Just went to add the dry hops to mu surly furious kit…the smell was a little off 
when i transfered it to the secondary the taste/smell was spot on, but tonight it wasnt so much of an IPA smell, but kinda sweet/sugary…ive only dumped one batch, an ALT beer but the smells are eerily similar.
nothing i could do but add the dry hops and hope for the best, but DAMN, i was seriously looking forward to having 5 gal of furious on tap…not to mention 50.00 for the kit
I have learned that you just never know. I have taken samples from beer going from primary to secondary and thought, Oh, that’s good! and later taken a sample from secondary on the way to the keg and thought, Uh-oh, WTF is this now? only to have the kegged beer come out stellar. I have smelled some funky beers that ended up fine and I have had a few that were very clearly messed up where one smell was enough to make you wince. It can be very tough to tell from a warm, flat sample so I will send every good vibe I can in your direction and hope that your Surly Furious comes out well. Cheers & good luck.
" but kinda sweet/sugary"
Not sure I would ever consider that an “off flavor”.
yeah, i would let it ride and see what happens; at the best, you are overthinking it: at the worst, you have an infection and it would be a good idea to know, so you can change equipment or examine where the problem might be.
underpitched, not fully fermented, not used to young beer smells/tastes…lots of possibility, just in the yeast.
In the future, if you think a batch smells off, pull a sample and taste it. I haven’t found smell alone to be too reliable, but if you taste it and it’s definitely off, you can at least avoid wasting the dry hops.
+1. I hate to go over something we already know, but there are a bunch of places where things can go wrong. I sometimes find myself rushing to get a batch done or get it to the taps and things like sanitation or full-fermentation may take a hit. Be patient and if that’s not practical then brew more so there is more beer in the pipeline. I have made underfermented beer in the past and the flavor is a nasty, tangy, sweetness that is not pleasant at all. I vowed not to let that happen again and with the possibility of autolysis being very low, I allow my beers to fully ferment and then settle down a little bit to make sure that FG has come down those last few ticks and any unwanted flavors that may have been produced during primary can get cleaned up. I have made plenty of subpar batches and I try to learn something else time. I completely agree with ‘aroma’ being a tough indicator to use. Cheers and good luck.
thanks for the advice…im pretty sure underfermentation isnt an issue, but i never thought to pull a sample before dry hopping…duh
Espcially when this recipe has 8.5 oz of dry hops!!!
