"Alchohol"y flavor

Well, as I figured, my mistake of pitching my yeast into 100degree wort has resulted in an "alchohol" flavor. My question is, will conditioning mellow this out, or am I stuck with it?

edit: It also some some butterscotch'y smells and flavors..also a product of high temp fermentation.

I would imagine your problem is temp related however high alcohol content ales will have a bit of a sharp alcohol taste to them when still young. What was OG and FG?

toga said:

i would imagine your problem is temp related however high alcohol content ales will have a bit of a sharp alcohol taste to them when still young. What was og and fg?

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1.054-->1.010

100F is trouble unless you brought the temps down from that very fast. If it's not at least 6 weeks from brew day, I would not panic and wait it out. Then reevaluate the situation, if it has cleaned up a lot you may be ok.

samc said:

100F is trouble unless you brought the temps down from that very fast. If it's not at least 6 weeks from brew day, I would not panic and wait it out. Then reevaluate the situation, if it has cleaned up a lot you may be ok.

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In the fermentor 12/23...Bottled 1/3...so it's been 20 days. I'll just let it condition awhile longer. This was my first sample bottle since the 3rd.

That's a bit quick to the bottle. I would have let it mellow longer.

As far as pitching that high, I'm more curious how quickly it dropped and to what temp. Normally you don't pitch that high as you don't want to shock the yeast. If you can bring it down to the range you are looking for in 12 hours (maybe even longer), I doubt you will affect the flavor.

Next time, skip chilling and put it i a sealed (not airlocked, sealed) bucket right from the kettle. The next day when it has chilled down to pitching temp, pitch your yeast. Your beer may come out a touch hazier, but it will taste fine and be contaminant free. It will also mitigate the hot-pitching boozy flavor. I know, been there, done that.

joety said:

That's a bit quick to the bottle. I would have let it mellow longer.

As far as pitching that high, I'm more curious how quickly it dropped and to what temp. Normally you don't pitch that high as you don't want to shock the yeast. If you can bring it down to the range you are looking for in 12 hours (maybe even longer), I doubt you will affect the flavor.

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It was down to 68 within 18 hours.

chiefbrewer said:

It was down to 68 within 18 hours.

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That's not so bad. Give it a few weeks and let us know if it mellows.

If it's got a hot alcohol flavor it could take over a year for it to fade.

The butterscotch characteristic from diacetyl probably won't fade too much (if at all) with time in the bottles, though. That's something yeast need to be given time at the end of fermentation to clean up prior to storage.

To get rid of the diacetyl in future batches, do whats called a diacetyl rest. It basically involves raising the temperature of your fermentation maybe 4-5 degrees towards the end of active fermentation. This helps the yeast to go back and clean up after themselves. A quick search for "diacetyl rest" in the forum here should turn up a few good threads about it.

The yeast in your bottles from the bottle priming will eventually clean up the diacetyl, at least it has in my experience. As for increasing temp to achieve a diacetyl rest, it is a bit of a moot point in ale production but apparently much more important than in lager production. Just give your ales a few more days in the bucket to let them clean up before you bottle.

What was your fermentation temp after you brought it down from 100F. What yeast strain did you use? How much did you pitch?

I'm not sure that the butterscotch was a product of the pitch temp. If your fermentation temps were low and you pulled it off the yeast too soon, which I'd say was the case, you'll get the butterscotch. Also under pitching will cause some diacetyl.

I've also found that Feremntis US-04 at low temps gives some butterscotch. I'll leave it on the yeast for a minimum of 3 weeks most times. Its really bad if under-pitched, even if only slightly under-pitched.

I've had beers with butterscotch that cleaned up in the bottle. I would give it more time. Considering it had some fermentation issues 9 days in the bottle isn't much time. Actually 20 days from grain to glass really isn't much.