Estery beer? No idea what went wrong? HELP!!!

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teej_810

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my latest brew was NBs Chinook IPA with specialty grains. I made a starter with Wyeast 1056. Boil went ok except for one thing, fermented great for 4 or 5 days at a steady 64-66 degrees. 2 weeks primary, 10 days secondary then kegged and i went to tast it and i have a well noticed estery taste to the beer.

I've had a slight estery/ fruity tastes in some of my brews but not this bad. And i'm clueless as to what is was that caused this. Some things i'm thinking are; During my steeping of the grains i might have steeped them at a little higher than 160 degrees for a bit due to my inaccurate reading of thermometer. When doing the ice bath i accidently got some cold tap water (1/2 cup) into the wort. i wasnt really worried about it since i did a starter and had healthy yeast. But could have i overpitched?

Just wondering what people might think and found to help this problem for next time. I guess i just have to hope that aging will help it for now
 
Poor aeration of your wort can be a possible cause of esters, if you aren't getting a sufficent amount of o2 dissolved in your wort yeast can produce more esters.


brewiki.org said:
Ester and other flavor component production or synthesis is a complex subject because there are so many variables taking place at the same time. You are right, ester production is related to yeast growth but not in the way you might think. The key element to yeast growth and ester production is acyl Co-A. It is necessary for both yeast growth and ester production. When it is busy with yeast growth, during the early part of the fermentation, it is not available for ester production. Ester production is directly related to biomass production. Everything that increases biomass production (intensive aeration, sufficient amount of unsaturated fatty acids, stirring) decreases ester production. The more biomass that is produced the more Co-enzyme A is used and therefore not available for ester production. Anything that inhibits or slows down yeast growth usually causes an increase in ester production: low nutrient, low O2. It has been noted that a drop in available O2 from 8 ppm down to 3 ppm can cause a four fold increase in esters.

Stirring in normal gravity decreases ester production. Stirring in high gravity increases ester production. CO2 pressure in early fermentation decreases ester production. Taller fermenters produce less esters than short fermenters. High temperature early in fermentation decreases ester production. High temperature later in fermentation increases ester production. Low pitching rate can result in less esters.

There are other flavor components such as higher alcohol that have there own set of variables. Stirring increases production of higher alcohols. CO2 pressure does not effect the production of alcohol. Amino acid levels in the wort effect the production of higher alcohols. Most of the higher alcohol is produced during the growth phase (exponential phase) of the yeast.

I am sure that there are many other variables. I am also sure that there are beer makers that have experienced the very opposite with each of the variables.
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