York Brewery Stonewall Bitter .....tastes weird

[Prozac]

Originally posted this in the Brewdays forum.....

I made a York Brewery Stonewall Bitter , it's a standard one tin kit but has a sachet of hops with it. Now, I followed the instructions, but never removed the Hops until I kegged it. Was I supposed to lease the hops in the wort for the full ferment?
Story so far..... started on 25/8/8 .... SG 1042 ...... moved it to the KK on 31/8/8 SG 1006.

So it's been in the keg nearly 2 weeks.
There's sort of an 'earthy' or possibly a 'woody' taste to it at the moment.
I can't drink it as it stands. I appreciate it's young still, but I've had a bottle of Muntons IPA when it was about 2 days in the bottle and it was superb already. This doesn't taste 'off', just odd.

I hope it gets better because it's not nice right now.

[maxashton]

See how it goes.

[andyp]

Maybe you just don't like stonewall bitter.

You probably shouldn't have left the hops in the FV, some not so pleasant flavours might seep out with so long a soak, and they might have clashed with the yeast.

Did you clean and steralise thoroughly then remove all traces of the steraliser?

Chances are it'll improve with a full 6 weeks of conditioning tho, so just be patient.

[Prozac]

The instructions didn't say to remove the hops, and they weren't in a 'teabag' or anything. I'm sure I'd have read it if it said "Steep for an hour, then remove"

I'll leave it longer and see how it goes.

[Prozac]

Being the brave soul that I am....... I've drawn a pint off the KK and let it settle. The 'nose' is ...sniff.... pretty good, quite caramely really, maybe a very slight undertone of 'wet towel' but .... sniff nope that's gone now.
Colour? lovely, a real chestnut colour.
Head? holding very well
Clarity? reasonable, only been kegged for under two weeks.
Taste? sip, swoosh and swallow .... woody aftertaste..... but probably hops. bigger slug and swallow not bad actually... better than it was...drinkable now.....

I'm fairly hopeful this 'come of age' in a couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed anyway.

[Jim]

I wouldn't have thought leaving the hops in the fermenter would cause off flavours (provided the hops were reasonably fresh).

More likely the beer just needs time to mature. Some of the best beers I've made tasted crap after just a couple of weeks.

[Prozac]

I think you're right Jim, cheers..... see the post above.....

[andyp]

I think Jim's right as well. Thinking about it I can't really see hops in the FV being a problem, after all when dry hopping hops can be left in the keg for weeks on end.

I bet all it needs is another few weeks

[Damfoose]

I have a Sherwood kit Forest Bitter, This comes with a little hop packet you have 2 ways to use them or so it says the first is simmer ( boil gently) the hops in 3 litres of water for 30 min and add to the FV on day one for more bitterness, the second is to add the hops to the FV on day three for a full hopy aroma, Im going for the second option even though I do like hopy beer the aroma is what im after for this one.