my beer sucks

My friends are very polite and say it's delish, but I know it's not right. Second straight batch with this strange smell and taste, sorta sweet -- not clean like I'm lookin for. I'm thinking low yeast pitch rate, and maybe fermentation temp off, but it was pretty cool, like 68 or so not higher than that. Ideas? Guess I'll have a big party and get rid of this stuff and start over. Sanitation was good, all numbers good. (one was all-grain kit from N. Brewer, and the other was recipe of Denny's Rye) Both drinkable, but still not "right".

My opinion, just keep brewing. Could you give us the recipe, was it extract, partial grain, or all grain?

68 might be a bit high but not bad. What kind of yeast, and how did you prepare it? What was your fermentation schedule and time?

And also, what are you using for water?

Be diligent throughout the whole brewing process. Since I started documenting my brews in beersmith (printing out paperwork and filling it out as I go along) I've found that I have much better consistency with my AG batches. Since I stick to my brewing process for each beer, they generally turn out better than before. Not to say they are perfect, but the objective is get better with each batch. Try to do every step with precision. Maybe then you can track down the issues. Good luck.

Don't know about it tasting "sweet" but first guess for this sort of thing is usually ferment temp (try to get ambient air down to low 60s) and your water supply. Hard water or city water with chlorine can definitely have a harsh effect, but again I don't know about sweet. That could just be that you didn't let it ferment out long enough and to an appropriate final gravity.

I agree with the information that everyone else has given you so far. People told me that my first few batches tasted astringent. After that I decided to look into my local water report and to start making adjustments based on what I found. The water where I live was incredibly hard and it was throwing off the pH on all my recipes. I definitely suggest looking into water as the source of the problem, but I also recommend looking at the fermentation process maybe not being complete at the time that you bottled. I think it's really important to always make a yeast starter based on the pitch rate recommended on sites like MrMalty.com or yeastcalc.com.

My guess is you're drinking them young. I'd be interested in how long you waited to drink them after packaging. I just have a feeling I know the flavor you're talking about. Don't ask me how.

IMHO, those muslin (sp) bags suck at getting the hop goodness in the wort. How are you hopping? It sounds like your to malty?

Thanks, guys. Good ideas to check out. Water may be off, as well as fermentation temps and next time it'll be a big fat yeast starter for sure. Water was city water but filtered, and I added gypsum to the boil. yeast was Safale 05. Fermented for three weeks and now in the keg for 3. I will keep trying. You know it kinda has the same off taste that my extracts did before I went to all grain in hopes of getting rid of it. I'll keep trying. Thanks for the advice!

You say the fermentation temp was steady at 68, but if that was the ambient temp and not a measurement of the wort you were likely a lot higher since the fermentation process produces a lot of heat. If your ambient air was 68, your fermentation temperature may have been upper 70's just from the action of the yeast.

It could be any number of things causing it. How about some more information? What temperature are you mashing at? Are you sure about this temperature, meaning, do you know your mash thermometer is accurate? Have you checked it?

dgriffith said:

I added gypsum to the boil.

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One sure way to throw your beer off is to add salts like gypsum without
knowing whats in your water to begin with. Gypsum will add sulfate to your beer which can give it a sharp dry edge, which may be desirable in an IPA at certain levels. Check out This Thread to get you on the road to adjusting your water.

I am thinking your water is off. Drinking them too young can taste bad but it sounds like you are waiting long enough. 68 degrees is not too warm unless you are brewing lagers. Filtering water will not remove temporary hardness and a lot of municiple water supplies are loaded with hco3. The best way to fix that is to mix half distilled water and build it up from there.