ESB Aftertaste

[tomwhit19]

So i brewed a ESB and the final product is meh, the color is spot on, the upfront taste is fantastic and tastes exactly like an ESB, but the after taste is less than desirable, does anyone have an idea on what could cause this? The yeast used was Wyeast #1968

 

[RM-MN]

How long since you bottled/kegged the beer? An ESB may need a little more time to mature.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

WY1968 is quite estery. Do you like English esters? I do, and this yeast is one of my favourites, but a lot of brewers think there's something wrong with their English beers when the flavour is actually what is supposed to come from using estery yeast. If you try a fresh Fullers ESB, you should have in idea of what to expect from this yeast. Other than that, an odd aftertaste can come from water issues, high finishing pH, stale hops, infection (unlikely), chemicals not rinsed properly from brewing equipment, dead rats/cats/mice, children's snot and many other sources. We'd need to know a bit more about the recipe and process, as well as a bit more of a description of the after taste to help more.

 

[tomwhit19]

How long since you bottled/kegged the beer? An ESB may need a little more time to mature.

Primary 12 days, Secondary 3 weeks, its been kegged about a month now havent poured one in some time

WY1968 is quite estery. Do you like English esters? I do, and this yeast is one of my favourites, but a lot of brewers think there's something wrong with their English beers when the flavour is actually what is supposed to come from using estery yeast. If you try a fresh Fullers ESB, you should have in idea of what to expect from this yeast. Other than that, an odd aftertaste can come from water issues, high finishing pH, stale hops, infection (unlikely), chemicals not rinsed properly from brewing equipment, dead rats/cats/mice, children's snot and many other sources. We'd need to know a bit more about the recipe and process, as well as a bit more of a description of the after taste to help more.

8# maris otter
2# victory
3.5oz chocolate malt

mash at 158 for 75 min

1.25 oz US brewers gold - 60 min (local store didnt have UK)
.75 oz fuggles - 30 min
.25 oz fuggles - 5 min
1 oz ekg - flameout

pithced wyeast 1968 starter at 78 degrees

est og 1.054
actual 1.052

est final 1.020
actual 1.010

est abv 4.5
actual 5.5

 

[jschein]

78 is way high. 60 to 70 is the recommendation

 

[tomwhit19]

Knew that was the case but was having a hard time getting it down under that

 

[jschein]

How are you chilling?

 

[tomwhit19]

How are you chilling?

ice bath+chiller coil hooked up to hose

 

[jschein]

You should be able to get it lower than 78 with that method, are you agitating the wort by either stirring or moving the chiller up and down?

 

[jschein]

How cold is your ground water

 

[tomwhit19]

You should be able to get it lower than 78 with that method, are you agitating the wort by either stirring or moving the chiller up and down?

Yea I adjust the coil every so often and give it a gentle stir to not aerate it

 

[jschein]

Swirl it often, don’t worry about aeration, the wort needs to be aerated for the yeast to have oxygen

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Yep, pitching WY1968 at 78 degrees is going to give a very estery beer with an unpleasant bite from higher alcohols. It also REALLY doesn't like to be cooled, so if you pitched at 78 then slowly dropped the temperature, the yeast would have been further stressed.

 

[tomwhit19]

for future reference and out of curiosity, is there any problem with say waiting a day before pitching yeast? just so i can assure the temp gets down to ideal pitch temp. just a thought that came across my mind today

 

[Gnomebrewer]

As long as your sanitation is good you won't get an infection taking hold in a day. Avoid splashing as much as possible and don't oxygenate/aerate until you add the yeast - oxygenation is the biggest problem when you wait to add yeast.