mandoman
Well-Known Member
Since this may be a yeast thread I posted here under washing, etc.
So I brewed another batch of 'house' pale ale, my 6th or 7th following essentially the same IPA recipe but I changed up a few things. It's carb'd in the keg at about 7 weeks and still tastes, well, funky. It's a flavor I've had before - it's very hoppy in flavor and nose, bitter, and malty like a good IPA should be, but it's also got this sicky sweet extra bitter bite on top of it all. It sorta reminds me of cheap LME in syrup form and in the brews made from it but also a little sour tasting/smelling too, but way overpowered by the other sweetish flavor - for some reason it reminds me of too-young-a-beer flavor but it's been 7 weeks already and these are usually very drinkable with just a tinge of grassy hoppines at 6 weeks.
So, here's what I did different and I'd like y'alls opinions as to the smokin' gun or whether it's just and age thing . . . . . .
Biggest thing is I used yeast saved from a cake about 3 months ago. I racked from the primary, poured the cake, and put it in the fridge in an airlock then capped bottles - very little exposure to air and good sanitary transfers. Made a 2 pint starter which took a few days and some warming to get going but then showed good activity and brought the brew from 1.06 to about 1.01 - other than a sluggish start, yeast activity seemed normal. Also used all whole hops - 5 total w/1 oz plus of that dry hopping - whole hops seemed a little brown and dry, maybe due to shortage - I bought 'em just prior to the huge price jack, 1 lb was about 15. Also I batch sparged for the first time although the only difference I noticed here was I undershot my boil volume a bit and ended up with about 4.75 in the secondary.
I'm hoping it's just an age thing and am tasting it daily - seems to be improving but I don't know how far I have to go.
Or it's the yeast - which was old but seemed to perform well - but could've been contaminated at some point
Thanks for opinions, ideas, criticisms....
chris
So I brewed another batch of 'house' pale ale, my 6th or 7th following essentially the same IPA recipe but I changed up a few things. It's carb'd in the keg at about 7 weeks and still tastes, well, funky. It's a flavor I've had before - it's very hoppy in flavor and nose, bitter, and malty like a good IPA should be, but it's also got this sicky sweet extra bitter bite on top of it all. It sorta reminds me of cheap LME in syrup form and in the brews made from it but also a little sour tasting/smelling too, but way overpowered by the other sweetish flavor - for some reason it reminds me of too-young-a-beer flavor but it's been 7 weeks already and these are usually very drinkable with just a tinge of grassy hoppines at 6 weeks.
So, here's what I did different and I'd like y'alls opinions as to the smokin' gun or whether it's just and age thing . . . . . .
Biggest thing is I used yeast saved from a cake about 3 months ago. I racked from the primary, poured the cake, and put it in the fridge in an airlock then capped bottles - very little exposure to air and good sanitary transfers. Made a 2 pint starter which took a few days and some warming to get going but then showed good activity and brought the brew from 1.06 to about 1.01 - other than a sluggish start, yeast activity seemed normal. Also used all whole hops - 5 total w/1 oz plus of that dry hopping - whole hops seemed a little brown and dry, maybe due to shortage - I bought 'em just prior to the huge price jack, 1 lb was about 15. Also I batch sparged for the first time although the only difference I noticed here was I undershot my boil volume a bit and ended up with about 4.75 in the secondary.
I'm hoping it's just an age thing and am tasting it daily - seems to be improving but I don't know how far I have to go.
Or it's the yeast - which was old but seemed to perform well - but could've been contaminated at some point
Thanks for opinions, ideas, criticisms....
chris
