Getting US-05 to taste clean

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Desertbrewer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2015
Messages
100
Reaction score
24
My brew buddy and I brewed our first 5 gallon, all grain beer several weeks ago. We have brewed a few times but have never really gotten a beer we were proud of for whatever reason.

Well our first full batch is done. I'll post the recipe and my thoughts/pics below.

-------------

Hoppy APA

BIAB

11# 2 row
1# crystal 40
Mash 60 min @155
Sparged with 1 gallon of water

2oz cascade (60)
1oz "" (10)
3 oz "" (flameout)
2oz "" (dry hop 7 days)

Whirlfloc (10)

US 05, first few days at about 54 deg ambient, figured out on the 4th or 5th day that if I leave my mini-fridge door open ambient inside will be about 65.

Attenuated from 1.059 down to about 1.010 for almost 6.5%. Pretty good efficiency for BIAB?

2 weeks in carboy
2 weeks bottle conditioned

------------


Tasting notes;

Nice grapefruit pithy hop flavor, little bit of spicy/earthiness; what I expected from cascade! Kind of that middle ground between APA and IPA. Malt profile is clean, slightly bready and seems to finish dry despite the mash temp.

The only problem I have with it is the nose. I get this overripe peach character that almost comes across as fusel alcohol, but isn't present much in taste. I can only think to attribute this to the undesirable fermentation temp as I taste no other discernible infections (and I've tasted my share)

Sorry for the long post, kind of just wanted to get some general feedback on whether this is characteristic of bad ferm control, and if simply getting better control will take this away.

Have another 1.5 pounds of cascade so we will nail this one! Eventually.... Lol.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1456358451.988505.jpg
 
US 05 has been known to give off peachy FLAVORS when fermented at low temps, say low 60s. I have had that happen to me. Some people don't notice the peachy flavor, but I definitely did with that batch. When using US 05 now, I set the STC 1000 to 65 or 66. The peach flavor hasn't returned.
 
Yep, that "peachy" ester comes from a too cool or too warm fermentation temperature- one of the reasons I don't use S05 very often. I find that it needs to be fermented at 66-70 to avoid that flavor, and that's a bit of a pain for me.
 
US 05 has been known to give off peachy FLAVORS when fermented at low temps, say low 60s. I have had that happen to me. Some people don't notice the peachy flavor, but I definitely did with that batch. When using US 05 now, I set the STC 1000 to 65 or 66. The peach flavor hasn't returned.


Yeah my buddy doesn't notice it unless I point it out to him; maybe different palates don't detect it as quickly. Good to hear that, I see a purchase in my future.
 
Yep, that "peachy" ester comes from a too cool or too warm fermentation temperature- one of the reasons I don't use S05 very often. I find that it needs to be fermented at 66-70 to avoid that flavor, and that's a bit of a pain for me.


Thank you.

We live in a very warm area; not to brag for east coasters but it's in the 80's here today. In February.

Which clean strains are more resilient to these kinds of fluctuations? I'm guessing certain liquid yeasts would be the thing to try next until we get some control going?
 
You're fermenting too cold initially. Warm it up to 62-66 degrees.
 
I am also curious what a go to American ale yeast would be a "go to American ale yeast". I've only used safale us-05 and I just did a oatmeal stout with safale s-04. I already like that yeast alot havn't bottle my stout yet but the hydrometer samples seem to get better and better each time.
 
I did an experiment not too long ago. I made 7 gallons of an English mild using wyeast 1056. 5 gallons was temperature controlled in a chamber at 66 during fermentation. The other two gallons were put in an ice bath and left at ambient at about 65-66. The 5 gal. Came out clean and the hops aroma came through nicely. The 2 gal. Batch with no temp control had a bit of a fruity Ester smell to it...maybe slightly peachy. Definitely not the same without the temp. Control.
 
I did an experiment not too long ago. I made 7 gallons of an English mild using wyeast 1056. 5 gallons was temperature controlled in a chamber at 66 during fermentation. The other two gallons were put in an ice bath and left at ambient at about 65-66. The 5 gal. Came out clean and the hops aroma came through nicely. The 2 gal. Batch with no temp control had a bit of a fruity Ester smell to it...maybe slightly peachy. Definitely not the same without the temp. Control.


Nice.
So you're saying the 66 was the temp of the beer, and the 2 gallon batch was at 66 ambient (warmer because of yeast activity)? Crazy that such a subtle temp difference can affect it.

I have a noob question.

Is it considered an acceptable practice, when the temperature is warm outside and it's difficult to get the temp of the wort down, to put say an 80 degree wort into the carboy, pop it into the fridge to get down to 68 before pitching the yeast?
 
Tasting notes;

Nice grapefruit pithy hop flavor, little bit of spicy/earthiness; what I expected from cascade! Kind of that middle ground between APA and IPA. Malt profile is clean, slightly bready and seems to finish dry despite the mash temp.

The only problem I have with it is the nose. I get this overripe peach character that almost comes across as fusel alcohol, but isn't present much in taste. I can only think to attribute this to the undesirable fermentation temp as I taste no other discernible infections (and I've tasted my share)

I'm glad I read this, as my first brew was an IPA from the LHBS. It used 2oz Cascade for flavor/aroma, and I decided to dry-hop with an additional 2oz. Of course, being my first brew ever, I sampled beers every couple days after less than a week of it being bottled. They had this strange fruity flavor that I didn't know what it was, I almost assumed either an infection or just esters because it may have fermented too warm.

Well, the sweet taste has gone away, it's a nice bitter but hoppy IPA now. I think there was still priming sugar I was tasting :D. However, when I open the bottle I still get a very sweet smell. I could almost attribute it to a peach smell, although I don't know if it's quite that, it's not too far off either. Interesting to hear a similar description from someone else who used Cascade hops
 
US-05 held at 65F in a dorm fridge comes out pretty completely clean and is cheap. I've gone colder but not into the 50's, so I can't comment on the peachy. I have gone hotter and noticed slight Esters but not peach. Really it's been okay at a 68F ambient in the past with a water bath to moderate the heating by the yeast. I have read that K-97 is better for lower temps if you need a dry yeast that's cheap. I have some but won't be pitching it until about 4-6 weeks from now...
 
Hmmmm...

I previously used WLP001 for a long time and kept it going. I lost track of the uses and knew it had mutated (in a good way) as it was becoming a bit more attenuative. But we were moving and I decided to dump them all. In the meantime I decided to try dry yeast and have been using US-05.

I found that I was getting the slightly higher attenuation but that it was flocculating a little better and more compactly. I've since just washed some and am keeping it going now.

I've also been fermenting at 64* in my chamber and can't say I've noticed peach. That's not to say my palate is great either as I perceive some things differently (Belgians often taste like bubblegum to me but not to SWMBO or a homebrew friend, though they understand what it is I'm tasting). Maybe I'll bump it up to 65*.
 
Yep, that "peachy" ester comes from a too cool or too warm fermentation temperature- one of the reasons I don't use S05 very often. I find that it needs to be fermented at 66-70 to avoid that flavor, and that's a bit of a pain for me.

I'm glad I found this thread. For my last rye brown ale, I used US-05 at 59 and it took 3 days for fermentation to start and it definitely had some off flavors.
I thought the general rule of thumb was, "Pitch at the lower side of the yeast's ideal temperature range for the cleanest tasting beer". Is that a good rule of thumb and US-05 is an exception?

Thanks
Andy
 
I'm glad I found this thread. For my last rye brown ale, I used US-05 at 59 and it took 3 days for fermentation to start and it definitely had some off flavors.
I thought the general rule of thumb was, "Pitch at the lower side of the yeast's ideal temperature range for the cleanest tasting beer". Is that a good rule of thumb and US-05 is an exception?

Thanks
Andy

I used to do that. Now I pitch and start at the yeast's ideal range. For us05 and 1056, that was always 66-68 for me.

I use Nottingham for my ales now. Great attenuation, clean flavor and floccs much more quickly.
 
I used to do that. Now I pitch and start at the yeast's ideal range. For us05 and 1056, that was always 66-68 for me.

I use Nottingham for my ales now. Great attenuation, clean flavor and floccs much more quickly.

I'm surprised the ideal range from your experience and mine, and many others (66ish) is effective while 60ish sends the yeast dormant. The manufacturer says 59-71 is ideal temperature range.
When I warmed my fermentation chamber from 59 to 66 and gave a little swirl, the yeast took off in a matter of a few hours.

As a general rule of thumb, is fermenting on the lower end of the yeast's ideal temperature range ideal for producing a clean tasting beer?

Thanks,
Andy
 
I'm surprised the ideal range from your experience and mine, and many others (66ish) is effective while 60ish sends the yeast dormant. The manufacturer says 59-71 is ideal temperature range.
When I warmed my fermentation chamber from 59 to 66 and gave a little swirl, the yeast took off in a matter of a few hours.

As a general rule of thumb, is fermenting on the lower end of the yeast's ideal temperature range ideal for producing a clean tasting beer?

Thanks,
Andy

That's the general idea, with yeast, the higher the fermentation temperature, the harder/quicker they work (they like it warm), but the more esters get released. Esters may be desirable, or may not be noticeable, but generally it's an extra flavor that may not be what you want, or may be portrayed as an off flavor
 
That's the general idea, with yeast, the higher the fermentation temperature, the harder/quicker they work (they like it warm), but the more esters get released. Esters may be desirable, or may not be noticeable, but generally it's an extra flavor that may not be what you want, or may be portrayed as an off flavor
Is the "peachy" flavor from US-05 at low temperatures considered "estery"? I'm surprised it produces that type of flavor at lower temperatures.
 
I get peach from US-05 every time. I've tried it in the low 60s, mid 60s, and high 60s in my fermentation chamber. It's more subtle than some yeasts (like S04) but I don't find it overly clean. FWIW I don't get the same peachy taste from WY1056 fermented in the mid 60s, haven't tried WLP001.
 
Back
Top