My Porter tastes like wine...

[Brian211]

So I just took a reading for my Chocolate Maple Porter and my FG was 1.013. (6.3 ABV). It tasted kinda like wine. Wasn't planning on transferring to secondary, made a 1 gallon batch before of this and just did 2 wks primary/2 wks bottle. Turned out great but didn't take any readings then. I know my beer is still young (9days). I did add extra maple syrup at the beginning of the boil to increase alcohol or to make up from what I may have not extracted from the mash. The recipe also called for maple syrup at the end of the boil for flavor. Just wondering if the wine taste is from too much maple syrup or because it is still young. I know there is a lot of debate whether to secondary or not. Any suggestions? Should I let it sit an extra wk? Hoping the wine flavor goes away.

 

[DSorenson]

Time will improve your beer. I would like to know about how much syrup was added, what type of yeast was used, and what the fermenting temps were

Too much non-grain sugar can impart cidery, wine-like flavors as can higher fermenting temps in my experience.

Lack of a secondary doesn't have anything to do with this. Secondary in homebrewing is not required.

 

[Brian211]

Nottingham yeast, about a cup of maple syrup and after 24 hrs of pitching the yeast it was up to 72F but was able to get it down to 68 by the end of the day.

 

[Brian211]

I noticed tonight that the airlock is still bubbling 3 or 4 times per minute. I'm thinking maybe because of the added maple syrup that it just isn't done fermenting yet. If that's the case I'm hoping that's the reason for the wine taste and will fade out after completely fermenting. Or maybe it's bubbling because of new air on top after I put the lid on? Either case I'm going to let it sit another 2 weeks before bottling. My FG was quite a bit higher (1.013) than my IPA was at 9 days (1.006) (and tasted great), but I didn't add any extra sugar with my IPA...

 

[DSorenson]

Ah hah. Yes. If it's still fermenting let it sit another two weeks for sure. I was thinking it was bottled. Yeah you should be good.

 

[BobbiLynn]

If it's still regularly bubbling, the airlock, then it's still fermenting. If you had a way to look at it, I'm sure you would see krausen on top and see the actual bubbles to the top inside the fermenter. Those extra sugars will get eaten up by the yeast and the perceived wine flavor should go away.

 

[Brian211]

Thank you, guys! Yea I brewed it 9 days ago. You helped my heart beat a little slower. Thanks for responding! This is my 5th batch, the first two were 1 gallon batches then moved up, my 2nd 5 gallon. I'm thinking of doing a Fat Tire Clone with Gingerbread Spices this weekend. Taking the spices from a gingerbread pale ale recipe but thought it might be good with a biscuity amber ale like fat tire. Also want to up the abv. Think I might be safer to up the base grain instead of other sugar or up the entire grain bill? Not sure if increasing the base grain but not the color/flavor grains would dilute the flavor... Any suggestions would be great!

 

[Mdking2]

One really good way to boost abv easily is to add a bit of corn sugar, its like crack for yeast...seriously.

 

[Brian211]

One really good way to boost abv easily is to add a bit of corn sugar, its like crack for yeast...seriously.

Thank you!

 

[billl]

In terms of the learning process, you might want to knock out a few batches of "normal" beer. It's a lot easier to identify flavor issues stemming from your process if they aren't competing with "chocolate maple".

 

[Brian211]

In terms of the learning process, you might want to knock out a few batches of "normal" beer. It's a lot easier to identify flavor issues stemming from your process if they aren't competing with "chocolate maple".

Yea you're probably right, I've made a summer wheat turned out great and have an IPA in secondary. I made the chocolate maple porter before and it was great. I do plan on making some "normal" beers soon as well

 

[Brian211]

Yea you're probably right, I've made a summer wheat turned out great and have an IPA in secondary. I made the chocolate maple porter before and it was great. I do plan on making some "normal" beers soon as well

In fact I'm going to wait on the gingerbread spices and just do the fat tire clone as is. See how close I can get it. Just bought all the grains, yeast, and hops today

 

[DSorenson]

In terms of the learning process, you might want to knock out a few batches of "normal" beer. It's a lot easier to identify flavor issues stemming from your process if they aren't competing with "chocolate maple".

This! Its super fun to experiment and be original, but everyone learns best from conventional brewing.

 

[Paps]

I don't know if this will help you much but i've taken some pure maple syrup and dilluted it with water and used a champagne yeast with it.Nothing else added cept yeast nutrient.(no boil)
It imho tasted fairly similar to mead.
Like previosly mentioned let it age longer,if you are seeing bubbles in your airlock at the rate of 4 per minute it is nowhere near ready to be bottled and you risk the chance of bottle bombs.
After you do have it bottled if you can wait the extra time i think an extra month or two of aging will dramatically improve the flavor of your beer.

 

[Brian211]

I don't know if this will help you much but i've taken some pure maple syrup and dilluted it with water and used a champagne yeast with it.Nothing else added cept yeast nutrient.(no boil)
It imho tasted fairly similar to mead.
Like previosly mentioned let it age longer,if you are seeing bubbles in your airlock at the rate of 4 per minute it is nowhere near ready to be bottled and you risk the chance of bottle bombs.
After you do have it bottled if you can wait the extra time i think an extra month or two of aging will dramatically improve the flavor of your beer.

Thank you. I've decided to just let it sit in primary a other couple weeks (3 wks total).