W-34/70 woes - weird smell/taste

Hello everyone, A while ago I made an AG munich helles and fermented it with W-34/70 dry yeast which supposedly is widely used in europe. I was able to accurately control the fermentation temp with to 50dF and did a diacetyl rest (although i couldnt really detect any at all) at 65df for 48hrs to finish off the fermentation and then lagered for about 5 weeks at 34-36dF. When the beer was finished it had a weird taste that I couldn't really describe. It didn't taste BAD, just weird - something I have never detected in any european beer.

Just a week or two ago, I brewed another lager. This time a really simple recipe using only Weyermann German Pils and some saaz hops. I was constantly tasting my samples (hey don't want to waste anything ) and even in a half fermented state this beer tasted fantastic. Well I just did a diacetyl rest and am in the lagering phase and I now all of a sudden I have the same funny taste and smell to the beer.

Part of me thinks its the yeast and doing the diacetyl rest causes it to go funny. The only other thing in common is the German Pils malt and I have a hard time believing it would give this weird taste, and if so only after the diacetyl rest.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with the W-34/70 dry yeast? I have some S-23 on hand that I might try for my next batch but I was really hoping the W-34/70 would turn out as it is apparently widely used!

Thanks for the help!

Trouble with "weird taste" is that no one can work out what it tastes like from your description. Time to be a bit more specific. Ignore the word "weird" what does the taste remind you of ?

The BJCP material has enough descriptions of "off" flavours for you to think of some possible problems. Use them.

For the record, W-34/70 has been used millions of times and if it was really causing "weird tastes" this problem would have been picked up before. So, firstly, don't blame the yeast. Tell us what you did and how you did it, tell us what it tastes like and then someone may be able to address the problem.