off flavor in my IPA

so i kegged my american IPA on 9-16-09

this was brewed on 7-6-09


once caarbed i chilled it and tried it. it tasted great. now(11/7) its been in the fridge for almost a month it has this off flavor. one of my friends described it as nail polish.

is this an infection?
she said something about wild yeast. is this something i should cellar and let it age for a while? or just dump it?

no one.......

Any further description of the off-taste? I know what nail polish remover smells like, but can't really place nail polish.

i'm sorry, i meant remover.

its like a terrible alcohol taste. like crappy rum, or nailpolish remover.

Thats pretty weird that it started tasting like that after being kegged for a while. Solvent flavors are usually indicative of fusel alcohols caused by hot fermentation temperatures. I would think you would have tasted those right away though. It could just be that your hop flavor and aroma are starting to fade, which are exposing the fueel alcohol flavors since the beer is 4 months old.

That's probably fusel alcohol. Usually caused by hot fermentation.

I'm surprised it tasted good at first and then later developed that flavor. Maybe it's something else.

[Edit: Ed's fast on the draw. ]

Post the recipe and such. 90% of what I brew and drink is some sort of an IPA. I'm not an expert brewer of such, but I'm more than familiar with tasting them.

6# light dme
3/4 # briess malt 20l
1/4# dingemanns malt
1.5 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz centenial 15 min
.5 oz cascade 10 min
.5 oz centenial 5 min
.5 oz cascade 2 minutes
.5 oz amarillo flame out


amreican ale II yeast

what were your fermentation temps?

It isn't over carbed is it? Maybe it has a carbonic acid taste that you are picking up. Although people usually describe that as more metallic I believe.

fermentation temps were a little high. i am not sure, but if i guessed it would be just above 70.

over carbed is also an option. i noticed a good amt of head and for some reason the co2 was at 15 psi instead of 10.

jonp9576 said:

fermentation temps were a little high. i am not sure, but if i guessed it would be just above 70.

Click to expand...

did the temperature strips on the fermenter read about 70, or was the room about 70? If the room was 72, for example, the temperature inside the fermenter could have easily been 80 degrees or more. That would definitely explain the flavor you're describing.

well...it was real hot around here while that was fermenting, the room was probably around 70(my basement normally stays cool, but it was hot then) so that might be the cause.

if so, is there anything i can do, or any way it will age or is just a lost cause and i should just drink it to get rid of it

The remaining yeast may metabolize some of the fusel alcohol with time. I'd leave it to condition at room temperature and taste one every month or so to see if it gets any better.

i took the keg out of the fridge. i figure since its an IPA i shouldnt have any shelf life problems. i'll forget about it for a while and see how it is.

something similar happened to me with my IPA. A friend tried it and said it was awful, like it went bad. Then I got it in my head that it was bad. I had to have a couple IPA enthusiats to try and they said it was good. Maybe have someone else try it without saying anything about the possibility of it being bad? After I got that assurance, I was fine.

IPA is weird, doesn't taste like you'd expect from the smell.

the only reason i am putting stock into what my friend said is because she works for white labs.