So I’m new to home brewing, made my first batch of IPA and everything turned out great, beer was awesome. Second batch was a chocolate milk stout extract kit that had cocoa nibs in the secondary. I soaked the bibs in vodka overnight as stated in the instructions and completed the batch. The beer was in primary for about 10 days, secondary 2 weeks, and was in bottle for a week when I tasted one. It has an off taste kind of spoiled. Just curious as to what could have went wrong. I feel I do very good with keeping everything sanitary. I did notice the fermentation was really vigorous for the first 2 days, then dropped off to Nothing. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks
You are batting .500...not bad in baseball, but less than stellar in homebrewing . If your equipment was new before the first batch, I would attribute your problem to inadequate cleaning after the first batch. Unless cleaning promptly, an overnight PBW soak followed by thorough rinse, followed by sanitizer will save you a lot of grief.
I cleaned all my equipment thoroughly after use with pbw and sanitize everything before use and throughout the process with Star San solution. Kind of hard to put my finger on the taste, just a rotten/ spoiled taste in the background. I use an old refrigerator with a temperature control that keeps it at around 70. I just wondered if it could have anything to do with the cocoa nibs.
@Mattzyx1please describe the symptom, i.e. exactly what you taste. After that, there will probably be follow-on questions regarding your process. Nobody can begin to diagnose the problem otherwise.
I noticed in a review for the kit I used (after I had already brewed and bottled) that someone mentioned you should the nibs for a week in the vodka because other people have had issues with them ruining the batch. The instructions that came with the kit just stated to soak overnight though.
Well, looking at lists of different off flavors that can happen in home brew beer, I would say the closest would be either yeasty or moldy, like mold on bread almost.
The only thing I can think of that tastes like mold would be actual mold. If that's the case, it would indicate a sanitation issue. FWIW, I have never had any issues from using nibs in secondary, even with no vodka soak. ETA: The more I think about this, Brett could cause what someone might describe as "moldy" (or at least "musty"). Brett would also indicate a sanitation issue.
Cocao nibs can certainly be infected themselves. And not sure that a) vodka penetrates every whole nib and b) vodka would even kill off all bacteria or fungus. I guess that's unlikely if they're from a reputable source but it happens.
How long have those kits been sitting around? Nibs are fatty, and fat can go rancid. I am probably wrong, but old ingredients make bad beer.
Need some more details about your process. What was final gravity of beer? How did it taste prior to adding cacao nibs? What was fermentation vessel? What was secondary vessel? What was your bottling process?
You could take it to the LHBS or a homebrew club meeting and have someone experienced taste it. You could also ask a local brewery if the brewer could taste it and give advice.
Thanks. That’s a good idea. There’s a few local small breweries near me. I may take them a few bottles and see if they could help.
