New Condo gave me New "Malt Liquor" smell/taste?

I have been brewing for a few years and I'm making decent beers. My process is pretty good and I haven't had any big flaws....
until my most recent beer, it has a smell just like "malt liquor" like Olde English. I'm not very good at detecting what the exact off flavor is. This might be a DMS creamed corn smell.

Here is the recipe and my process, please help me figure out what went wrong. This was my first brew in my new condo and I did a small 3 gal batch.

Thomas Fawcett Halcyon Pale Malt 4 lbs, 0 oz
Briess 2 Row Caramel 40 0 lbs, 6 oz
Briess Special Roast Malt 0 lbs, 6 oz
Weyermann Cara Red ® 0 lbs, 4 oz
Briess Victory 0 lbs, 4 oz
Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt 0 lbs, 2 oz
Kent Goldings, UK Pellets .6 oz @ 60 mins
White Labs London Ale 1 ea

Anticipated OG: 1.046
Actual OG: 1.049
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 4 Gal
Mash Type: Single Step
Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 3
Saccharification Rest Temp : 150 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 10
Ferment at 65 (62-68)
Carb to 2 Volumes

I am having difficulty figuring out where this off flavor is coming from since I have never had it before. Since this batch was smaller it cooled more quickly (15 -20 min) than previous batches. I did a 90 minute boil so there should be little DMS precursor. I did do a very thin mash because I have a 5 gal mash tun and this was a small batch. I still mashed out with 1 gal. I tasted the wort when I took OG measurement and it did not have this flavor. So the off flavor was generated during fermentation.

In addition I did this batch as a starter for another batch but now I'm not sure if I should use the yeast from this batch.

Any help is appreciated.

Water source? Is your new condo on a different water system?

Yes I do have a different water supply. I'm in Downtown San Diego, do you think that could really make such a difference?

Hey there. I live just East of downtown, so we're probably in the same water district. Do you filter your water at all?

I have to say I haven't had Old E in like 10 years, so I'm not sure of the smell, but if you want, I could always meet up with you to see if I can figure out your off flavor.

I do normally filter my water but I don't think I did for this batch. Could it really make this big a difference? As a side note is this the water report that you use? (http://www.sandiego.gov/water/quality/pdf/waterqual08.pdf)

Thanks for the offer. I am brewing another batch on Wednesday so if the same thing happens, I will definitely be getting in contact.

Almighty said:

could really make such a difference?

Click to expand...

IMO...yes.