First Partial Mash - (tastes like) a disaster - manhug urgently needed

Brothers
taste-tested my first partial mash a few days ago after 3 weeks in the primary and was pretty heartbroken. Borders on undrinkable. Now I appreciate that its yet to bottle condition and all that jazz, but (with one exception - subject of a different thread!) all my extract and extract+steeping grain efforts have been quite palatable at the end of fermentation. I don't think I did anything controversial in my first attempt:
recipe outline for (light) brown ale
2.5 pound pale
1.5 pound Marris Otter
1 pound med Crystal
.5 pound light crystal
200 grams chocolate malt.
3 pound LME
mashed grain for 1 hour at 155 in 9 litres, sparged in 5 litres
chucked in LME and boiled for an hour with 30 grams of pretty high alpha hops added at 60, 30 and at 10 to go
fermentation has been at I would say an average of 22 celcius for the three weeks with safale s-04
OG was 1050 from memory, haven't taken final reading
So how to describe the taste? A combination of an ugly yeast bite and what I am sure is my first encounter with senor fusel alcohol (distinct feeling of heat in mouth). yeeeoucch.
I'm pretty devastated and am strongly considering dumpage of batch.
So what the hell did I do wrong?
I'm well aware that 22 celcius is tending towards the higher side of ale fermentation temperatures but these are the SAME conditions under which I have brewed a number of smooth extract batches. Different rules for grain?
Perhaps grain batches typically produce a product that is rougher at the end of fermentation than extract only, but even up under conditioning?
Was my excessive mash water volume to blame somehow?
I'm pretty fastidious when it comes to sanitation, perhaps I picked up a bug somehow?
looking for some reassurance before I attempt another mash - confidence fading ... must hold on...please

Actually, it's not and if you dump it you will just anger the beer gods and they will infect your next batch with something serious.

Give it some more time if you can and then bottle away. Make sure it's actually done fermenting by taking a gravity reading on it. And stop thinking about dumping it!

I don't know what you were trying to make (meaning I'm a little drunk and I'm not going to analyze your recipe for a style) but at the end of fermentation, my ales never taste like they do after they've sat for a few weeks. Was your first partial mash a conversion of a tried and true extract recipe of yours? Or did you switch to a new technique and new recipe at the same time?

What was your pitching temp and was the 22 C the ambient temp for fermentation or the temp of the actual fermenting wort? The partial mash shouldn't create more/worse flavors than an extract recipe from my personal experience, but if you pitched a bit high and fermented a bit high that could help in the bad way. Also, did you save the tube/pack that the yeast came in or do you remember the date from it?

The best thing I think you could possibly do for this beer is to let it sit for a while. Some beers are awesome as soon as active fermentation finishes, but for the ones that aren't I've found that time fixes a lot of what's wrong.

22 C is 71.6 F.
Not really a problem, but as trigger asks, is that the room temp or the wort? Don't forget that the wort is going to be warmer from the yeast activity.

MBasile said:

I don't know what you were trying to make (meaning I'm a little drunk and I'm not going to analyze your recipe for a style) but at the end of fermentation, my ales never taste like they do after they've sat for a few weeks. Was your first partial mash a conversion of a tried and true extract recipe of yours? Or did you switch to a new technique and new recipe at the same time?

Click to expand...

well given it was my first mash there was by definition some new technique involved. I was definitely not the partial mash version of a tried and tested extract recipe (have only brewed half dozen batches so still very much in experimentation mode). I do acknowledge that I'm asking for a little trouble in not targetting "a beer", but the recipe above was only a minor variation on a brown ale batch I had extract brewed previously so felt safe
I should note I am using the BIAB technique popularized by DeathBrewer on this site.

lone_wolf said:

well given it was my first mash there was by definition some new technique involved. I was definitely not the partial mash version of a tried and tested extract recipe (have only brewed half dozen batches so still very much in experimentation mode). I do acknowledge that I'm asking for a little trouble in not targetting "a beer", but the recipe above was only a minor variation on a brown ale batch I had extract brewed previously so felt safe
I should note I am using the BIAB technique popularized by DeathBrewer on this site.

Click to expand...

Any time a new technique is involved, you are going to be feeling your way around.
Temps are important. it sounds like you got the sanitization down. Can you think of anything else that could be the variant here?

trigger said:

What was your pitching temp and was the 22 C the ambient temp for fermentation or the temp of the actual fermenting wort? The partial mash shouldn't create more/worse flavors than an extract recipe from my personal experience, but if you pitched a bit high and fermented a bit high that could help in the bad way. Also, did you save the tube/pack that the yeast came in or do you remember the date from it?

The best thing I think you could possibly do for this beer is to let it sit for a while. Some beers are awesome as soon as active fermentation finishes, but for the ones that aren't I've found that time fixes a lot of what's wrong.

Click to expand...

thanks for the questions - so in order:
1. The pitching temp was actually relatively low - 20 c. Reason being I was desperate to get a really good cold break on the batch so chilled in an enormous ice-bath for 30 mins then pitched the wort into the fermentor, sealed with airlock and left outside overnight (cold-snap turned up fortuitously) in what would have been ca. 7-9 degrees celcius conditions (ie was trying the settling tank approach). I then gradually brought back back up to pitching temp the following day.
I should note when I quote temperatures, I'm relaying what the little stick-on-the-side-of fermentor thermometer is telling me. I've been lead to believe that measures the wort temp not atmospheric temp
2. I confess I didn;t make a note of the use by date on yeast sachet. will do in future though
I'm considering maybe bottling half the batch (little short on bottles) to put this theory of "time heals everything" to the test

Starderup said:

Any time a new technique is involved, you are going to be feeling your way around.
Temps are important. it sounds like you got the sanitization down. Can you think of anything else that could be the variant here?

Click to expand...

Only one thing starderup - see my response to Triggers questions - I had a crack at rapid chilling followed by a settling tank approach (really wanted to nail that break to the bottom of the fermentor before fermentation started)

Some will disagree with me, but Ive found s-04 to be estery almost all the time. Estery ina kind of gross way. Does it taste kind of like weird flowery cidery wine more than beer. Are the malts covered over by that weird flower wine tangy flavor? If so, its that dang yeast. Ive fermented it at 65 and had that. I cant imagine 71.