My IPA tastes like a Belgian

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doaradorowans

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Hey guys new brewer here. After reading great reviews, I ordered NB's Chinook IPA Kit. It's been almost two weeks since bottling and it tastes like a freaking belgian. Now it doesn't taste bad but I'm just blown away because it's not what I was expected. Could this be wild yeast?

Here's how brew day went down:

2.5 spring water gallon boil, followed the recipe closely. Filled my 6 gal carboy with water and added the proper amount of iodophor. Emptied and covered with sanitized plastic bag and rubber band. After boil I cooled wort in ice bath with lid on after boil. Siphoned into carboy with sanitized siphon. Added 3 gallons of spring water to bring the volume to 5 gallons. I wiped the tops with rubbing alcohol before I poured. I aerated the cool wort (70-72 deg) and pitched my rehydrated US05 yeast. Added sanitized stopper/airlock

Fermentation started in 18 hours. After two weeks I added 1 oz of chinook leaf hops to dry hop. Let that sit for 5 days then I cold crashed the carboy in the fridge for 2 days before bottling.

I tasted the beer on bottling day and got the belgian flavor but I figured, hey it's still green, it'll be okay. But here it is two weeks later and the same flavor is there. It's not even close to tasting like an IPA.

Being my first brew, I sanitized like crazy. The only thing I can think of is that I didn't boil my top off water, or I pushed some of the bigger dry hops into the carboy went they clogged the top. But I used hand sanitizer before I did this.

So I'm stumped what do you guys think?
 
Either you have a wild bug from the non-sterilized top off water or you fermented it too warm. I'm betting that it was fermented too warm.
 
Sounds like fermentation temps to me. If you ferment S05 warm (70+ *F) you'll get fruity esters that can sometimes be phenolic like a belgian yeast. Did you control your fermentation temps at all?

If not, look into ways to keep your ferm temps down. (Fermentation chamber, swamp cooler) Temperatures make a huge difference especially during the first 3 days of primary.
 
Yes I had it in a swamp cooler for the first 5 days. I periodically siphoned some of the water, added some ice to keep things cool. Air temp was steady between 68-71.
 
A quick thought, could you have yeast suspended in your beer still? Is it clear? If not, the remaining suspended yeast may give you a bit of that belgian bite.

Let the bottles settle a while and it should clear up if that's the issue.
 
You say it was in a swamp cooler and then say air temps were 68-71. Air temp is meaningless if you have the beer submerged in a swamp cooler. What was your water temperature in the sc? Or even better what was the wort temp. I've noticed my swamp cooler, if I don't keep it steadily cool with ice changes (I mean like every four to six hours), it is usually only about three degrees below ambient. And when cooling the swamp cooler water and the wort at the beginning you have to keep changing ice more often until you get the wort lowered enough and use more ice. Once it is lowered then you can let the ice go and it will slowly rise until it settles a couple degrees below ambient if you stop using ice. This is my experience.

So if air temp was 68-71, then for most of the time your swamp cooler water was likely between 65-69 (probably the upper end of this). In active fermentation the yeast activity generates enough heat that you were likely up to 75 or even above in the wort (depending on gravity) for the most important part of fermentation.

When I use my swamp cooler (which is all year here in South Texas, except in the summer when I only do wine and mead because of the heat) I put the fermenter in and fill around it with water just below the level of the wort. I then have frozen water jugs that I float around it. for the first six hours or so I use two to four jugs depending on how much further I need to cool the wort. Sometimes I just can't get down to pitching temp until I do this (the heat here is bad part of the year). After that, I use one to two of these jugs, as needed, changed every six to eight hours. I do this for the first three days for anything I want cool. When I do scottish ales I do four jugs every six hours. I have a deep freeze to get them frozen quicker for reuse.
 
Wait another 2 weeks and see how it tastes. 2 weeks sometimes isn't enough time for bottle conditioning. When I do bottle, I usually wait a month and always have great results.
 
cluckk said:
You say it was in a swamp cooler and then say air temps were 68-71. Air temp is meaningless if you have the beer submerged in a swamp cooler. What was your water temperature in the sc? Or even better what was the wort temp. I've noticed my swamp cooler, if I don't keep it steadily cool with ice changes (I mean like every four to six hours), it is usually only about three degrees below ambient. And when cooling the swamp cooler water and the wort at the beginning you have to keep changing ice more often until you get the wort lowered enough and use more ice. Once it is lowered then you can let the ice go and it will slowly rise until it settles a couple degrees below ambient if you stop using ice. This is my experience.

So if air temp was 68-71, then for most of the time your swamp cooler water was likely between 65-69 (probably the upper end of this). In active fermentation the yeast activity generates enough heat that you were likely up to 75 or even above in the wort (depending on gravity) for the most important part of fermentation.

When I use my swamp cooler (which is all year here in South Texas, except in the summer when I only do wine and mead because of the heat) I put the fermenter in and fill around it with water just below the level of the wort. I then have frozen water jugs that I float around it. for the first six hours or so I use two to four jugs depending on how much further I need to cool the wort. Sometimes I just can't get down to pitching temp until I do this (the heat here is bad part of the year). After that, I use one to two of these jugs, as needed, changed every six to eight hours. I do this for the first three days for anything I want cool. When I do scottish ales I do four jugs every six hours. I have a deep freeze to get them frozen quicker for reuse.
Click to expand...

Good thought, but I'm doubting that would explain anything. Even at 75 degrees, he's within the temperature range for US-05, a strain not exactly known for ester production. Add in that the yeast will only be fermenting at that rate for a short time, and you've got plenty of time for the little guys to clean up any flavor mess they did make.

EDIT: While i don't think temp stress would explain it, if he was using old yeast that could stress the yeast enough to cause some issues. Dry yeast is pretty stable so it would have to either have been improperly stored or REALLY old.

Question for the OP, can you describe what you mean by "belgian taste" a bit better? Is almost a little grainy or chalky? banana like? clove like?
 
:off:
dantose said:
Good thought, but I'm doubting that would explain anything. Even at 75 degrees, he's within the temperature range for US-05, a strain not exactly known for ester production. Add in that the yeast will only be fermenting at that rate for a short time, and you've got plenty of time for the little guys to clean up any flavor mess they did make.

EDIT: While i don't think temp stress would explain it, if he was using old yeast that could stress the yeast enough to cause some issues. Dry yeast is pretty stable so it would have to either have been improperly stored or REALLY old.

Question for the OP, can you describe what you mean by "belgian taste" a bit better? Is almost a little grainy or chalky? banana like? clove like?
Click to expand...

While true this is a common kit and didn't look like he screwed the steps. Everything else is pretty much out of his control except the temp control. I would be surprised if nb sold old yeast with how much stock they through. External yeast contamination is also very unlikely :)
 
dantose said:
Good thought, but I'm doubting that would explain anything. Even at 75 degrees, he's within the temperature range for US-05, a strain not exactly known for ester production. Add in that the yeast will only be fermenting at that rate for a short time, and you've got plenty of time for the little guys to clean up any flavor mess they did make.

EDIT: While i don't think temp stress would explain it, if he was using old yeast that could stress the yeast enough to cause some issues. Dry yeast is pretty stable so it would have to either have been improperly stored or REALLY old.

Question for the OP, can you describe what you mean by "belgian taste" a bit better? Is almost a little grainy or chalky? banana like? clove like?
Click to expand...

Hard to describe but it has many of the same flavors you'd taste in a Belgian white ale. I'm chilling one down right now so I can better describe the taste.
 

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