I tasted my first all-grain beer friday. it's only been bottling for almost 2 weeks.

So far, its not good. Which has me concerned. I know i should just give it time. But my next all-grain ingredients come in tomorrow.

I brewed the AHS Summer Crisp IPA

AHS Summer Crisp IPA

I will have to post the recipe when i get home tonight. I may post my brew day steps, what happened to find out ways i may have messed up.

On the other hand, it could just take some time.

The taste is pretty harsh. The malt flavor is very faint. I think the total grain bill was 10.75 lbs. The taste is pretty dry. My OG was 1.054 (recipe called for 1.058) and my FG was 1.008 (recipe called for 1.012). So i have a dry taste, little malt character, and a hop punch, that tastes very blunt and harsh. Not like it is to hoppy, but i guess sharp would be a good word to describe it.

I'm confident there is no infection or anything. I think maybe my mash efficiency (which came out to 70% if i did it right) might have been the culprit.

This post was edited on 8/6/12 at 9:14 am

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Posted by Fratastic423

Baton Rouge

Member since Feb 2007

5990 posts

Posted on 8/6/12 at 9:21 am to BugAC

quote:
The taste is pretty harsh. The malt flavor is very faint. I think the total grain bill was 10.75 lbs. The taste is pretty dry. My OG was 1.054 (recipe called for 1.058) and my FG was 1.008 (recipe called for 1.012). So i have a dry taste, little malt character, and a hop punch, that tastes very blunt and harsh. Not like it is to hoppy, but i guess sharp would be a good word to describe it.

I'm confident there is no infection or anything. I think maybe my mash efficiency (which came out to 70% if i did it right) might have been the culprit.

The 1008 FG is what would make it taste dry rather than your 70% efficiency, which is really good for your first go at it. If the beer was supposed to be 1058 and you got 1054 I would call that a success.

There are a multitude of reasons why it would lack malt character. Maybe mash temp was low so you lack some unfermentable sugars, the malt bill is not setup for a malt backbone (looking at the website it says only a 1/2 lb of specialty grains, so that isn't much to hide behind flavor wise), fermentation temp was high which would lead to some odd yeast flavors. All of those are just speculative ideas though.

You will figure it out. All of us have made beers we aren't happy with.

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Posted by swampdawg

Baton Rouge, LA

Member since Nov 2007

5141 posts

Posted on 8/6/12 at 9:53 am to BugAC

quote:
BugAC

What yeast did you use and what were the IBU's?

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Posted by Boudreaux35

Member since Sep 2007

21578 posts

Posted on 8/6/12 at 9:57 am to BugAC

quote:
it's only been bottling for almost 2 weeks.

How was the carbonation so far?

I definitely agree that 1/2 lb of Crystal 20 is not going to provide much malt flavor, HOWEVER, I have also learned that the carbing process is going to change the flavor some. Also, the bitterness is also something that changes over time, for the good or bad. You probably know, but when a top IPA comes out, its best to have it fresh. Maybe in this case, a little time will help to mellow yours.

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