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Fermentation in the bottle?

KJlive

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Jan 9, 2011
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Location
Lebanon PA.
I recently made a Dog Fish 60 clone. I had to substitute several of the hops (similar IBU's), due to my stores availability.  I also used a White Labs California yeast. I fermented for 2 weeks and transferred to a secondary fermentor and dry hoped the batch. I bottled after about 1 week. The beer has been in the bottles for about 2 weeks. I chilled a bottle to test. The beer had a great head and it looked clear. However....it is horribly bitter and tastes absolutely terrible. Did I do something wrong? Do i need to let it age longer? I have only brewed several batches prior to this batch. Any suggested are appreciated.
 
might be a bad bottle.  I would try a random second.  Oftherwise I would guess you have an infection from a sanitation issue.  Check the gravity after degassing.  If it is lower than your final gravity then you definitely have an infection. 

Did you sample along the way when making it?  Before bottling?  I always do.  If it changes dramatically I know something went wrong.
 
Actually....it never recovered. It had a very odd taste. (Almost like a chemical). I don't know if this is odd, but when I put them in the sink to dump and opened each bottle, there was so much CO2 in the bottles that the foam just poured out of the bottles before I dumped them. Very strange.....
 
Often time gushers mean an infection, but in this case I'm not so sure.
Three weeks total for an IPA is not a lot. I would have left it in the secondary for a minimum of two weeks, maybe even four. It's possible you did not achieve full fermentation before bottling.  This would result in the foam you described.
Dog Fish 60 is powerful stuff.  Not using enough malt to balance the hops would result in a bitter, medicine-like brew. (I think Dog Fish Head tastes like that anyway which is why I don't drink it. Not my thing.) Could be you had a bad recipe or made some bad substitutions, in addition to not giving it enough time to fully ferment.

I suggest you try something that isn't so big. Maybe a Red Hook ESB clone?
 
I don't know if this is odd, but when I put them in the sink to dump and opened each bottle, there was so much CO2 in the bottles that the foam just poured out of the bottles before I dumped them. Very strange.....

Usually a gusher means infection. Also was it bitter or sour? If it was sour (might be that chemical taste you describe) it probably was a bad batch due to infection. If it was really bitter or hoppy it may have been unbalanced. I dont think an unbalanced batch would give a chemical/medicine like flavor or aroma though.

As a side note I drink a ton of dogfish 60 and 120 and they are really well balanced beers. They must use a higher mash temp or something to balance the amount of hops present. Also Ive heard the 120 uses beet sugar to bring up the gravity.
 
I made a batch similar to this recipe before, and it was rather good. Both of your replies make sense. It was more of a sour taste than a bitter taste.  I guess I will give it another try! :-\ Thanks again for all your help!
 
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