volatile so what little you get from 2 row is driven off pretty early on. I always boil with my lid partially on as long as some steam comes out you shouldn't have a problem.

Personally I would say the beer is quite 'green' give it a few more weeks and try it again. :thumb:

 

[J]

Thank you for those thoughts.

They give a little hope for this beer.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Sone]

This happened to me but with a lemon hooch recipe from this forum, it tasted good before racking (although ever so slightly bitter), then 3 days after being racked I tried some before bottling and it was very sour which I was expecting to taste before racking! I guess racking just mixed things around a bit and it will mellow slightly after a while, hopefully anyway

 

[J]

Thanks for the information, but what was the result, did your brew turn out okay in the end?

 

[Sone]

It's only been bottled for 3 days so in a few weeks I'll have a taste and let you know how it is :thumb:

 

[J]

Thanks. I'll post an update next time I sample my brew.

 

[dr_rob]

I used to use VWP and used to get a vaugue chimically smell, which despite rinsing after sanitising still seemed to come through.
I switched from VWP to Brewclean and haven't noticed the problem since, although I'm quite keen to try Star San next (just to save on the water bill!).

 

[J]

Thanks, but I don't think it's the VWP steriliser. I used that last time and had no problem.