frankjconway
Member
So I brewed an IPA (from the LHBS, using a single vial of WLP001, no starter) a couple months ago and it had a distinct bubble gum flavor. It seemed to get worse after a month or so. I read up on the bubble gum flavor and it seemed the comments pointed to the yeast.
I did a Pliny clone from Austin HBS (pitching two smack packs of Wyeast 1056) and it came out wonderful. Gave half the batch to my brother, drank or gave away most of my half and saved one. It's been bottled for about 2 months and I just opened the last one and it has a very similar bubble gum flavor.
In both cases, the fermentation temps were in the mid 60's for most of the time, with the exception of the IPA, which got down to 59/60 for a day before I brought it back upstairs. The IPA stuck at 1.020 and (at the recommendation of the LHBS) I added Amalyse extract, which brought it down to 1.010. I thought that may have been responsible for the off flavor since reading that a lot of people don't try that.
Not quite sure what is going on here. Both were partial boil with steeped grains. Neither used a starter. I think that may be my next step in the brewing process for future batches. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. All I can really find on bubble gum flavor is "the yeast".... but nothing tells me anything real specific. Nothing I've found indicates that flavor is a result of contamination. I was under the impression that the WLP001/1056 yeast is pretty clean, so I would imagine it is a flaw somewhere in my process. Any ideas?
I did a Pliny clone from Austin HBS (pitching two smack packs of Wyeast 1056) and it came out wonderful. Gave half the batch to my brother, drank or gave away most of my half and saved one. It's been bottled for about 2 months and I just opened the last one and it has a very similar bubble gum flavor.
In both cases, the fermentation temps were in the mid 60's for most of the time, with the exception of the IPA, which got down to 59/60 for a day before I brought it back upstairs. The IPA stuck at 1.020 and (at the recommendation of the LHBS) I added Amalyse extract, which brought it down to 1.010. I thought that may have been responsible for the off flavor since reading that a lot of people don't try that.
Not quite sure what is going on here. Both were partial boil with steeped grains. Neither used a starter. I think that may be my next step in the brewing process for future batches. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. All I can really find on bubble gum flavor is "the yeast".... but nothing tells me anything real specific. Nothing I've found indicates that flavor is a result of contamination. I was under the impression that the WLP001/1056 yeast is pretty clean, so I would imagine it is a flaw somewhere in my process. Any ideas?