[Steve Musgrave]

Hello all! My brother and I brewed an Irish Red Ale and it seems to have possible off-flavors. That said, we've only brewed 7 all-grain batches so we're absolute newbies when it comes to this stuff.

The beer seems to have a molasses flavor and a smoky aroma. We aren't sure if it's from the grains, from something we screwed up or if it's just a young beer and we're being paranoid.

Here's what we used:

GRAINS & INGREDIENTS
8lbs. Maris Otter
2lbs. Vienna Malt
1lb. Yellow Corn (flaked)
4oz. Roasted Barley
1.2oz. Caraaroma

1.25oz. East Kent Goldings (60 min.)

MASH
148 for 60 min.
Up to 168 for 20 min.
168 for 10 min. (Mash out)

YEAST
Denny's Favorite (1000 ml yeast starter)

Primary: 68 (14 days)
Secondary: 68 (7 days)
Carb: 2.4 co2-vol / 5.4 oz. Corn Sugar (5 days in bottle as of now)

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.99%

It came out darker than expected but we didn't have any brewing mishaps. Any idea where these flavors might be coming from?

Thanks in advance!

[santoch]

I think 1/4 lb of Roasted Barley is a bit heavy handed in this batch and probably would contribute the smoky note and too-dark color.
Roast malt in an Irish Red like this one goes a really long way.  I'd suggest cutting it back to only 2 oz if you want to try it again.

Molasses flavor could be a number of things.  Did you actually measure the FG or was that what the recipe targeted?
Molasses indicates sweet under-attenuated beer to me, but if its at 1.010, I'm not sure, other than the roast barley again overstating itself.

[ynotbrusum]

Yea, the roast might be pushing the smoky flavor or it could be phenols from an infection of wild yeast.  Next time skip the transfer to secondary.  The molasses flavor could be a function of oxidation.  Don’t let one subpar batch discourage you. Cheers!

[ravenwater]

Yea, the roast might be pushing the smoky flavor or it could be phenols from an infection of wild yeast.  Next time skip the transfer to secondary.  The molasses flavor could be a function of oxidation.  Don’t let one subpar batch discourage you. Cheers!

I'll second this input - these were my suspicions as well. Without tasting the beer these are guesses but a "smoky" phenolic taste would be completely unexpected in an Irish red and I don't really associate"smoky" with the roast one gets from roasted barley or dark character malts, though one person's idea of roasty might read as smoky to someone else I suppose. An infection of something wild that got into the beer can definitely produce phenolics that may read as smoky. This may be a push to be double vigilant on your sanitation throughout your process. Secondaries rarely have a positive function and have a huge potential down side of introducing oxygen, which may well be the source of a molasses-type flavor - staling (oxidized) beer can take on a funky sweetness, and this can be more emphatic where a darker crystal malt like your Caraaroma is used. And I agree that you could cut the roast malt down an be fine - As I perfected my Irish red recipe the first key adjustment I made was to drop my % of dark grain - was initially too roasty.

[Steve Musgrave]

Well, nuts. We'll definitely be skipping the secondary from now on. We're pretty vigilant about sanitation but I'll be giving everything an extra-thorough scrub down. We won't be giving up as everyone has problems sometimes but this one hurts because it was the first time we got all of our numbers exactly right on.

I tried the beer again the other day and it definitely has a funk to it. Oh, well. Lessons learned. On to the next batch!

[ravenwater]

Well, nuts. We'll definitely be skipping the secondary from now on. We're pretty vigilant about sanitation but I'll be giving everything an extra-thorough scrub down. We won't be giving up as everyone has problems sometimes but this one hurts because it was the first time we got all of our numbers exactly right on.

I tried the beer again the other day and it definitely has a funk to it. Oh, well. Lessons learned. On to the next batch!

Yeah, it's definitely been a big "Ouch!" on the isolated times when I've had a batch that was very sub-par or even had to be dumped because something went terribly awry, given the time, effort, and anticipation that goes into a brew. But, as you point out, I believe everyone runs into problems. Keep on truckin'!