Grape off flavor

[austinb]

I recently brewed a maibock and it has a slight flavor that tastes a little like welches grape juice. I don't have the recipe handy at the moment but I can post it later if needed. Essentially it had pale, maris otter, munich, crystal, and carapils. It was originally a dead guy ale clone recipe that I thought maybe I could modify a little to save a few bucks and replaced some of the maris otter base malt with a little pale and cut back a little on the munich....wrong...it is a completely different beer now. Its not necessarily bad but I was wondering what would cause a concord grape flavor, would it be one of the ingredients or did i get an off flavor from something else?

Anyway I suppose maybe I need to pick up a 55lb bag of maris otter so I don't have to cut corners next time.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

What yeast did you use? What fermentation temperature?

Fruity flavors are often from an abundance of esters. Some yeasts produce more noticeable esters than others, and typically warmer temperatures yield more esters. The most common recognizable form would be a super-banana flavored hefeweizen fermented in the mid-70s or above, but other flavors such as grape, berry, bubblegum, etc. are not uncommon.

 

[austinb]

I'll have to check on that...I think it was either nottingham or us-05. I don't think temperature was an issue...we keep our house relatively cool at about 65F and 62F at night. I think I remember checking the stick on thermometer and it was about 64F.

What yeast did you use? What fermentation temperature?

Fruity flavors are often from an abundance of esters. Some yeasts produce more noticeable esters than others, and typically warmer temperatures yield more esters. The most common recognizable form would be a super-banana flavored hefeweizen fermented in the mid-70s or above, but other flavors such as grape, berry, bubblegum, etc. are not uncommon.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

Well, there goes my theory. Neither of those strains would be producing noticeable esters in the 60s. Must be something else in the ingredients...

 

[terrapinj]

some people report peach like flavor from US-05 at temps in the low 60's

 

[austinb]

Maybe i'll have to try it again and see if the flavor could be interpreted as peach...the beer is still drinkable but fruitier than i was expecting.