Bubblegum ester without high fermentation?

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jwatkins56550

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So,

I took a brown ale recipe I thoroughly enjoy from time to time, and I took out the dark grains, and added a half ounce kent goldings dry hop for a nice summer ale.

Fermented with wlp005 at 67F in a temp controlled fridge.

Things that happened during my brewday that I am thinking could have caused this off flavor...

I like to decant my starters after I mash during brewday, and add a pint of sterile wort to get the yeast active again for pitching. After I add the pint of sterile wort, I put it in a temp controlled fridge at my pitching temp.

Problem this brewday was that I forgot to plug in the fridge:mad:, so by the time I was going to pitch, my starter was rocking @ 74-75F. So I had to chill down to my wort temp, which was around 60F and pitch. By morning it had a nice krausen that fell and cleared in 3-4 days.

This was also the first time I added lactic acid to my sparge water to lower the pH. I added 1/3 of a tsp to 6 gallons.

As of now I don't think it was the lactic acid, and am leaning more towards my starter temp, but I just don't know.


The beer is young for most beers...day 9 from fermentation, but I've successfully made the darker version of this, from grains to glass in 10 days before.

As of now, the beer is sitting in a keg, in my fridge at 70F conditioning more.

Any ideas of what went wrong here?

Thanks.
 
I am not sure if the lactic acid in the sparge affected the taste, but I do know that 1/3 tsp for 6 gal is not enough to bring the pH to 5.2-5.4 range. I calculated the pH (based on neutral water) and it was 5.69. Typically, tap water has a pH from 7.5-7.8, so the pH could be even higher. 1 tsp would bring the pH closer to 5.2.

You should really only worry about sparge pH if you are fly sparging (the grains provide tons of pH buffering in batch sparging).

If you are fly sparging, and want a consistent pH, use the Star 5.2 pH buffer salts in the mash and the sparge water.
 
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