keep cold conditioning or age at room temp to fix bottled scotch ale?

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beatlebum

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i'm a relative noob, made 4 batches. first two (pale ale and a fat tire clone that came out something i'd describe as an amber porter; a delicious accident) came out great, second two (scotch ale and esb), not so much.

both esb and scotch ale had similar off flavors, tho the esb was far more palatable and hence, is no more. but i'm looking for some advise as to the best way to 'fix' the scotch ale.

let me add that the off flavors were nonexistent until after bottling, tho i did notice a slight astringency to the scotch ale's aftertaste right out of the secondary.

description of off flavors: both esb and scotch ale have a somewhat rubbing alcoholic flavor w/o the 'heat' but still very pungent, could also be described as mediciney. i initially thought this was due to fusels from the high fermentation temps (which i'll get more into later), but figure they're more likely from phenols.

main reason why i changed my mind is because the more i look online it's abundantly clear phenols are much more common than fusels in homebrewing; that and i've been cold conditioning the scotch ale since may 10 and the medicinal, pungent alcohol flavor, tho still very prominent, is beginning to give way to a clove flavor.

three most likely culprits behind the off flavors of scotch ale:

- under pitching: i probably should have known better than to pour a single vial of liquid yeast straight into a wort made with 13 lbs DME.... i know, i'm a bum. i didn't even take an OG reading. my LHBS guy said it would be fine... i also had him taste one of the scotch ale's and he said it was an infection... so take that for what it's worth. i suppose it could be an infection as well, but find it rather unlikely.

- fermentation temp: brewed in january, was in the primary for a month, secondary for two months. had a couple hot streaks in new orleans, but as far as i remember, only after it'd been moved to the secondary. so am doubtful the off flavors would be that bad with temps getting up in the 80's while in the secondary. would they?

- chlorine: the water here is crap. you can taste the chlorine. but used the same boiled tap water for the first two batches and they came out fine. again, local homebrew store guy said new orleans tap water generally ok to brew with.

long story short, the scotch ale was bottled after a primary fermentation of 1 month, and secondary of two. i waited about two weeks before trying it and was bowled over by how bad it tasted. waited another two and it still tasted like crap. it's been in my second fridge cold conditioning for two months now because i erroneously assumed fusels were the culprit and only found one person who'd fixed fusel-like off flavors by refrigeration for 4+ months.

my question is, should i keep them in the fridge or let them age at ambient temperatures (with central air, our laundry room is the coolest in the house at ~72 degrees)? in retrospect, i should have done a lot of things different, but especially waited a few more months to let it bottle condition before putting it in the fridge.... and made a starter for the yeast...

sorry for rambling.
 
That's why I give a beer at least a week after FG is reached to clean up off flavors,or at least their by-products from fermentation. Then 3-4 weeks in the bottles at 70F or so to carb/condition. That's for average gravity beers. your results may vary. You can't condition in the fridge. The yeast need to be active to clean up that stuff & carbonate your beer. That's done at room temps.
 
It probably is phenols and/or chlorophenols, but there could be some fusels in there, too. The phenols taste clove-like or band-aid-ish, while fusels taste "hot" or burn like rubbing alcohol.

Phenols come from chlorine, stressed yeast, etc. Fusels tend to come from a too-high fermentation temperature or a combo of high-ish fermentation temperatures and simple sugars.

It sounds like you might have several combinations of factors in there to create this issue. Not much you can do to fix it now, except to prevent off-flavors in future batches by taking care of your yeast, using quality water (campden tablets if the water has chloramine instead of simple chlorine), control fermentation temperatures, etc.
 
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