Imperial Blonde Ale - Fruity/Cider smell?

Jayhem · 02-08-2012, 12:46 PM

I just bottled a Brewers Best kit "Imperial Blonde Ale"

It actually fermented out to a lower FG than the kit predicts for a 5 gallon batch.

This is a STRONG beer!

OG: 1.071

FG: 1.014

~7.5%ABV

The taste at bottling not terrible but it's far from palatable. It smells like apple cider but just tastes like a strong fruity ale when it hits your mouth with a bitter aftertaste and strong alcohol presence.

I can't explain why it smells so fruity. Could it be from the corn sugar content?

Here is the recipe for 5 gallons:

6.6 lbs light LME
1.0 lb Wheat DME
1.0 lb Corn sugar
1.0 lb honey malt

1.5 oz bittering hops
0.5 oz aroma hops
0.5 oz flavoring hops
IBU's ~30

Yeast: Fermentis US-05 dry ale yeast.

OG: 1.071
FG: 1.014

Fermented for 18 days at 66 - 68F. Gravity has been stable for 4 days.
I'm hoping that some extended bottle conditioning will mellow out the flavor and aroma.
I was thinking too high a fermentation temp might be the problem but US-05 is supposed to work well from 59-75F

danny_deck · 02-08-2012, 01:01 PM

What yeast did you use?

Jayhem · 02-08-2012, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danny_deck

What yeast did you use?

Sorry, it's Fermentis US-05.

dcp27 · 02-08-2012, 05:19 PM

were those temps ambient or wort temp?

**RM-MN** · 02-08-2012, 05:37 PM

The fruity/cidery smell should come from acetaldehyde and to me that signals that the yeast wasn't done with fermenting it yet. The good news it that there is still yeast in the bottles and they will continue to process acetaldehyde although perhaps a bit slower.

**aiptasia** · 02-08-2012, 05:39 PM

+1 to that. It's a green beer, meaning that it's very young and still needs some conditioning to convert the acetylaldehyde into other esters. It'll mellow out with more bottle conditioning.

Jayhem · 02-08-2012, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcp27

were those temps ambient or wort temp?

The wort via a stick on thermometer strip stayed between 66 and 68 F for 18 days.

According to Beersmith it shouldn't ferment below 1.015 based on this recipe but I read 1.014 at bottling. This one is going to be one to leave in the beer closet until spring and then try. I will probably pop one at 3 weeks to see where we are. Hoping for the best on this one.

What causes acetaldehyde production? This is a bi-product different from esters which are a product of fermenting too warm?

Jayhem · 02-17-2012, 01:02 PM

Update.

Well I got curious and tried one of these after only 7 days in the bottles.

Wow, it's completely different from bottling time! No more cidery smell, I'm starting to taste hop aroma! I'll wait another 2 weeks and try another, I have good hopes for this.

**unionrdr** · 02-17-2012, 01:11 PM

This is why I always say to let the beer sit in primary 3-7 more days after FG is reached. It gives the yeast time to clean up after itself. But I'm thinking that since you had good temps,it was most likely green beer flavor you experienced.
Young,green beer will most often taste weird to the uninitiated. You learn with time what real off flavors are,& what green beer is. Primary is the better place to allow the yeast to clean up most of it. But it does clean up a bit more in bottles. It depends mostly on how much was present,& how long primary got to clean it up.

Jayhem · 02-17-2012, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unionrdr

This is why I always say to let the beer sit in primary 3-7 more days after FG is reached. It gives the yeast time to clean up after itself. But I'm thinking that since you had good temps,it was most likely green beer flavor you experienced.
Young,green beer will most often taste weird to the uninitiated. You learn with time what real off flavors are,& what green beer is. Primary is the better place to allow the yeast to clean up most of it. But it does clean up a bit more in bottles. It depends mostly on how much weas present,& how long primary got to clean it up.

Yea after my first few brews having bitter aftertastes I am going to leave each one in primary for 3 weeks and then either bottle or secondary another week if I'm dry hopping. Seems that this time frame is usually plenty to clean up those off flavors.