Jknapp

Recipes 

Thrice now I've brewed a certain pale ale. The original recipe was from Austin Homebrew, the next two batches were with grains from my LHBS.

The 2 recent batches with grains from my LHBS have had this, well, strange flavor/aftertaste I'd call "smokey or ashy". I mean, it could be a malty taste (what Melanoiden is supposed to bring to the party) but it's not a flattering flavor.

The batch w AHS grains did not have this flavor.

5.5 gallon batch
7.5# 2 row
.5# Crystal 80
.25 biscuit
.25 Melanoiden
SG 1.046
IBU 35
Ferment @ 65

Yeast:
1st batch (grains from AHS), US-05
2nd & 3rd batch, Denny's Fav

Could the flavor be the Melanoiden or The Denny's Fav yeast?? Or something else?

This beer isn't very good and I'm getting discouraged. I need a little help!

onthekeg

Recipes 

Denny's yeast gets better after 2-3 generations I have found.

beerandloathinginaustin

Recipes 

I'll be bottling a pale I made with .8lb Melanoiden tomorrow, so I'll let you know what the sample tastes like. Seems like you have such a small amount that it's hard to believe it could really run the whole thing off track.

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Yooper

Recipes 

It sounds a bit like the biscuit malt, actually. Taste the biscuit malt on its own- maybe you got some that has an exceptionally "dry" taste. That's what I get out of biscuit malt, anyway.

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BrewThruYou

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That is a lot of melanoiden. Please let me know what it tastes like.

I made an oktoberfest with melanoiden to fake a decoction mash. There is an off flavor there. A little goes a long way with melanoiden. I think next time, I'll either use a lot less melanoiden or use caramunich or dark munich.

beerandloathinginaustin

Recipes 

The beer is insanely drinkable right out of the bottling bucket. The aroma from dry hopping with 1oz Nelson Sauvin & 1oz Amarillo for 2 weeks is great and the 'base' is nice and smooth. If anything I'm worried I didn't get quite enough bitterness in. No off flavors. If I were you I'd rule out the melanoiden.

Here's the link to what I had going on in case you're curious: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/making-rogue-yellow-snow-ipa-into-light-beer-255302/

badhabit

Recipes 

On occasion I have gotten a similar but very mild flavor like you described from Simcoe hops. I actually like it and have been trying to test out my Simcoe theory. I have an all Amarillo SMaSH and noted a sort of smokey or even oxidized flavor after three weeks of conditioning. That seemed to give way to the Amarillo flavor after about two additional weeks in condition. I have also noted, as suggested before, similar taste from larger additions of biscuit or toasted pale malt.
Using 5 to 10 % melanoiden as a part of your total grain bill is well within suggested limits.

samc

Recipes 

smokey or ashy

What is your brew set up like? I think scorched wort, certainly not Denny's yeast. Could also be a bad batch of grains that were overly malted -taste like Yooper said. I always taste all my grains before milling, just like cooking!

Jknapp

Recipes 

A follow up: I figured out the problem..

I am an electric brewer, and had not realized my elements had developed a "crust" or several layers of gunk from not scrubbing the elements after brewing - I only rinsed them off.

The encapsulated gunk layers began to scorch, thus causing the burnt/smokey/ashy smell. There actually was a black layer of burnt crust that started to flake off the elements.

Unfortunatley, I had to ruin another batch to realize this.. As I was collecting my 1st runnings from a batch this weekend, I turned on my elements. The "steam" that was rising from the wort made me do a 2nd take - it wasn't steam, it was small puffs of smoke rising from the wort. It was a burnt smell.

Problem solved!

Although, when weighing my grains at the LHBS, I tasted all the grains - not one tasted smokey or ashy, but I do agree Yooper, the Biscuit does have a rather "dry" flavor/aftertaste.

Anyway, thanks for all the help - I'm replacing my elements this week and will be back on track - and scrubbing the elements clean after each use..