Julien
Member
I recently brewed a heather ale inspired by several recipes, the fermentation began well but finally turned awefull after a heather addition during the secondary fermentation (kind of a dry hopping) and I'd like to know what you think might be the cause. "Dry heathering" so to speak was refered in several recipes that did not specified any precaution.
Here is my recipe if you need it:
Vol: 10l (~2.5Gal), OG targeted 1.055 FG: 1012, ABV: 5.6%, Colour: 35EBC
Fermentables:
-1kg (2lbs) Belgian pale Ale
-0.73kg (1.5lbs) Amber Malt
-0.45kg (0.9 lb) Peated (Whisky) Malt
-0.24kg (0.5lb) Crystal 120EBC Malt
-0.12kg (0.25lb) Honey (Boil, 5 min)
No Hop
Gruit:
-60 gr (2.1oz) Heather (last 30 min of the mash)
-100 gr (3.5oz) Heather (Boil 30 min)
-1 tsp Meadowsweet (Boil 30 min)
-70 gr (2.5oz) Heather ("dry hopping" secondary fermentation, 7 days)
Heather tips were gathered in the French Alpes and sundried.
-1 tsp Irish moss (Boil 5 min)
Yeast: SafBrew S-33, in a starter
prime with 100gr (3.5oz) Honey
Brewing profile:
Mash in 10l
-60 min at 67°C (saccarification)
-5 min at 78°C (mash out)
Then recirculate and sparge to collect 14l,
Boil 60 min
I use a BIAB + sparge technique where I draw the grains bag out of the kettle and make it rest on a large sieve upon the kettle, then I recirculate the wort through the grains bed before to sparge with water at 78-80°C.
I had a few problem controling the temperature, and I measured temperatures as high as 75°C nearby the heating element, and that resulted in many unfermentable sugars, but after 1 hour of mash, an iodine dye test showed no trace of starch.
I haven't collected as much wort as expected and I ended up with only 8l in my fermetation for an OG of 1.052, this can be imputed to the fact that I didn't take into account the water absorbed by the grains, but since it is only my second full grain batch, I'm not too angry toward myself. (effinciency was about 53% only, but my last batch - a Guinness clone - yielded a 85% eff. with the same BIAB + sparge method and equipment)
Nevertheless I added sugar and water to get my volume to 10l with the same OG. The primary fermentation took on after a few hours and went on "quite normally"; after a week I racked my beer for a secondary fermentation, the specific gravity was about 1.021 (as said earlier, probably many unfermentable sugars in the wort). On that time, the beer had a nice coppery colour, a very floral and peppery perfume and some notes of dry hay and smoke in the taste, it seems; the result was enthousiasting.
Then I added 70gr of heather tips to infuse during the secondary fermentation and that's the moment it turned bad; after a week, the smell from the airlock was sour and acrid, so I opened the fermentation bucket to take a look (just so you know, this is something I have never done before and wouldn't have done if I wasn't actually worried about what happened inside
. The beer was covered by a thin layer of white powder that seems to be a variety of powdery mildew endemic within the heather population. After skimming off the heather and as much as possible of this powder, I tasted a sip of the beer, the acrid smell and sour taste remind me of wild fermentation beers such as a Lambic or a Gueuze, only much stronger and very unpleasant (whereas I really like Gueuzes).
I closed the fermetator again and let it sit for a few days. Since not a single bubble came out of the airlock (it actually began to suck water in, so no pressure inside), I decided to bottle it so I opened the fermentor again and skimmed some mildew that had regrown (not much, fortunately, and it seems very hydrophobic and only stays at the surface) before to stir in a little more honey than planned. I closed back the lid and washed and sanitized my bottles so that by the time I was done, a few bubbles spurred out from the airlock; hence I concluded that there were still living yeasts inside the beer and I bottled it. Bottles were stored at a temperature of 25°C for about three weeks and when I opened one, there was not a single pshhh noise or bubble and hardly a faint taste of carbonation, still hidden by the very sour and unpleasing taste, the original taste and smell of the malt and heather completely disappeared.
So here I am. My hypothesis is that the heather added in secondary fermentation introduced wild yeasts (maybe this mildew itself) that took over the brewing yeasts and gave that sour taste, and my questions to you are : do you agree with this? is there anything I can do with the present batch? and what modification can I do for the next heather ale batch? Obviously no "dry" addition of heather but if some of you have any suggestion, I heartly welcome them!
Several recipes mention to add heather during the secondary fermentation without precotion, although at least two, including Bruce Williams' one, mentionned to take a few liters out of beer, warm it at 65°C and steep the heather in for some times before to add it back to the beer.
Thanks in advance for any piece of advice you can give me and I'll be happy to share this recipe once this recipe works
Julien
Here is my recipe if you need it:
Vol: 10l (~2.5Gal), OG targeted 1.055 FG: 1012, ABV: 5.6%, Colour: 35EBC
Fermentables:
-1kg (2lbs) Belgian pale Ale
-0.73kg (1.5lbs) Amber Malt
-0.45kg (0.9 lb) Peated (Whisky) Malt
-0.24kg (0.5lb) Crystal 120EBC Malt
-0.12kg (0.25lb) Honey (Boil, 5 min)
No Hop
Gruit:
-60 gr (2.1oz) Heather (last 30 min of the mash)
-100 gr (3.5oz) Heather (Boil 30 min)
-1 tsp Meadowsweet (Boil 30 min)
-70 gr (2.5oz) Heather ("dry hopping" secondary fermentation, 7 days)
Heather tips were gathered in the French Alpes and sundried.
-1 tsp Irish moss (Boil 5 min)
Yeast: SafBrew S-33, in a starter
prime with 100gr (3.5oz) Honey
Brewing profile:
Mash in 10l
-60 min at 67°C (saccarification)
-5 min at 78°C (mash out)
Then recirculate and sparge to collect 14l,
Boil 60 min
I use a BIAB + sparge technique where I draw the grains bag out of the kettle and make it rest on a large sieve upon the kettle, then I recirculate the wort through the grains bed before to sparge with water at 78-80°C.
I had a few problem controling the temperature, and I measured temperatures as high as 75°C nearby the heating element, and that resulted in many unfermentable sugars, but after 1 hour of mash, an iodine dye test showed no trace of starch.
I haven't collected as much wort as expected and I ended up with only 8l in my fermetation for an OG of 1.052, this can be imputed to the fact that I didn't take into account the water absorbed by the grains, but since it is only my second full grain batch, I'm not too angry toward myself. (effinciency was about 53% only, but my last batch - a Guinness clone - yielded a 85% eff. with the same BIAB + sparge method and equipment)
Nevertheless I added sugar and water to get my volume to 10l with the same OG. The primary fermentation took on after a few hours and went on "quite normally"; after a week I racked my beer for a secondary fermentation, the specific gravity was about 1.021 (as said earlier, probably many unfermentable sugars in the wort). On that time, the beer had a nice coppery colour, a very floral and peppery perfume and some notes of dry hay and smoke in the taste, it seems; the result was enthousiasting.
Then I added 70gr of heather tips to infuse during the secondary fermentation and that's the moment it turned bad; after a week, the smell from the airlock was sour and acrid, so I opened the fermentation bucket to take a look (just so you know, this is something I have never done before and wouldn't have done if I wasn't actually worried about what happened inside
. The beer was covered by a thin layer of white powder that seems to be a variety of powdery mildew endemic within the heather population. After skimming off the heather and as much as possible of this powder, I tasted a sip of the beer, the acrid smell and sour taste remind me of wild fermentation beers such as a Lambic or a Gueuze, only much stronger and very unpleasant (whereas I really like Gueuzes).I closed the fermetator again and let it sit for a few days. Since not a single bubble came out of the airlock (it actually began to suck water in, so no pressure inside), I decided to bottle it so I opened the fermentor again and skimmed some mildew that had regrown (not much, fortunately, and it seems very hydrophobic and only stays at the surface) before to stir in a little more honey than planned. I closed back the lid and washed and sanitized my bottles so that by the time I was done, a few bubbles spurred out from the airlock; hence I concluded that there were still living yeasts inside the beer and I bottled it. Bottles were stored at a temperature of 25°C for about three weeks and when I opened one, there was not a single pshhh noise or bubble and hardly a faint taste of carbonation, still hidden by the very sour and unpleasing taste, the original taste and smell of the malt and heather completely disappeared.
So here I am. My hypothesis is that the heather added in secondary fermentation introduced wild yeasts (maybe this mildew itself) that took over the brewing yeasts and gave that sour taste, and my questions to you are : do you agree with this? is there anything I can do with the present batch? and what modification can I do for the next heather ale batch? Obviously no "dry" addition of heather but if some of you have any suggestion, I heartly welcome them!
Several recipes mention to add heather during the secondary fermentation without precotion, although at least two, including Bruce Williams' one, mentionned to take a few liters out of beer, warm it at 65°C and steep the heather in for some times before to add it back to the beer.
Thanks in advance for any piece of advice you can give me and I'll be happy to share this recipe once this recipe works
Julien
