I brewed Northern Brewer’s Belgian IPA, which is normally my favorite beer. It seems so simple to make, I usually don’t use a starter or worry much at all about temperature control, and it comes out good every time. I enjoy the yeast so any flavors it puts off only adds to the flavor of the beer.
Anyway I recently brewed a batch but did not order the ingredients through Northern Brewer, instead I took the recipe with me to my local homebrew store. The brew turned out an amber color (it looks like a dubble) not the light yellow color it usually turns out. It also has an odd taste to it, almost like a pumpkin ale? Along with a whole host of other hot unpleasant alcohol flavors and smells. It think maybe it is infected.
Does infection have the potential to change the appearance of a beer from light to dark? I didn’t watch the store crush and pick out the grains I asked for (the recipe calls for Belgian pale ale malt only). Maybe the store messed up somehow and I got some grains that didn’t belong in there?
The one other thing I did differently this time was use whole hops during the boil for the first time. Could that have affected it somehow?
The yeast for the recipe usually like it warm (up to 80 degrees). My basement was colder than usual, so maybe the yeast didn’t like that (although it fermented just fine).
