My beer tastes like melons

[Hogarth]

The title says it all, really. My latest batch tastes like melons: a bit sweet and sickly and fruity and pretty much like drinking a melon.

Here's the recipe:

4kg Maris Otter
500g Crystal
25g First Gold (8.1%) for 90mins = 30IBU
20g First Gold (8.1%) 15 mins
Safeale 04 (rehydrated)

OG: 1048

The OG was much higher than I'd planned, and what I'm wondering is: is this melony taste simply a symptom of underhopping? Does fermented malt taste of melons if you don't give it enough bitterness to counteract it? Or is this something else -- a nasty ester, perhaps? Has anyone else tasted melons?

I gotta stop saying 'melons', I'm getting thoughts...

[far9410]

seems a pretty straight forward recipe to me, someone may recognise a fault that gives a melon flavour, otherwise dunno

[johnmac]

Are you familiar with the taste of diacetyl?

[far9410]

Are you familiar with the taste of diacetyl?

Ahh had me there, its not melons tho!

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Fermented malt tastes slightly malty. It's definitely not under-hopping (mild doesn't taste of melons). Perhaps it's just some weird result of using quite a lot of crystal malt with first gold?

[Dr. Dextrin]

I think if a beer was sweet (hadn't finished fermenting) and you let a lot of oxygen get to it, you might get something vaguely resembling melons. But I suspect you'd notice if either of those things had gone wrong.

[Andy__]

It could, as already stated, just be a strange combination of ingredients.
It could be your water.
It could be something in your mash/sparge.
It could be stale/old ingredients.

My guess is that you have put your yeast under stress somehow. Most likely by fermenting way to cold or hot.

[micromaniac]

how long was your mash? i did a couple of 15hour mash,s and that left a strange taste to it ,sometimes i,d like it next drink not so much .this never happened before or since.

[alix101]

Do you use temprature control when you ferment?

[AnthonyUK]

Doesn't one of the Badger beers taste of melons?
Golden glory maybe?

[Matt12398]

That's peach and they add something to it to get that flavour. It's not a malt or hops flavour.

[timbo41]

http://charlesfaram.co.uk/hops/hop-varieties/first-gold

Would you count melons as a bit citrusy

[Twistedfinger]

Now if you had a pair of Melons that tasted like beer you wouldn't have a problem.

[Hogarth]

Thanks for the replies chaps. Some excellent suggestions. I don't think it's diacetyl, which I've tasted before. Oxygenation is possible. I was using my stockpot fermenter for the first time, and the lid doesn't actually seal. It was in there for nine days and I suppose air could have entered.

Mash and fermentation temperature were all normal -- except, when I went to rack it, I found it had dropped to 13°C because of the cold weather. I only noticed this melon taste then. I wonder if the temperature had dropped before fermentation was finished, and the yeast struggled at the end? It does have that 'something went wrong with the fermentation' taste.

Mind you, I would appear to have drunk a good deal of it last night, so it can't be that bad.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Oxygenation is possible. I was using my stockpot fermenter for the first time, and the lid doesn't actually seal. It was in there for nine days and I suppose air could have entered.

No you won't get oxygenation there. The lid doesn't need to seal. CO2 is heavier than air and will form a protective blanket over the beer.

Mind you, I would appear to have drunk a good deal of it last night, so it can't be that bad.

By the end of the batch you'll probably have grown to really like it and will panicking that you may not be able to re-create ot