y2jrock60
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- Jul 6, 2009
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I brewed a Dogfish Head 60 Minute clone about 1.5 weeks ago and decided to take some gravity readings today. It was a 10 gallon batch split into two fermenters. One was pitched with Wyeast Ringwood Ale the other WLP041 Pacific Ale yeast. I made a 1 Liter starter for each three days prior to brewing. Both starters looked and smelled fine before pitching. The Ringwood batch fermented very slow with little airlock activity. It finished around a 1.016, which is what was expected. However, the Pacific Ale batch fermented vigorously for a week with a lot of airlock activity and finished low at 1.010. I was expecting it to attenuate as much as the Ringwood. The Ringwood sample I tasted was almost spot on. The hop character was perfect, but slightly more roasted than the original, probably due to a little too much Amber malt. When I opened the fermenter using the Pacific Ale yeast I instantly notice an overpowering alcohol aroma, almost like rubbing alcohol. I decided to give it a taste and the alcohol carried over into the flavor. It was like a burst of alcohol upfront followed by a hop bitterness. There was no malt character at all. WLP041 is suppose to be a good choice for English IPAs', I know something isn't right.
Most of the research into the solvent/alcohol like aromas and flavors results from temperature control. This can't be the case because the beer was split from the same wort and fermented side by side at 67°. Could the yeast have been bad? I didn't notice any overpowering alcohol aroma in my starter. It smelled like all of my previous starters. The only only thing I can think of is that the WLP041 batch had a lot of left over leaf hops that ended up in the fermenter. The wort came from the 2nd half of the kettle. However, I've had a number of other batches that were fermented with a bunch of leaf hops that ended up in the bucket and didn't have the overpowering alcohol taste/aroma.
Any input will be appreciated. I'm going to go ahead, dryhop, then bottle both hoping that the off flavor in the WLP041 batch will mellow out overtime. If not, I'm just going to give it to my buddy who will drink anything with alcohol in it.
Most of the research into the solvent/alcohol like aromas and flavors results from temperature control. This can't be the case because the beer was split from the same wort and fermented side by side at 67°. Could the yeast have been bad? I didn't notice any overpowering alcohol aroma in my starter. It smelled like all of my previous starters. The only only thing I can think of is that the WLP041 batch had a lot of left over leaf hops that ended up in the fermenter. The wort came from the 2nd half of the kettle. However, I've had a number of other batches that were fermented with a bunch of leaf hops that ended up in the bucket and didn't have the overpowering alcohol taste/aroma.
Any input will be appreciated. I'm going to go ahead, dryhop, then bottle both hoping that the off flavor in the WLP041 batch will mellow out overtime. If not, I'm just going to give it to my buddy who will drink anything with alcohol in it.