5 Tips for Correcting Off-Flavors in Beer Brewing

Given the amount of time it takes to brew a beer to completion, it can be exceedingly frustrating when it doesn’t taste anything like what you were hoping for. The good news is that brewing beer is a process that’s been around for a very long time, which means we’ve learned how to deal with a lot of these flavor issues. Use these tips for correcting off-flavors in your beer brewing when you can’t seem to get it right.

Skunked Flavor: Light Exposure

If a beer is “skunky,” most people can conjure that taste in their mouth right away. It’s very unpleasant and can ruin an entire batch of beer. The culprit in this case is too much exposure to UV light. The light breaks down the acids you get from your hops and gives your beer a terrible flavor. If this is a recurring issue for you, try to pinpoint where in your process your beer is coming into contact with UV light and blocking it off as much as possible.

Acetaldehyde: Underpitching Yeast and Aging

When most brewers look for tips on correcting off-flavors in their beer, it’s because of acetaldehyde. This compound gives beer a very off taste, often described as something like a sour or rotten apple. If you have this issue a lot, it could mean that you aren’t pitching enough yeast for fermentation. Older yeasts that aren’t quite as healthy might also lead to this off-flavor, so always make sure your yeast is healthy and that you pitch enough of it.

Diacetyl: Highly Flocculant Yeast

Diacetyl is a compound that gives beer an odd buttery taste and feeling when drank. Yeast that is highly flocculant might not be able to absorb this compound fast enough before it falls out of suspension. In this case, you probably want to choose a yeast with middling flocculation instead or check to make sure that you aren’t using a particularly weak or possibly mutated yeast strain.

Sour Taste: Bacteria Infection

Unless you’re actually trying to make a sour, this can be an unpleasant surprise on the first sip of a new batch. A sour taste in beer that isn’t supposed to be sour is often the result of not properly cleaning and sanitizing your brewing equipment. The sour taste comes from bacteria and wild yeast that contaminate your batch, so proper sanitation is the only way to prevent this problem from happening again.

Overly Sweet: Under Fermentation

If you find that your beer is far too sweet, the problem is usually under fermenting. The alcohol in your beer comes from the breakdown of sugar in your wort by the yeast. If you aren’t giving your fermentation process enough time, or if you’re using poor quality yeast, you might have far too many sugars in your final product.

For the best brewing equipment, like our high-quality unitank fermenter, Craftmaster Stainless can help you get the best brews, no matter how many times it takes to make it perfect.