Hello All,
I bottled my Dead Ringer IPA 2.5 weeks ago. I tried one and mine doesn’t taste like an ipa. I can’t really taste the hops coming through at all. I followed the directions exactly and used a hop bag both during the brew and during dry hopping. In addition, something about it tasted “off”. It just didn’t taste good. Neither my wife or I wanted to even finish the bottle I had opened up. I looked up the different off flavors infection can contribute to your beer and the only ones that I felt might be there are buttery and yeasty. I only slightly perceive the buttery flavor, the yeast a little more so. Although, the day before, I had swirled my bottles up a bit to get the yeast off the bottom.
For those of you who have brewed this, is it normal for it not to be recognizable immediately as an IPA? I’m an IPA fan and feel that I would be able to blind taste test any commercial IPA and immediately identify it as one. I’m also concerned I may have an infection, as all the reviews for this beer say it is AMAZING(even this early on), and I have a hard time believing what I’ve got now is going to improve enough with time to be all that good. At this point I don’t even find it drinkable.
If I have an infection, I’d like to find out sooner rather than later, to free up my bottles. Any input based on your own experience with this beer would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I haven’t brewed it, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but here goes…
This is supposed to be a clone of 2 hearted, so I would expect it to taste like an IPA. You may be missing some IBUs if you did a partial boil, but the kit is intended that way, so I’m a bit surprised.
As for off flavors, the yeasty flavor could be you swirling up the yeast. Try to leave a bottle in the fridge for a couple of days to drop the yeast out and see if that helps any. Butter flavor is a classic sign of diacetyl. I had that once in bottles, and it eventually faded away (after a couple of months in bottles). Of course, the longer you let the bottles sit, the more the hop flavor fades, so a bit of a tough choice there…
[quote=“bpinon”]Hello All,
I bottled my Dead Ringer IPA 2.5 weeks ago. I tried one and mine doesn’t taste like an ipa. I can’t really taste the hops coming through at all. I followed the directions exactly and used a hop bag both during the brew and during dry hopping. In addition, something about it tasted “off”. It just didn’t taste good. Neither my wife or I wanted to even finish the bottle I had opened up. I looked up the different off flavors infection can contribute to your beer and the only ones that I felt might be there are buttery and yeasty. I only slightly perceive the buttery flavor, the yeast a little more so. Although, the day before, I had swirled my bottles up a bit to get the yeast off the bottom.
For those of you who have brewed this, is it normal for it not to be recognizable immediately as an IPA? I’m an IPA fan and feel that I would be able to blind taste test any commercial IPA and immediately identify it as one. I’m also concerned I may have an infection, as all the reviews for this beer say it is AMAZING(even this early on), and I have a hard time believing what I’ve got now is going to improve enough with time to be all that good. At this point I don’t even find it drinkable.
If I have an infection, I’d like to find out sooner rather than later, to free up my bottles. Any input based on your own experience with this beer would be much appreciated. Thanks![/quote]
I’ve brewed a similar AG recipe many times. It’s a very good beer and the hops aroma and flavor should be right up front.
A efw questions about your process:
What yeast did you use? At what temp did you ferment and for how long? Did you do a D rest? What was your OG/FG? Did you transfer to a secondary vessel after fermentation completed?
If it’s buttery tasting that could be due to diacetyl or even oxidation which would certainly impact the hops expression.
I fermented in primary(no secondary) for 20 days before bottling. Temps were kept within the recommended range of 64-71 degrees.
I recapped the bottle after not wanting to finish it last night and tasted it again this morning. My wife and I both concluded there is no buttery flavor. I definitely still feel that something is off here though.
As for oxidation, the only time I was a little concerned with this was during bottling. I used the gravity based bottling attachment from Northern Brewer and at the start of filling each bottle, the stream came out pretty fast, producing some bubbles. Although I used this same method for a previous brew and it turned out fine.
I brewed this one April of 2013, it was my first ever attempt at an IPA and it tasted like one flat before I bottled. I had in primary for 15 days then transferred to a secondary for 21 days. I transferred to secondary for the dry hop and so that I could use my primary for another batch. I dry hopped with the 1 oz centennial for 1 week before bottling. My OG and FG were very close to your numbers and I also used US-05. You said you carbonated for 2.5 weeks, how long did you chill the bottle you opened before you opened it? How was the carbonation level?
I wouldn’t dump it quite yet. If you haven’t put all the bottles in the fridge yet, I would pop one or two in and try them in a week and see what you think before you consider dumping the whole batch. I hadn’t tasted mine until 5 weeks after brewday and then it sat in bottles to carbonate for another two weeks. Sometimes time can be your friend. I have brewed two batches of the Plinian Legacy and I was very worried about my second batch when i first tried it because something was off, let it sit and carbonate in kegerator and kept trying it once a week or so and it developed into an awesome beer.
Did the temp just fluctuate during the primary fermentation? I don’t think this is the cause of your problem, but I ask because its always safe to keep a collar on the fermentation temperature for the first 3-4 days, then letting it rise to the higher end of the range.
[quote=“bpinon”]
I used the gravity based bottling attachment from Northern Brewer and at the start of filling each bottle, the stream came out pretty fast, producing some bubbles. Although I used this same method for a previous brew and it turned out fine.[/quote]
Think of this like a picnic tap at a keg party. You want to depress it all the way or else it will introduce MORE O2 into the beer. Once the yeast eats the priming sugar and produces the CO2 to carbonate your beer, it will create a blanket in the headspace to help fight oxidation. For this reason, if you are bottling, ESPECIALLY if bottle-conditioning, I am a huge believer (through long-term aging tests of my own) in O2-absorbing crowns.
As to the issue you asked about :mrgreen: , as others have suggested, I would recommend setting a few in the fridge for a few days, then report back with some findings. Do you know any judges or experienced tasters that could help you pinpoint the off-flavor? Not having tasted it, I am guessing the suspended yeast is getting in the way of you tasting the hop flavor.
Did you do any tasting of your Gravity readings? I have found this helpful in getting a feel if the beer is going to be OK before bottling. If you did, was the taste ever similar to an IPA, or has the taste changed since bottling? This could lead me to believe possible bottling issues.
[quote=“bpinon”]I used the recommended US-05. OG: 1.061 FG: 1.013
I fermented in primary(no secondary) for 20 days before bottling. Temps were kept within the recommended range of 64-71 degrees.
I recapped the bottle after not wanting to finish it last night and tasted it again this morning. My wife and I both concluded there is no buttery flavor. I definitely still feel that something is off here though.
As for oxidation, the only time I was a little concerned with this was during bottling. I used the gravity based bottling attachment from Northern Brewer and at the start of filling each bottle, the stream came out pretty fast, producing some bubbles. Although I used this same method for a previous brew and it turned out fine.[/quote]
Are you using the Fermenter’s Favorites™ Bottle Filler? There should not be a stream of bubbles when filling the bottles, so there might be a possible oxidation issue that you are only tasting in the IPA.
I use the spring tip bottling wand, but the procedure should be the same.
Open the vent in the lid.
Position the first bottle on the wand and push upward to open the valve.
Open the spigot on the bucket to fill the bottle. Allow a bit of overflow, on very bottle, to push out Starsan foam and have the same head space for each bottle.
After the first bottle is filled the wand should remain full of beer. Air should not get into the system unless the vent in the lid is to small and air is being sucked into the wand through a crack or at the tubing connection to the spigot. Turning the spigot on and off to fill each bottle will introduce air into the system.
I bottled my Dead Ringer last week. Since I brewed the Lederhosen today I figured what better time to taste and test the carbonation after one week. I can say, mine has a definite IPA flavor. I can say compared to the Kiwi Express it does have less aroma and citrus taste. It’s more on the sweet and citrus side than the bitter piney side. I can say mine might be a little off as I added the extra .5oz of Cluster I had left over from my Milk Chocolate Stout with the 1oz of Cascade. Either way definitely an IPA, I guess it’s what type do you prefer, a citrus or a piney version.
