My Bock tastes awful :(

[cornishpasty]

Hello,

I thought it was about time to join a home brew forum, for times like this, when things go wrong! The situation is:

I brewed a Bock style beer two weeks ago, and it's been fermenting until now. The recipe details are:

Chocolate malt (crushed)
Caramunich malt (crushed)
Amber malt extract
Munich malt extract
Hallertauer hops
Irish moss
Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast

I know Bocks are supposed to be lagered, but I wanted to experiment using an ale yeast instead. The fermentation temperature has been constant at 17 celcius - bang in the middle of the recommended range for W1007.

OG was 1.060 and this morning it's down at 1.018, which is pretty much exactly what I expected from this recipe. So I'm preparing to bottle it this weekend.

BUT it tastes horrible. Firstly, it smells quite strongly of wine. There is some green apple smell too, which I gather is quite common. The taste is even worse - it's really sweet, and has a huge liquorice flavour. I'm really disappointed, and I'm unhopeful that this will improve in the bottles.

I have been researching the common off flavours/smells but mine doesn't seem to fit into any category exactly, so I'm struggling to detect what went wrong.

I'm really careful with keeping things clean and infection-free, and it's been fermenting happily in my spare bathroom with hardly any disturbances. I'm 99% sure it's not infected.

However. I am wondering if it was the yeast. The Wyeast 1007 came in a smack packet, which I smacked while doing the brew (yes the pouch did break). But I left it incubating for about 12 hours, and there was absolutely no swelling. Eventually I opened it, and the yeast looked and smelt fine, so I went ahead and pitched. I would have made a starter, but I had no 'spare' wort to do this, so the yeast just went straight in. It took a good 36 hours to get going, but I checked after this and there was a thin layer of bubbles on the top, so it did start eventually. But there was no real krausen build up. All that happened was a really thick gloopy skin formed (about 5mm thick) on the top of the beer. It had some bubbles in it, but actually it looked more like trub than foamy krausen. Seemed like a very inactive fermentation, and yet it went from 1.060 to 1.040 in only a two days, and all the way down to 1.018 in 12 days.

Any help on what I could do would be brilliant. I'll probably just bottle it and keep my fingers crossed that conditioning will remove the horrors.

Thanks!

 

[jonnymorris]

I'll probably just bottle it and keep my fingers crossed that conditioning will remove the horrors.

I'm not sure there's anything you could do so think this is your best and only option. It may well mellow with age. I made a Rauchbier last year which was unpleasant after a week in the bottle (couldn't resist a taste) but which has improved no end with time. It's now really smooth and getting better all the time.

 

[wilsoa1111]

sounds like they yeast wasnt a happy beast at all, no swelling after that length of time is generally a stop and get refund job, mine tends to swell in 2 hours odd...

this probably explains the funky flavours (esp seemas it was a 1.060, 1.045 u may have gotten away with), i would be tempted to secondary it, to let it vent a wee bit, ie lager it for 2 weeks in the same temp as u had it.

tbh though it will probably be excellent after a half year in the bottle

 

[JKaranka]

I get all kinds of odd flavours that go away in strong beers, given some time. I have bottled an imperial stout that every month seems to get more barley and less crazy trickle.

 

[Vossy1]

I think it's far too early to even begin to judge your beer c You've described a very common 'off flavour' in green apples and I think the description in the link sums it up...it's too young. Give it some time to mature then sample it again, if this was a 1.060 IPA I'd be expecting rough...for quite a while, never mind 2 weeks :thumb:

 

[cornishpasty]

Thanks for that advice. Good things come to those who wait I suppose...
In fact, I'm sure I can taste a very nice beer underneath all the bad flavours. Hopefully she'll come out :)

 

[GaryG]

Hello,

I thought it was about time to join a home brew forum, for times like this, when things go wrong!
Thanks!

Actually, you dont need to wait till things go wrong to join the forum. I'm sure there will be things you can also help other with :thumb: . I'm new and came here to learn.

Cant help with your problem tho, but hope it clears to be a very nice pint.

Gary.

 

[jonewer]

You have said what went into the grain bill but not how much of each.... It would help if you said how much of each grain....

 

[cornishpasty]

You have said what went into the grain bill but not how much of each.... It would help if you said how much of each grain....

Ok, I thought that the specific amounts of grains were probably not the cause of the problems so I left them out. I can dig out the recipe I used if you think it'd help.

I think I may have found the cause, or at least a contribution to my off flavours. Palmer in How To Brew describes Maillard reactions as giving a liquorice and ballpoint pen aroma. This pretty much fits in with my beer. He says that a full boil of the malt extract can cause these reactions, and in my case, I added all of my malt extract at the start of a 60min boil...

I remember when I brewed with kits I would never boil the malt extract, just dissolve it in some hot water then top up with cold before pitching yeast.

What do you think about this?

Cheers!

 

[zgoda]

I'd say you had too small amount of yeast for such a big beer. No matter what Wyeast writes in their instructions, it's always good idea to make starter with their yeast. And start with smaller beer, then reuse slurry.

 

[mmaguy41]

when i use lme in a brew i add it after the boil to the hot wort but ive never done extract, ive only done mini mash this way. Im sure itll be a good beer in time though