Munich malt: does it produce slightly fruity characteristic?

I recently brewed a 5-gallon all-grain batch of IPA. I'm not on my home computer, so I can't remember the entire grain bill, but it was basically 10lbs of 2-row, .5lbs of munich, and a touch of Crystal 120.

I've been fermenting in a converted chest freezer, and kept my Safale US-05 fermentation to a constant 65F.

The resulting beer had a fruity characteristic that I wasn't expecting. I don't think it was my ferementation because of my tight control on the temp.

Could munich be the culprit? I'm new to putting recipes together, so not sure if it's possible.

No, Munich malt wouldn't give that flavor.

no, munich would give a malty flavor, nothing fruity.

remember esters aren't always due to heat. any stress on the yeast could cause esters or phenols to be thrown out.

How long did you let it sit in primary? secondary?

It was in primary for 28 days and I didn't secondary. The OG was something like 1.056 and FG was 1.009.

How about the Crystal 120?

ark1ebs said:

How about the Crystal 120?

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Nah, that neither. 120 can give pruny/raisiny notes if used in high amounts and in my experience, it only keeps those flavors for a short time while the beer is relatively young. If you used a small amount, that wouldn't cause the fruitiness you're describing.

Certain hops can give fruity characteristics, but it was most likely the yeast... some sort of stressor as malkore mentioned. Did you sprinkle the S-05 on the wort or did you rehydrate? Did you have the chest freezer on a temperature controller?... if so, was the probe sensing the temperature of the beer or the ambient temperature in the chest freezer?

ark1ebs said:

I've been fermenting in a converted chest freezer, and kept my Safale US-05 fermentation to a constant 65F.

The resulting beer had a fruity characteristic that I wasn't expecting. I don't think it was my ferementation because of my tight control on the temp.

Could munich be the culprit? I'm new to putting recipes together, so not sure if it's possible.

Click to expand...

The yeast is the 'culprit'. And seeing as it's an IPA. It's generally desireable to have various background fruit flavours in your finished brew.

If your thermometer says 65F, it probably is more like 68F or 70F in the fermenter itself. For better control put your temperature probe in direct contact with the side of the fermenter. And, cover the outside facing portion of the temperature probe with some form of insulation so that the probe only reads the fermenter temperature.

Here's a recipe I whipped up, you may like trying:

Bravo IPA
14-A English IPA


Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 211.64 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.063 (1.050 - 1.075)

|================#===============|
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.010 - 1.018)
|===================#============|
Color: 11.9 (8.0 - 14.0)
|==================#=============|
Alcohol: 6.25% (5.0% - 7.5%)
|================#===============|
Bitterness: 51.1 (40.0 - 60.0)
|================#===============|

Ingredients:
11.0 lb Pearl Pale Ale Malt
8.0 oz Pale Crystal Malt - (23.5)
8.0 oz Crystal Wheat Malt - (54)
0.5 oz Bravo (15.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Bravo (15.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
0.5 oz Bravo (15.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

1.0 ea White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale


Schedule:
00:03:00 Mash-In - Liquor: 3.0 gal; Strike: 165.35 °F; Target: 150.0 °F
01:33:00 Sacch. Rest - Rest: 90.0 min; Final: 147.8 °F

02:18:00 Batch Sparge - First Runnings, 15.0 min; Sparge #1: 1.75 gal sparge @ 195.0 °F, 15.0 min; Sparge #2: 1.75 gal sparge @ 195.0 °F, 15.0 min; Total Runoff: 5.99 gal

Note:
Try fermenting at 68 °F the first time you make this, on subsequent batches raise the primary fermentation temperature by 2 °F increments until 74 °F fermentation is reached. From there it be decided which profile you desire.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

-- The ingredients can be acquired through Country Malt Group or Rebel Brewer.

+1 on the temp might have been higher than you think.

I had a porter using the same yeast last month that was in 60* (plus or minus 3 degrees) ambient temps and my therm strip on the outside was showing closer to 64*(again plus or minus 3degrees)

if you are using a temp controller, you could drill a samll hole in the stopper just big enough to fit the probe down into the wort/beer (make sure its sanitized obviously)

This way if you want it to ferment at 65* the liquid will be 65* but the ambient might be 62* in the chest freezer.