What Am I Tasting?

I’ve never eaten or drank ester, or phenol, or bandaids. I hear these descriptions of off and on flavors, and I don’t know how to gauge it. Estery? Means nothing to me. Phenol-like? My local pub doesn’t serve phenol beer, so I don’t know what to avoid.

My first batch, using a Mr. Beer kit that was two years old, produced twenty bottles with a sharp, acrid, yeastiness that I don’t particularly like. No harm in letting it age, so I’ll do that. In the meantime, I picked up a sixer of a commercial dunkelweizen than had the same, albeit milder, flavor. At least I got six bottles out of the deal.

My second batch is coming along much better, but I did some things differently: 1) Used a tried-and-true recipe I got here; 2) Fresh S-04 yeast; 3) Full 60 minute boil, steeping grains, proper sanitation, etc.

So yeah, that’s my question. What am I tasting?

not sure, but the "yeasty" part means the yeast is still pretty active and you should let it settle more. That part just ages out after a bit. acrid? that could be off flavors, but I'm no expert at defining the other flavors either. Let that one age and see if its better after a bit.

I should, on the other hand add that our own wiki says:

Esters are undesirable compounds created by yeast when it is fermented a too high a temperature and produce bad fruit flavours and aromas. The most common esters are banana and apple.

there's the esters...

As for band aids, you know the smell of them don't you? that's the same taste... Phenols are, I think, normal flavors put in by healthy yeasts, but don't quote me

It sounds like you are bottling your beers before they have finished fermenting. Need more details of your process in order to answer your question fully.

Phenol is not particularly good for you, and I wouldn't say it is a normal healthy yeast flavor. It is a good antiseptic though.

Working in the chemistry lab I would say phenol smells like alcohol-y but then again it was always mixed with alcohol. It is the active ingredient in chloroseptic spray, so it would make your mouth tingle or go numb if you drank it, as well.

Wikipedia also tells me "[phenol] is a measurable component (up to 30 ppm) in the aroma of Islay scotch whisky."

John Palmer does an excellent job of describing off flavors in his book:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Thanks for that link BigB. Based on that, I'm going to tentatively conclude that I was using an old can of malt extract, tired yeast, pitched at too-high of a temperature. Sounds like a rather typical series of beginner's mistakes.

This is good news though, it means my next batches will get better!

frazier said:

Thanks for that link BigB. Based on that, I'm going to tentatively conclude that I was using an old can of malt extract, tired yeast, pitched at too-high of a temperature. Sounds like a rather typical series of beginner's mistakes.

This is good news though, it means my next batches will get better!

Click to expand...

I was going to say it sounds like some common off-flavors for beginners, or those who are not careful. I had more than a couple of batches with some flavors that were not bad enough to not drink, but not exactly great tasting either.

Then I learned about pitching rate and temperature control. Made a huge difference in my beers flavor. Now I can concentrate on the recipe more and not so much on the brewing portion.

frazier said:

I’ve never eaten or drank ester, or phenol, or bandaids. I hear these descriptions of off and on flavors, and I don’t know how to gauge it. Estery? Means nothing to me. Phenol-like? My local pub doesn’t serve phenol beer, so I don’t know what to avoid.

Click to expand...

This test kit may help, never tried it though.

http://crosby-baker.com/products.php?cat=102&nav=98

I'd like to report that after another week in the bottle, the taste has mellowed considerably. Who woulda thunk it, that conditioning time might help??

And the great news is, SWMBO likes it! So things are looking up.