Strange lack of taste in AG Caribou Slobber

[Talonracer67]

Have 3 batches bottled, including my first AG effort. The IPA, a clone of Bell's Two hearted is awesome. However my all grain Caribou Slobber (this was my favorite extract brew last year) is basically tasteless. My wife has a much more refined palate and even she says its missing something. Maybe some possible reasons: I tried carbing to style, and it was a disaster. Most of these beers carbed for a month and still are very undercarbed. Also the Caribou Slobber grain was 11 months old, stored vacuum packed and crushed. I had heard crushed malt has a very short shelf life even if its vacuum packed. Do you think the undercarbonation with the old malt is the culprit? I have another brown ale that I carbed to normal style (Advice from Yooper) Any ideas?

 

[TopherM]

Did you take OG/FG readings?

Your description sounds like a classic case of low efficiency. The age of the malt may have a little to do with it, but for the most part, the biggest factors would be things like the actual crush size, hitting and maintaining a proper mash temp, and water PH.

That brown should have a pretty strong malt backbone with strong caramel notes. Poor efficiency would lead to a lack of that malt backbone and a watered-down flavor. This sounds like what you're describing. A low OG would confirm this.

 

[Talonracer67]

Actually forgot to mention that, my efficiency was darn good (my local LHBS really gives you a great crush). I think i remember I the OG was supposed to be 1.052 and I hit 1.064!! Attenuation was good too it got down to 1.012. Yeast was a 1 liter starter I made from the recommended Wyeast 1332.

Just had another one, tastes like water. Really strange. Like my sig says I have a Surly Bender clone bottle conditioning right now. We will see how that one is.

 

[rtollinchi]

I just kegged my caribou slobber AG and I completely agree it tastes watered down as well. I hoping somehow the keg will help it out but we shall see. Any updates on the reason it came out so tasteless?

 

[rwinzing]

The only other thing I could think of that has not been mentioned above is serving temp. Are you serving it to cold?

 

[rtollinchi]

The only other thing I could think of that has not been mentioned above is serving temp. Are you serving it to cold?

My freezer is set to 45. I am
letting it carb till Father’s Day so we shall see the final result on Sunday. I hope it changes but I can’t imagine carbing my beer would drastically change the flavor but I will update.