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Old 12-20-2011, 04:17 PM   #1
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Default Boozy, phenolic taste

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?


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Old 12-20-2011, 04:19 PM   #2
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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
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Old 12-20-2011, 05:13 PM   #3
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With the limited info here about style and recipe. I would think you underpitched your yeast (did you make a starter?)
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Old 12-20-2011, 05:48 PM   #4
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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?
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Old 12-20-2011, 07:25 PM   #5
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was that ferment temp ambient or wort temp? notty can throw off some funky flavors if it gets over 70F
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Old 12-20-2011, 07:34 PM   #6
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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
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Old 12-20-2011, 09:05 PM   #7
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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.
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Old 12-20-2011, 09:34 PM   #8
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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
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Old 12-20-2011, 09:43 PM   #9
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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.
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Old 12-20-2011, 10:53 PM   #10
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Did you use special roast malt?

Alpha Klaus porter and a darker beer I made had a similar flavor. Maybe it's just the way the dark malts are interacting with other malts.


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