The last three brews I made have a distinctly boozy and phenolic taste and I cannot explain why this happened. The only thing I did differently was the use of Maris otter malt. I mashed correctly and hit the appropriate finishing gravity. Can anyone explain this to me?
I'll also add that the fermentation temperature was steady at about 62-64 degrees and I believe that my yeast pitch rate was enough for the starting gravity
The first bee I noticed it in was a recipe I created, an English India brown ale, the second was a nut brown ale recipe from this site that I secondaried on some toasted coconut. I used a rehydrated pack of Nottingham dry yeast which should contain enough to get the job done correctly. I recently started using plastic buckets as primary fermenters, so maybe it is that?
It was the reading of the stick on thermometer on the side of the bucket... I actually increased the temp in the room to that temperature because it was around 58-60 before and I was worries the yeast would go dormant
I think cold can stress a yeast just like heat. You also might need a little nutrient blend, maybe the nitrogen in that particular batch of malt is lower than normal.
I always use yeast nutrient at the end of the boil. I wasn't aware that a ferment temperature being too cool could cause off flavors. If that is true, that could have been the problem
What temp did you pitch? I have found (I know different strain of yeast) that if I pitch belgian ale yeast when the wort is between 70-80ºF, I get hot solventy flavors, even if I control the fermentation temp in my freezer chest at 64ºF for the rest of the fermentation. Now with all my beers I chill to at or bellow my target fermentation temperature before pitching.
Boozy, phenolic taste
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