mikepowie
Member
Hello All!
Been reading the forums for quite a while, learned tons, thanks. Finally joined so I can post a question.
Background: new brewer. Did some partials and more complicated stuff a few years back with a brewer friend, but now doing it solo. So far, only kits and extract . Done about 5 beers so far, plus some ciders. While none have been amazing, I've been very happy with all of them...until now.
Tried to do a "Kalifornien Oktoberfest" recently. Ingredients:
Filled to about 20 L.
OG: 1.049
Fermented for 2 weeks in plastic fermenter. High kraeusening after 1-2 days. Died down after a week. Took FG and was 1.016, which seemed high to me, but figured it might done since it was 2 weeks and maybe Munich has less fermentables. Fermented around 70, but probably got up to 74 around high krauesening. Pitched around 68F. I know, it's too warm (been a warm October here so getting basement temps low was hard).
At bottling, tasted (to me) terrible, or least, like a Hefeweizen, with that estery/yeasty taste. I know my previous beers have had a tiny yeast odor/taste at bottling that goes away, but nothing like this. My wife, who has a far more sensitive palette than I, didn't think it tasted infected (i.e., sour Brett), but merely very Hefeweizen like. Been in the bottle two days and is still very cloudy, much cloudier than previous beers.
Besides the temp, I should say that I harvested and washed a Mangrove Jack M54 California Common Yeast that I had previously used to make a "brown sugar lager" with another Coopers Lager kit (the kit for the BSL was expired, so I called to complain and they sent me another one, which is what I used for the Oktoberfest). After the yeast flocculated out of my pint mason jar, it had (I know this is unscientific) about 1/3 inch or 1 cm of yeast at the bottom (none was trub--I got that all off during the wash). While the BSL one has a slight burnt sugar taste that I'm not crazy about (though getting better with time), there's nothing yeasty/estery about it, and is very clear. BTW, though I don't plan to re-use it, I harvested the yeast again to see what would happen. After two days in the fridge, the pint mason jar still has some yeast in suspension--previously, it was clear by 24 hours.
Any ideas as to what went wrong and if it's salvageable? Too high a temp? Overpitched? Underpitched? Infection? Wasn't done fermenting? Pretty sure never had an infection prior, but with harvesting the yeast especially, who knows? Is the FG too high and do I risk bottle bombs? The Munich malt taste was barely perceptible, as were the hops, because all I tasted was like a bad Hefeweizen yeast bomb.
Appreciate any thoughts. Cheers and 17!
Been reading the forums for quite a while, learned tons, thanks. Finally joined so I can post a question.
Background: new brewer. Did some partials and more complicated stuff a few years back with a brewer friend, but now doing it solo. So far, only kits and extract . Done about 5 beers so far, plus some ciders. While none have been amazing, I've been very happy with all of them...until now.
Tried to do a "Kalifornien Oktoberfest" recently. Ingredients:
- 1 Coopers Lager HME (sorry, I know, but starting off)
- 3lbs Briess Munich LME
- 1lb Briess Pilsner DME
- 1/2 oz Spalt Hops for 20 minutes (with DME and half gallon water)
Filled to about 20 L.
OG: 1.049
Fermented for 2 weeks in plastic fermenter. High kraeusening after 1-2 days. Died down after a week. Took FG and was 1.016, which seemed high to me, but figured it might done since it was 2 weeks and maybe Munich has less fermentables. Fermented around 70, but probably got up to 74 around high krauesening. Pitched around 68F. I know, it's too warm (been a warm October here so getting basement temps low was hard).
At bottling, tasted (to me) terrible, or least, like a Hefeweizen, with that estery/yeasty taste. I know my previous beers have had a tiny yeast odor/taste at bottling that goes away, but nothing like this. My wife, who has a far more sensitive palette than I, didn't think it tasted infected (i.e., sour Brett), but merely very Hefeweizen like. Been in the bottle two days and is still very cloudy, much cloudier than previous beers.
Besides the temp, I should say that I harvested and washed a Mangrove Jack M54 California Common Yeast that I had previously used to make a "brown sugar lager" with another Coopers Lager kit (the kit for the BSL was expired, so I called to complain and they sent me another one, which is what I used for the Oktoberfest). After the yeast flocculated out of my pint mason jar, it had (I know this is unscientific) about 1/3 inch or 1 cm of yeast at the bottom (none was trub--I got that all off during the wash). While the BSL one has a slight burnt sugar taste that I'm not crazy about (though getting better with time), there's nothing yeasty/estery about it, and is very clear. BTW, though I don't plan to re-use it, I harvested the yeast again to see what would happen. After two days in the fridge, the pint mason jar still has some yeast in suspension--previously, it was clear by 24 hours.
Any ideas as to what went wrong and if it's salvageable? Too high a temp? Overpitched? Underpitched? Infection? Wasn't done fermenting? Pretty sure never had an infection prior, but with harvesting the yeast especially, who knows? Is the FG too high and do I risk bottle bombs? The Munich malt taste was barely perceptible, as were the hops, because all I tasted was like a bad Hefeweizen yeast bomb.
Appreciate any thoughts. Cheers and 17!