So this was my first brew. I followed the one gallon northern brewer extract recipe exactly. I let it sit in the fermenter two weeks and then in the bottles for two weeks, just as instructed, and it was finished yesterday. So I popped open a bottle and poured in a glass. The color and carbonation were PERFECT. But the taste....well it was ok on the first sip but half way through the glass I almost didn't even wanna drink it anymore. There have been beers in the past that I didn't like so much but never any that I didn't even want to finish. It's hard to describe but it has sort of a sour, just nasty flavor. My first impression was maybe this is just how hefeweizen tastes (I've never tried one before). But I don't think so. One of my favorites is blue moon, except I wish it wasn't so sweet, and I like anything with that wheat flavor. And that's what I expected from this. Sort of blue moon-ish except without the orange flavor and sweetness and maybe with that banana flavor I keep hearing about. Am I right about how it SHOULD taste? I could use some help figuring out what went wrong. Here are some possibilities.
I stirred the whole time I was brewing instead of letting it boil( I was afraid of scorching it) but I later saw that most brewers just let it boil.
I may have added too much hops due to the crappy scale I have but I don't think that would make it taste too bad
Sanitization- I sanitized everything with starsan and did not rinse as the instructions said. But I suppose I could have been more thorough with sanitizing.
Also worth mentioning, there was a little bit of gooey white stuff in the bottom of the bottles. I know there's supposed to be some stuff at the bottom of the bottles, but I didn't know it looked like that
Also I went a cheap route and didn't get a bottler. I poured directly from the pot I used to stir in the priming sugar through a funnel into the bottles. My thoughts are maybe that oxidized it or something
I stirred the whole time I was brewing instead of letting it boil( I was afraid of scorching it) but I later saw that most brewers just let it boil.
I may have added too much hops due to the crappy scale I have but I don't think that would make it taste too bad
Sanitization- I sanitized everything with starsan and did not rinse as the instructions said. But I suppose I could have been more thorough with sanitizing.
Also worth mentioning, there was a little bit of gooey white stuff in the bottom of the bottles. I know there's supposed to be some stuff at the bottom of the bottles, but I didn't know it looked like that
Also I went a cheap route and didn't get a bottler. I poured directly from the pot I used to stir in the priming sugar through a funnel into the bottles. My thoughts are maybe that oxidized it or something