I don’t know what the hell happened..... I brewed a decent rye stout (akin to an oatmeal stout), which has all the right flavors, nutty, cocoa, coffee, etc....... except the finished beer, ready to package, has this really crazy harsh bitterness to it. And the IBUs aren’t even high, or shouldn’t be. Recipe is below. Mash pH was dead-on at 5.4 (room temp). Water is from Lake Michigan, which is pretty moderate, same as I usually use, nothing too odd. I added a touch of baking soda and gypsum (1/8 tsp each) when mash was done to try to match a British water profile, but that was about it for water treatment. Four or five things I did with this brew that I don’t normally do:
1) I used Munton’s ale yeast. The last time I used this yeast was at least 15+ years ago. I just figured it was time to give it another try, it’s been so long and it’s still available. I think I liked that yeast at the time, didn’t have trouble with it, but it’s hard to remember.
2) I added the dark roasted grains in the last 15 minutes of a 60-minute mash. Usually I would mash everything the whole time, but figured I’d try something different, to hopefully smooth out the roast character. In a way, I kind of think it worked, but maybe had the opposite effect?!
3) I used Phoenix and WGV hops. I have never used those before in my life. Phoenix I thought smelled AWESOME in the boil -- spicy and very “hoppy” in a general sense. I’d use it again I think. The WGV.... meh.....
4) I toasted 2 oz of the Maris Otter at 350 F for about 12-13 minutes, just about an hour prior to brewing with it, just long enough for the entire kitchen to smell awesome. However, I have also heard that toasted malts need a couple of weeks(?!) to “mellow” and “avoid harshness”?! I have used toasted Maris Otter in the past and didn’t get a harshness, so I kind of don’t know what to think here.
And one other thing is that efficiency was unexpectedly 91% with this batch. Usually I get about 82%. Not sure what was up with that, but I actually diluted with some distilled water to bring OG back down.
I am BJCP Certified, so I can tell you in a somewhat qualified manner that the beer has no other off-flavors except for the bitterness. I have tasted it three separate times during fermentation. It is NOT astringent, not puckering in any way, and not tart either, not yeasty, no DMS or chlorophenol or anything like that.
The bitterness could be from the water or the baking soda addition I think maybe, especially if the local water utility suddenly had something weird happen. But like I said, I measured mash pH and it was fine. The pH was measured just one time, about 15 minutes after hitting mash temp which was about 150 F.
Could the bitterness somehow be from adding the dark grains later in the mash? This would have lowered the mash pH but I never measured it. The beer does NOT taste tart. I brewed in a bag (BIAB) but I never ever squeeze, instead I dunk-sparge, essentially a batch sparge but in a bag into a new container of hot water, with equal 1st and 2nd runnings. The sparge water I think was about 190 F, around there, it had been boiled then allowed to cool slightly for ~10 minutes, but combined with 145-ish temperature grain bag, the temperature should have been fine. After the sparge, I poured 100% of the sweet wort through a double thickness mesh to strain out larger particles prior to boil. I didn’t measure pH of the sparge, but since it was essentially batch sparge, I wouldn’t think I’d need to. Maybe I should have!?
This is frustrating to me because the beer tastes great IF you can ignore or put up with the harshness. The first time I tasted a sample, I’ll admit I really hated the beer, it seemed really gross to me and I became very worried that this could turn out to be a dumper. But then tasting a second time a few days later, I loved the beer! It is indeed complex and tasty. Then today, I had mixed feelings. I detected the harsh bitterness the first time, but did NOT pick it up the second time, and then seemed to have been able to combine both perceptions of good & bad today. Perhaps this will be a beer that will improve with age, or one where I’ll need to be in a special mood for a particularly acrid stout. I dunno. I think it is worth saving. I’ll bottle it up tonight or tomorrow no matter what. I just want to be able to enjoy the beer every time I drink it, instead of picking up crazy harsh bitterness half the time or whatever.
One other thing I am wondering about is the toasted Maris Otter, which was made immediately prior to brewing. Could this have really affected the perception of harsh bitterness this much?! It was only about 3% of the total grist.
Did I use too much dark roasted grains? I do not believe so. It’s not even a jet-black beer, but only a deep brown.
Do you all have good ideas on how I might be able to “fix” this? Is this reversible, maybe?? I don’t want to add lactose because I only got 57% attenuation with Munton’s ale yeast as it is, so it sure doesn’t need lactose! Would any kind of water treatment help? Perhaps I should test the final beer pH and/or run some little experiments in several samples with different salt additions to see if it does anything? What should the final uncarbonated beer pH be for a stout?? Temperature will be about 50 F. Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated!!
Recipe:
Rye Stout
2.6 gallons
OG=1.059
FG=1.026
ABV=4.3%
IBU=23
SRM~38
Brewhouse Efficiency = 91%
60-minute mash at 150 F
45-minute boil
Roast Barley 5.50oz
Rye Malt 5.00oz
Maris Otter 3.00lb
Crystal 80 3.00oz
Chocolate Malt 3.00oz
Maris Otter Toasted 2.00oz
Victory Malt 1.50oz
Black Patent 1.00oz
Phoenix 0.50oz (6.7% alpha, 40 minutes)
WGV 0.50oz (7.1% alpha, 3 minutes)
Munton’s ale yeast (only a buck, baby!)
By the way.... fermentation took off VERY fast within about 6 hours after pitching, but took about 8-9 days to hit terminal gravity. I began the ferment in the basement at about 59 F, then when things slowed after ~4 days I brought upstairs to 68 F where it’s been for about 5 days now. I’d use this yeast again I think as an alternative to Windsor or Wyeast 1099, but not if you believe it might have caused the weird harshness. I don’t think it was the yeast. But I’m all ears!
If you’ve made it this far and have some ideas to share, thanks so much! Cheers!
Topic: Help! Want to “Fix” a Tasty but Slightly Flawed Stout! (Read 3987 times)
