Weird off flavor

[lasagna]

Sunday I bottled a blonde ale that I brewed 3 weeks prior and it tasted and smelled in a weird, earthy way. My wife described as cellar like without never reading anything about common off flavors, so it was a non induced assessment.
This off flavor is in the aftertaste and it's very strong, so prominent that it feels that this brew has notes of beer, instead the other way around.
I read that earthy tastes can be caused by oxigenation of the wort, but I brewed basically using the same technique tha n the previous 5 batches, and all the others turned up OK.

So my question is if is it possible that I had an infection, and if so, will the taste improve eventually? Or should I just get rid of this batch?

The recipe is brulosopher's blonde ale, with slight modifications, with pale ale, carapils, wheat malt and cara Ruby (no crystals in my LHBS). For hops I used cascades, Columbus and galena. The yeast was US-05.

I think I screwed up the yeast rehydration by stirring profusely as soon as I poured the yeast on boiled, warm water (I watched a video on rehydrating yeast and apparently didn't learn anything) and fermenting only took off about 65 hours after pitching. A gigantic krausen formed and I had
Krausen leaving through the airlock. After that I didn't clean or sanitized the airlock for two weeks (I thought it wasn't a big deal, since stuff came out instead of in) and before bottling I saw fruit flies in the airlock.

So does anyone had similar off flavors. Wi time save this batch?

 

[ChelisHubby]

You needed a blow off tube rigged for the first 4 days or so. You don't want to let the air lock stay dirty as you can get a infection easily, don't ask me how I know that. I can't help with the Identity of the off flavors though I am sure someone else will. My wife says any thing that is over 20 ibu taste like roots.

 

[m00ps]

how longs it been in the bottle? An infection would take a while to show up prominently. No sour or vinegar flavors?

"cellar" sounds like it would be oxygenation. Musty carboard taste usually. It mustve been very oxygenated to cover up the flavor of the whole beer though. Did you use a secondary? And whats you bottling setup? Im guess if it is oxygenation, it occurred in one fo those spots

 

[lasagna]

how longs it been in the bottle? An infection would take a while to show up prominently. No sour or vinegar flavors?

"cellar" sounds like it would be oxygenation. Musty carboard taste usually. It mustve been very oxygenated to cover up the flavor of the whole beer though. Did you use a secondary? And whats you bottling setup? Im guess if it is oxygenation, it occurred in one fo those spots

I didn't noticed sour or vinegar tastes, although the off flavor might have been too prominent to tell.

I didn't taste it from a bottle, I tasted when bottling, and my previous batches never tasted like that (even another brulosopher's blonde ale I brewed). I didn't use a secondary, and I ferment in buckets, so I just opened the tap to take a sample.

PS: wow, you guys are fast.

 

[m00ps]

wait opened the tap? You mean the spigot? I wouldnt recommend using a spigot to take samples from the beer. Those spigots are famous for harboring infections that plague people at bottling. Once you open it, theres no good way to get it fully clean so you have sugary wort exposed to everything in your home. Grab a wine thief, IMO every brewer needs one of these unless they stick their hydrometer directly into the wort which makes me shudder thinking about he infection possiblities

 

[shortyz]

sounds like you fermented it hot.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

sounds like you fermented it hot.

Disagree. He's describing oxidation, not hot/boozy flavors.

Three things for op, get a blowoff tube.

Mighhave an infection as well if there were fruit flies in the bucket.

Avoid fermenting in your bottling bucket.

 

[mozart4898]

You used US-05, so I wouldn't think that "earthy" would be a result of fermentation temps, although I don't know, maybe (US-05 just seems to get really crazy fruity/peachy when it's warmer, IME and from what I've heard).

My bet would be oxidation. I personally haven't had a batch go "sour" or "vinegary" (knock on wood) but those are flavors that should be obvious if they happen - if you've ever (accidentally) left a beer bottle sit somewhere for days or weeks without rinsing and out of curiosity, sniffed it...well I think that's where you'd be if that was the issue. I've had a couple batches become oxidized, but really only when it kinda fit anyways (barleywine, aged Imperial Stout)...and it was a flavor that while I wasn't familiar with it previously, it just for some reason "fit."

Concerns I see from your original post - fermentation took off after 65 hours? If you really meant that, as in over 2 1/2 days, that's way too long...although if you're going by airlock activity it may have started a day or more before that. Also, although I'm no fan of them, if your LHBS doesn't carry any crystal malts, it's time to look for another source, even if it's ordering online. Subbing cara-this and cara-that...it just sounds kinda ehhhh. Maybe a simple pale ale with two row as the only grain if that's your only option, but don't let their limited selection affect the quality of your beer.

 

[mozart4898]

Avoid fermenting in your bottling bucket.

Honestly, I'll admit to having done it, and if your sanitation is good, it's not a big deal IMO. I would be a bit leery of "racking" by draining through the bottling spigot although I think I've even done that too. Hold a cup of sanitizer of some kind up to the spigot for a few seconds, then another cup of water to rinse it (if necessary) and it should be ok. As long as the spigot was sanitized well on the inside, that is. I usually crack them halfway open for a minute and run bleach water through them when sanitizing a bottling bucket just to try to get everything in there clean. Haven't had an infection yet.

I'm gonna jinx myself saying things like that though...

 

[lasagna]

wait opened the tap? You mean the spigot? I wouldnt recommend using a spigot to take samples from the beer. Those spigots are famous for harboring infections that plague people at bottling. Once you open it, theres no good way to get it fully clean so you have sugary wort exposed to everything in your home. Grab a wine thief, IMO every brewer needs one of these unless they stick their hydrometer directly into the wort which makes me shudder thinking about he infection possiblities

Thanks for the advice. I won't get samples from the spigot anymore.

Disagree. He's describing oxidation, not hot/boozy flavors.

Three things for op, get a blowoff tube.

Mighhave an infection as well if there were fruit flies in the bucket.

Avoid fermenting in your bottling bucket.

Actually I racked to a bottling bucket when bottling. And the fruit flies were in the airlock, not in the bucket. I'm just not really convinced of oxidation because the previous batches tasted good and I took the same precautions to avoid oxidation then. I may have screwed that up, but when I consider the other replies I got, it seems that I definitely need to improve my sanitation practices, so the infection hypotesis seems a little bit more likely.

Concerns I see from your original post - fermentation took off after 65 hours? If you really meant that, as in over 2 1/2 days, that's way too long...although if you're going by airlock activity it may have started a day or more before that. Also, although I'm no fan of them, if your LHBS doesn't carry any crystal malts, it's time to look for another source, even if it's ordering online. Subbing cara-this and cara-that...it just sounds kinda ehhhh. Maybe a simple pale ale with two row as the only grain if that's your only option, but don't let their limited selection affect the quality of your beer.

I only saw signs of fermentation after 65 hours. You read it right. In the previous batches I also used US-05 a couple of times, and then, the lag time was way shorter. This was my first time rehydrating dry yeast and I think I screwed up that.

The lack of crystals is due to living in Brazil. Here the homebrewshops sell just weyermann, castle malting and muntons. And not every single malt produced by those companies is available. When it comes to crystals, we always have to find substitutes.

Thanks for all the replies. Not sure if this batch will eventually be drinkable, but for the next ones I'll reassess the sanitation issues that you pointed out and be extra careful with oxigenating the wort.

 

[unionrdr]

It sounds like your rehydration temp was too high? What was it? And what you describe does sound like oxidation, which can come from a few places. How did you bottle it? Does your capper get the caps on tight? And taking a sample from a spigot on the fermenter is fine, as long as the spigot is cleaned, rinsed & sanitized with every use. I've been doing it for years. Since it tasted like that when ready to bottle, it could've been exposed to something in primary.

 

[GHBWNY]

FWIW, Palmer describes a musty smell/taste as having two basic sources: grains or hops that were infused with mold. Or the wort having been exposed sometime during the process to a musty environment (e.g., cellar).