Strong alcohol/burning taste from fast ferment

Hi all,

On May 11th I brewed 10g of Yooper's DFH 60 clone. Eff was 6 points off (1.064) but all and all, I was happy.

I split the batch into 2, and pitched US-05 in one, and Nottingham in the other. Both took off like crazy, with about 1.5" - 2" of krausen, and the Nottingham was done within 36 hours, possibly even 24 (can't remember exactly).

I pulled samples on day 4 just to get an idea of what was going on. The Nottingham batch has a very strong, alcohol taste to it, which the US-5 does not. They were transfered to secondary 3 days ago and dry hopped, but the Nottingham still had the strong alcohol taste at that point.

Is it possible that the insane fast ferment has caused this off-flavour? Do you think it will diminish in time? Or, will the dry hopping help cover it up?

I am quite perplexed as to why this has happened, since other than the yeast, both batches should have been identical.

Any ideas?

Rhino

What temperature did you ferment at? Some yeasts are less tolerant to higher temperatures than others and generate fusel-alcohols and other nasty compounds.

Basement temp is around 60-64 degrees. I've used Nottingham many times in that environment, so I'm not sure that temperature is the problem.

I haven't noticed any ill effects from nottinghams voracious appetite. A long as you keep the temps low you should have been ok. Give the beer some time to age... that harshness will go away.

I think the better question is, what temp was the wort when you pitched. The basement might be 64F but if you pitch into 75-80F wort, the exothermic fermentation will never let the beer hit the sweet spot. You'll find guys like Jamil that chill down BELOW their target ferment temp, pitch, and then put away for this reason.

I suspect Bobby is right. That fast ferment was hot. Even if the beer started at 64 it could easily get over 70 with a vigorous ferment. Having finally invested in a fermentation fridge with temp control I have to agree with JZ that temp control is key to brewing good beer consistently.

GT