Off taste to brew

[4444244]

Hello all,

I recently attempted a black IPA based around malt extract.

All seemed fine through the brewing process and it cleared fine in the bottle. Around 4 weeks after bottling I tried some. If had a very 'vinegar' like taste to it. It reminded me of the taste when you get a duff pint in the pub and have to take it back to the bar - often the bar staff blaming start or end of the barrel.

I left the bottles for 5 further weeks and tasted again. This time the vinegar like flavour had subsided a fair bit but was still present.

Can anyone explain what this could be and how to fix it possibly? This is not something I've experienced before when using kits or more recently malt extract with hops/grain.

As a 'gut' feeling, I didn't condition in the bottle for very long before transferring to a cooler room for storage. Maybe 5 or so days. Could this have had an affect on the brew and can this be rectified at all?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dutto]

There are many reasons for an "off taste" ranging from poor sanitisation (most likely) to pitching the yeast at too high a temperature (very common) to just straight impatience on the part of the brewer (oh how I wish I could say "Not me of course!") :whistle:

Unfortunately, I don't know of any "magic bullet" that will clear up the problem apart from "time" so I suggest that you just leave it on the shelf for another five weeks before rechecking; and even then it might still taste like vinegar!

In the meantime I hope you have your next brew on the go and followed the "sterilise everything and be patient" rules. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[glynb]

No doubt you sanitised everything? Can you post a copy of your water report?

 

[Sandimas]

The fact that it's got better over time suggests you haven't got an infection.

How well carbonated is the beer, given you left it a relatively short time in the warm?

Sometimes you just get an off brew that's hard to pinpoint. I had one in particular, it wasn't infected (I've had infections) but just wasn't right. A symptom of that brew was that it didn't ferment right out, what was your finishing gravity?

 

[strange-steve]

Vinegar is usually an acetobacter infection, however if that were the case it wouldn't get better with time. As mentioned leave it another few weeks and try again.

 

[4444244]

Hi peeps, thanks for the advice.

I wil be leaving this one for a while then and coming back to it. In answer to the fermenting question - finishing gravity was around 1010 and I had this one in the FV for over 2 weeks, so believe it to be fully fermented. I actually remember the trial jar of the pre bottled brew also tasting ok.

Fortunately I have other brews to fall back on. I think I'm going to leave this for a good 2 months before trying again then. If not, will write it off. (My first proper potential failure - was bound to get one sooner or later).

 

[chuffer]

this is quite a good resource for diagnosing potential culprits:

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-problems

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors

So yes, vinegar suggest bacterial infection unfortunately

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Alcoholic chips?