BetterSense

Recipes 

I brewed a slightly stronger version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale and it turned out with a very distinct clove taste. Last year I brewed a pumpkin ale where I added clove deliberately, and this beer tastes so distinctly clovey I have thought I had poured the pumpkin ale by mistake.

It's brewed using my normal technique using dry yeast. Where could this taste have come from?

lestershy

Recipes 

Could be the yeast or the fermentation temp. What yeast did you use/at what temperature did you ferment?

Yooper

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"Clove" flavor can come from chlorine in the brewing water, infection, and/or stressed yeast.

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rlynge

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What was your fermentation temp. There is a good change that if it was to high the yeast could have put off that clove taste.

BetterSense

Recipes 

It wasn't fermented at high temp...at this time of year my beer stays in the 60s without too much trouble, in fact I use a light bulb on a controller sometimes to keep it there. For this brew I used US-05. Could the taste be caused by light? I just started using a glass carboy (I usually use buckets). Is it possible to get bad hops?

maffewl

Recipes 

Light can mess up a beer... not sure if it will create a clove taste as I agree with Yooper from the previous post. But if you don't already, I would throw a black shirt over your carboy.

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bb239605

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First, there is a myth that high temps creates clove like flavors. Generally this is not true (unless we are talking really high temps). Lower temperatures tends to cause that clove flavor.

Second it is as Yooper said: stress, chlorine, or wild yeast.

Light will cause problems but it will not cause the clove like flavor. Generally the clove flavor is from ferrulic acid which can come from poor sparge/mash technique or and abundance of wheat in your grist.

Did the clove flavor arise pre bottling? Did you make a starter? What temp did you pitch at? What temp did you ferment at (60s is quite a large range)? Did you boil all water that was added, including any water used to dissolve sugar or make a starter? What is the alkalinty of your water, higher can cause problems as well?

There is many possibilities. I would start making minor changes to your procedure/ingredients until you narrow down and eliminate the problem

BetterSense

Recipes 

It's an all-grain batch; all water was boiled. I used the same Dallas city water I usually use. Fermentation temp was not controlled to 1 degree or anything, but I do think it may have been colder than usual since it's winter time now. I feel like the beer may have languished in the low 60s for several days until I got a lightbulb rigged up to keep it warm. Yeast was nottingham, pitched dry like I always do.

permo

Recipes 

I have found I get that taste if I underpitch WLP001.