Awful Wit

I have brewed several batches of beer so far and while some could have been better, none were undrinkable untill now. I made an all grain wit ( have done this before with very good results) with washed and stored yeast a couple months old. Has been in the bottle about two weeks. Tried it today-- well carbonated, but phenolic as heck. I'm talking bandaids in aroma and taste. It did ferment a bit warm 75F plus. Was it the warm fermentations or a wild yeast. Will it get any better if I leave it longer or do I just dump it?

tbeazlie said:

I have brewed several batches of beer so far and while some could have been better, none were undrinkable untill now. I made an all grain wit ( have done this before with very good results) with washed and stored yeast a couple months old. Has been in the bottle about two weeks. Tried it today-- well carbonated, but phenolic as heck. I'm talking bandaids in aroma and taste. It did ferment a bit warm 75F plus. Was it the warm fermentations or a wild yeast. Will it get any better if I leave it longer or do I just dump it?

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Ah that bites man. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

The off flavour could be from wild yeast. But more common causes are from chlorines in your brew water, either from your municipal water supply or from under-rinsing after using bleach as a sanitizer. Could either of those be likely? If not, I would suspect wild yeast.

Some resources also claim that oversparging can lead to phenolic flavours, but I am not sure about this one.

I use starsan as the sanitizer. It has been warm here in the south and at this time of the year the waterworks may add more chloramines.

I have much less experience that flyguy, but I would say that the bandaid smell and such is due to infection most likely from your washed yeast. Next time use a fresh sample of yeast or make sure to improve your washing procedue to insure sanitation.

Sorry for your loss. =(

Here's a good link with possible causes for off-flavors:

http://www.bjcp.org/faults.html

I wouldn't be so quick to blame an infection - they're less common than you think.

This sounds exactly like my last (and first) AG wheat. I too used some older yeast I had saved from previous batches. It also fermented on the warm side as the AC was having trouble keeping up with the 100+ outside temps we were getting here. Lots of phenolic and some hot alcohol taste. I was going to toss it, but instead I just left it in the kegerator and forgot about it for a month or 2. It's mellowed quite a bit and is not half bad now. No award winner for sure, but still not a bad beer. So there's my 10 cents. Just give it more time.

tbeazlie said:

I have brewed several batches of beer so far and while some could have been better, none were undrinkable untill now. I made an all grain wit ( have done this before with very good results) with washed and stored yeast a couple months old. Has been in the bottle about two weeks. Tried it today-- well carbonated, but phenolic as heck. I'm talking bandaids in aroma and taste. It did ferment a bit warm 75F plus. Was it the warm fermentations or a wild yeast. Will it get any better if I leave it longer or do I just dump it?

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Doubt it'll get better. That bandaidy thing has a propensity to stick around. I'd guess that the yeast just..."turned". I've had batches ruined by harvested/washed yeast.

I made a wit that had very little taste but had that Astringent like smell.
I'm letting it secondary to mellow for a while and see what happens.
I can already tell you that the astringent smell has subsided substantually and it is beinging to smell more like a wit.
I haven't tasted it since the initial tasting so I can't comment on whether the flavor has enhanced.

Damn!

I just came accross the same thing when racking my wit to a keg. I definately didn't notice this coming out of the primary. I suspect the cause could be the 'HE' bleach my wife bought. I'm always very thorough and rinse with boiled water anytime I sanitize with bleach but maybe this 'HE' stuff is extra stubborn.

First (and only) batch I ever had that seemed undrinkable was a wit. It hit around 78F during fermentation. I think it was just the serious "sour" aroma that hit your nose as you were taking a dirnk that really killed me. Anyway, after about 8 weeks in the bottle, it become one of my favorites. Give it some time, it could fade.