This did not turn out so well. I prefer to say that up front because I think it’s always better to front load information like that.
The nose has a little medicinal hit to it, which comes back at the finish. Really, that’s where it goes wrong and it’s enough to make this a disappointment. I’m not sure what’s got this beer off but I’m thinking two things happened urging my process:
First, I have been using a little less water when I’ve been cleaning bottles and I think that I may have to go back up to using a little more. While using more water isn’t ideal, neither is producing a corrupted beer.
Second, I didn’t produce a starter for the yeast. I have been overconfident with the volume of yeast I had available but it wasn’t enough. This delayed the start of the fermentation and could have provided a window where things could go badly.
I think this is less likely, as when I tasted the beer before bottling it seemed fine. If it’s infected, it’s usually pretty easy to tell right then. But having less-than-ideal bottles could be what turned this beer, because two weeks in contaminated vessels will make things go badly.
Brew date: 11/11/16
Steeping grains
4 lb 2 row
2 lb Munich
2 w lb C15
Fermentables: 4 lb EXLME
Hops
2 oz Columbus @ 60
1 oz Columbus @ 30
1 oz Columbs .5 oz Zythos @ 5
Yeast: Imperial’s Barbarian-2nd use
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
Put into secondary 11/30
.5 oz Columbus and .5 Zythos added to secondary fermentation
Bottled 12.4
ABV: 6.5%