Too much yeast flavor

I have noticed the yeast flavor coming through in my beer at the point of the beer being over carbed. I don't have enough fridge space to put all the beer I make in there so they sit out for too long sometimes and get a little over-carbonated. But anyways, the hop flavor weakens and the yeast flavor comes through strong after awhile, any ideas why??? I want my beer to taste like Hopslam or Great Divide's Titan, not like American Ale II smack pack yeast!

Add more hops and reduce fermentation temps.

I've not tried American Ale II, but in my experience, American yeasts should be clean and provide little flavor. To get this you need to ensure you keep ferment temps under control.

And if you want a really hop forward beer, you have to add a lot of hops late in the boil and dry hop.

If the bottles are over-carbonated, you either have an infection, bottled too soon, or used too much priming sugar. If the beer is properly finished, you can control the carbonation with the correct amount of priming sugar; storage temperature should not make a difference.

Are you stirring it up when racking to the bottling bucket? The wy1272 shouldn't be "yeasty" tasting. The American Ale yeasts are quite clean tasting and don't add much to the flavor profile.

Also are you pitching enough yeast (i.e. making a starter) or just pitching one smack pack? If you're not going to make a starter, try US-05 dry yeast (same strain as wy1056) for American ales.

The overcarbonation sounds like a separate problem which Calder covered quite well.

I just use the one smack pack of Wyeast. I have been concerned about my fermentation temps because I don't have much control and it's terribly hot here in Minnesota during the summer. The AC keeps my downstairs at or around 70 and I know fermentation is generally occurring a few degrees warmer than room temp so that has worries me. As far as over carbing goes, I usually use about 4 or 5 ounces of priming sugar. If I use the right amount it won't continue to ferment in the bottle and over carb my brew? I thought the yeast would continue to eat in the bottles until dropped to a colder temp and they went dormant?

How long are you leaving them in primary before bottling? That, along with incorrect fermentation temps, can lead to the 'yeast flavor' you're describing. Give them longer in primary, skip secondary, dry hop (if you wish) in primary, and then bottle. Before you bottle, TASTE the brew, as well as get SG readings to determine IF it's hit the FG...

Learning to be patient with the brew can be the hardest lesson for some people. Bottling too early can also lead to over carbonation since the yeast didn't get through all the sugars in the wort before you added more sugars at bottling time.

IMO, any recipe that tells people to give it X days in primary, Y days in secondary and then bottle should have that section ignored. I've yet to see ANY batch benefit from following those instructions. Especially since temperature plays such a large role in fermentation. Unless you have an actual fermentation chamber, and can have the wort at the exact temp it needs to do it in that time frame, those instructions are invalid.

The boards are littered with people having issues with batches that they followed the instructions for days fermenting before bottling.

Also, learn how to make/use starters for your yeast. Proper aeration/oxygenation of the wort, before pitching the yeast, is also important. Higher OG brews even more so. Consult the Mr. Malty site for how much yeast you should pitch in a batch (by OG and volume)... That will help you to get better brews moving forward.

Also, get one of the stick-on brew thermometers for your primary. THAT will tell you what temp the wort is at. Far better to know what it's at than to guess it's X degrees over ambient (it can fluctuate from yeast strain to strain, and even batch to batch)...

I use a secondary and I always use my hydrometer to figure out when to rack. It's usually about 7-10 days in primary and then about 3 weeks in secondary. I have a fermometer but don't really understand how that is supposed to tell me what temp the brew is at since there is no actual thermometer on it just colors and a general description of a brew type. I'll just have to drink them faster I guess until fall/winter when the temp cools down a bit. Like I said, they are delicious when bottling and a couple weeks after bottling but after like 4 or 5 weeks in the bottle they over carb and lose beer flavor and gain yeast flavor

I have some of this type, and some of this type, of stick-on thermometers... Both have the temperature numbers on them, that indicate (color change) where the fermenting brew/wort is at for temperature. Pretty easy to read and understand, no real explanation required. If you don't have either of those, get some. At <$3 each, it's a really cheap way to know what temperature the wort is fermenting at.

You can also find others on Amazon in different temperature ranges. I picked up some for my kegs, so that I'll be able to see what the brew temp is without getting a more expensive thermometer with probe.

Your brew shouldn't change that radically over just a few weeks. Unless you're storing it HOT.

Personally, I leave the brew in primary until it's done/ready for bottle/keg. IF I'm going to age it with something else, I do so once it's otherwise ready for bottle/keg. IMO, racking to secondary before then is unnecessary for 95% (or more) of the styles being made. When I do rack, it's because the flavor/aging element does a much better job when off the yeast. OR, I'm racking off of another element onto a secondary element where I need to halt the addition of the previous.

How are you oxygenating your wort? If just the shake (or pour) method, look to get an actual O2 infusion setup.

BTW, many [Wyeast] ale yeasts don't like the temperatures over the low (to mid) 70F area (70-75F being the ceiling on them). Since fermenting wort can be more than a few degrees above ambient temp, you could [easily] be fermenting too warm. Without a thermometer to tell you what the wort is fermenting at, you'll never actually know. I ferment where the ambient is in the 62-65F year round (a basement). This is a confirmed range (not just guesswork). This also has my brews ferment, roughly, in the middle of their temperature range. I have excellent brews months after being bottled.

I would suggest eliminating as many variables as you can. Measure the priming sugar by weight. Try a few long primary, no secondary batches (get more primaries if you must). Oxygenate with pure O2 via a stone. Confirm the actual wort temperature while fermenting.

Thanks goldiggie, I will start eliminating variables starting with the thermometer and getting more familiar with it. Then I'll check my priming sugar amount but I have been using a digital food scale lately and I think that's usually within .5grams of what I want to use. Thanks for all the tips!

Bigloveystyle said:

I have noticed the yeast flavor coming through in my beer at the point of the beer being over carbed. I don't have enough fridge space to put all the beer I make in there so they sit out for too long sometimes and get a little over-carbonated. But anyways, the hop flavor weakens and the yeast flavor comes through strong after awhile, any ideas why??? I want my beer to taste like Hopslam or Great Divide's Titan, not like American Ale II smack pack yeast!

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Those bottles that you leave out for a long time, stick them in a closet with a fan trained on them. That'll help control the big temp swings that are allowing the yeast to produce esters.

Bigloveystyle said:

Like I said, they are delicious when bottling and a couple weeks after bottling but after like 4 or 5 weeks in the bottle they over carb and lose beer flavor and gain yeast flavor

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sounds like the yeast flavor is just coming from the over-carbing. when it foams up it kicks up a bunch of trub in the bottle which could be causing this off-flavor. leaving them at room temp longer shouldnt cause over-carbonation unless too much priming sugar was added in the first place. once they;re out of sugar, they're out of sugar, they wont just keep carbonating.

how long are you leaving the bottles in the fridge before testing them?

Golddiggie has you on the right track! The only other thing I can suggest is drop your priming sugar amounts to 3-4 oz per 5 gallons. If you are losing any volume to trub or what not when you rack (either from kettle to fermenter, fermenter to secondary, secondary to bottle bucket), then the 4-5 oz (5 oz is already pretty darn high for 5 gallons) may be too much for the end volume. Check the accuracy of existing volume marks on your bottling bucket or whatever you bottle from, or make accurate volume marks and see where your next batch weights in volume-wise when you bottle!