Can this cause off flavors?

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GLWIII

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I have queried the crew here on this problem before, but not asked the specific question that I ask below. My last two batches (an alpha king and two hearted clone) have ended up with an off flavor that I can't quite pin down. It doesn't fit the description of any of the off flavors that I have read about nor can I compare it to anything I have ever tasted. I guess I could only classify it as "yeasty". I brewed both in June and July in somewhat warm conditions (mid 70's, lower 80's), fermentation and conditioning was in the basement which holds about a 72 degrees during that time of year.

Both brews were tasted really good going into the bottles. I did use bleach for bottle cleaning, but did give each and every bottle a thorough rinse afterwards. I don't really suspect this as the primary problem because the crappy taste was consistent across all the bottles that I tried. I have not used this practice since. I've discovered star san.

Carbonation was a little slower than I thought it should be so I gave each bottle a shaking to stir up the innards and get the yeasties working again. After a couple more weeks the AK was tried and it was quasi gusher, but not blowing out of the bottle like other gushers I have seen. I got very frothy heads out of these once poured. The bells is coming out of the bottle nicely with no gush...it just has that off flavor. Could the shaking the yeast back into suspension be the possible cause of these off flavors? Or, would I need to be looking at something else as the cause? Thanks in advance for any ideas?
 
Shaking it won't cause off flavors. It's likely you either have a wild yeast contamination or it fermented too warm. What yeast did you use?
 
Wyeast 1056 for sure on the AK. Can't remember on the bells - lost my records in a computer crash. I'm beginning to think the fermentation temp is the problem.
 
I would tend to agree with you on the fermentation temp. If the air temperature was 72 degrees, the wort temperature could have been 77 or higher during fermentation. That's higher than I would go, personally. I try to keep 1056/CA Ale yeast at 67 or 68 for the best results.
 
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