When I bottled my John Bull Masterclass Irish Stout, I took a sample from the dregs at the bottom of the bucket. It tasted stunning - it had a really well rounded taste, with a deep coffee flavour. It was the nicest stout I have ever had by a long way. Two weeks later I have a pleasant, mild, inoffensive stout, but without any of that deep coffee flavour.
Have I done something wrong for it to lose that flavour, or is this normal?
Should the stout have this flavour?
Don't get my wrong, I really enjoyed the stout I just finished, I'm just disappointed it lost that flavour. I'm interested to see how the flavour develops from now on...
(Full details of the brew are at: http://bellsbeer.wordpress.com/category/stout/ if it helps.)
Thanks
My stout lost its initial great flavour. Is this normal?
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Parp
I've found stouts change dramatically in a week or two when i used to extract plus steep brew a few years back.
The flavour from the roast barley seems to be, for me anyways, most favourable when the beer is young.
After a week or so, mine seemed to mellow a bit, then after the normal HB maturation its gets quite mild, sometimes sweetish.
If you like the young taste, then push the beer.
Ferment, drop into a secondary, gelatine fine it.
Bang it into a pressure keg and mature for one week, then keep the pressure up with added CO2.
Mind, I found it changed sometimes from day to day drinking, the lovely sharp dryness changing to a more mellow smoothness.
I found Nottingham or S-04 worked best for this fast track system.
The flavour from the roast barley seems to be, for me anyways, most favourable when the beer is young.
After a week or so, mine seemed to mellow a bit, then after the normal HB maturation its gets quite mild, sometimes sweetish.
If you like the young taste, then push the beer.
Ferment, drop into a secondary, gelatine fine it.
Bang it into a pressure keg and mature for one week, then keep the pressure up with added CO2.
Mind, I found it changed sometimes from day to day drinking, the lovely sharp dryness changing to a more mellow smoothness.
I found Nottingham or S-04 worked best for this fast track system.