Help with Unfamiliar Odor / Taste

I've got an odor in my newest pale ale that I can identify, but I don't know what's causing it. The pale ale is a Jamil Z recipe - the one on the beer du jour website, not the ones in the book. I used MO for the 2 row and the hops are cascade, centennial and Nugget (sub for Warrior). I used Denny's Fav 50 as the yeast from a properly sized yeast starter (it was fresh from the pack).

What I'm getting is a distinctive odor that is exactly the same one as the smell coming off the bottom of a yeast cake. Or if you're washing yeast and you've got the trub / hop sludge left at the bottom after decanting. It's a sharp organic type smell that isn't pleasing like normal hop smells. The beer smells like that in the nose and there's also an impression of it in the taste.

I want to know what I messed up to get that and I'm not educated enough in flaws yet. Is it what people call yeasty or is a DMS vegetal smell or is it something else?

How long has it been in primary or secondary? Denny's 50 is a low flocculator so if there is a yeasty smell/taste then it will likely dissipate after cold crashing and/or using additional fining agents like gelatin before bottling. DMS smells/tastes more like overcooked veggies and it's pretty hard to mistake for anything else.

It was in the primary for 4 weeks, then racked over to keg and put in the kegerator. It's been in there almost 6 weeks now and while not super clear, you can see clearly through it. I might be sensitive to this particular aroma since some people get it too and don't like it, while others think the beer is good and don't taste anything off.

That's the exact way I describe centennial hops

Huh maybe it is them? I've had them in beer before and never had this smell/taste but maybe they've been more subdued...

If it was in the primary for four weeks, and it tastes/smells like yeast, then I'd say it's a yeasty character. I don't like strong yeast character in my beers, so I almost never leave a beer in the fermenter more than 2 weeks. Some people love that character, though, and routinely leave their beer in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks.

I can't tell if its the yeast or the trub / hop matter that has that smell but you may be right. Usually I've been dry hopping and so I pull it off the yeast sooner. This time I didn't dry hop and left it on. It was fresh yeast from a properly sized starter so I thought it'd be ok. Time to rethink that maybe.

Munchman said:

I can't tell if its the yeast or the trub / hop matter that has that smell but you may be right. Usually I've been dry hopping and so I pull it off the yeast sooner. This time I didn't dry hop and left it on. It was fresh yeast from a properly sized starter so I thought it'd be ok. Time to rethink that maybe.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of brewers that like that character in their beers.

I was listening to a podcast (can't remember which one, but possibly Basic Brewing Radio) and they discussed long primaries vs medium long primaries vs short primaries. Something like 25% didn't care, and the remaining people had a preference. The thing was, almost exactly half of the people that expressed a preference liked the shorter primary (less yeast character) while the other half liked the longer primary (more yeast character).

So I suggest trying a similar beer with a 10 day primary, to see if that's the flavor that you're finding objectionable. I know for myself, I like a much "cleaner" beer without yeast character except for some esters in English beers.

That's a good suggestion. I might even do the same exact beer with the short primary and see how it turns out.