Fusel Alcohol taste developing in the bottle

[drunkinThailand]

I live/brew in Thailand, and haven't been able to afford a chest freezer and temp controller thus far so temperature control is a big issue for me. This last batch I thought I had it covered by putting the fermentation bucket in water and frequently putting frozen water bottles in there to keep it cool.

I brewed a porter, and fermented for 3 weeks. Bottle conditioned, and tasted a few bottles for New Years after 1.5 weeks in the bottle. The beer tasted great, good hop character, no fusel alcohol taste.

Fast forward 1 week later - no hop flavor at all, and now a strong fusel alcohol taste almost making the beer undrinkable.

what's the deal? i know some of you more experienced brewers can help me figure out what's going on...

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[unionrdr]

Fusel alcohols are another of the off-flavors they now say starts during the lag phase. Higher ferment temps beyond the sweet spot of that yeast cause these things, among others. Sometimes, as I've found, it's pretty light or undetectable, until the beer conditions & carbonates in the bottles. As flavors mellow out & stabilize, the carbonation lifts them up to where we can sense them more fully. For good or bad. In my experience, such things usually condition out at that point, rather than becoming more pronounced?

 

[beergolf]

If it was fermented too hot and you really have fusels they will not condition out. You are stuck with them.

If it is just some hot alcohol taste from a young brew, then it will age out.