Great Beer, Funky Yeast

One of my first beers I made on my own was an ESB. I tried to model it off Redhook's ESB, and it was, um, sort of close. It ended up being (at the very end of the batch - I was a bit impatient then) the best beer I have ever drunk. It nailed that ever-slow-slight citrus twist taste in a nice, reddish ale. Awesome.

But before it got awesome, it had the funkiest smell to it, and it must have been from the yeast. It just smelled earthy, and in a bad way. Obviously, smell and taste are pretty much interconnected, so it just turned the flavor in the same wrong direction. Plugging your nose did wonders for this beer's flavor. Like I said, in the end, it was incredible; I just drank it too fast to enjoy the end much.

This all brings me to my blueberry wit beer, which I cracked open for the first time tonight. This beer's got serious promise (and only a week out of the bottle), but again, the smell is off and it's from the yeast.

I'll put it away for a while. It'll be great in a month or so.


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* FOR BREWING NERDS: Haven't found the witbier recipe (clearly, I'm really careful about keeping this stuff - my paper organization consists of a shelf for beer books and a folder with scraps containing beer recipes). Still, I can say it had about 50/50 Belgian Pale and wheat, wit beer yeast form Wyeast, coriander, cardamom and a couple ounces of hops that totally escape me. I threw in 10 oz of organic cherries into 1/2 in the secondary fermenter, and 16 or so oz of blueberries in the other 1/2.

The ESB had Pale, Medium crystal, and a little caramunich, spaltz and willamette hops, and british ale yeast from Wyeast. Like I said, it's great - brew a batch and put it away for a while.