tyrub42
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2016
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Hi,
I just brewed a NE Pale ale for the purpose of harvesting Conan yeast. The beer came out beautifully, but after bottling it developed a MASSIVE acetaldehyde problem. I try a bottle a day after the first couple of days carbing up to monitor progress (typically I get full carbonation in about a week), and at first it was undrinkable. It was bad enough so that I assumed it was contaminated on day three when I first tried it. On the good side, it has calmed down A LOT over the course of 5 more days (been in bottles 8 days total) and shows no signs of contamination. On the bad side, I have no idea what caused it, no idea how to prevent it from happening again (aside from switching to kegging), and worst of all, I don't know if it would be a good idea to reuse the harvested yeast now. There are a few factors I can think of, but none seem like they would cause this problem:
-It's hot af where I am conditioning, high 80s-90. However, it's been like that over my last few batches, all with the same yeast, and all have turned out great.
-I am using t58 for bottling yeast, since my first batch with conan didn't carb in the bottles. It has proven to be great at sticking to the bottom of the bottle, carbing super quickly, and contributing no flavor. However, I am still on my first packet and it has been in a ziplock back with the air pressed out, which could oxygenate it I suppose. Any chance that could be it? With a very low FG and only a couple of days, contamination couldn't be to blame, but could the t58 be spoiled and give off such a strong A-hyde bomb as a result? Seems like a stretch but I don't know...
That's all I can think of. I actually let this batch sit on the cake several days longer than any other because of time constraints, and not only did it taste great at bottling; I just drank the beer on top of one of my mason jars of harvested yeast before dumping the yeast. It's light, fruity, hoppy, and perfect, so there was zero A-hyde in there before bottling (well...undetectable anyway).
After looking this up, most forum members suspected contamination with acetic acid bacteria in others' posts, but now that he beer is cleaning itself up and tasting passable with normal carbonation, seems like that wouldn't be the case. Any insight is welcome.
Lastly, I'm thinking I should dump the harvested Conan. It sucks because I was really looking forward to gen 3, but I don't want to risk ruining another batch just in case that is what's to blame. What do you all think? Dump it since something went wrong in bottle conditioning? Or keep it since the beer tasted perfect prior to bottle conditioning including right now off of the Conan cake?
Sorry for the long post. Feel free to just weigh in on whatever part(s) you feel like.
Thanks,
Tyler
I just brewed a NE Pale ale for the purpose of harvesting Conan yeast. The beer came out beautifully, but after bottling it developed a MASSIVE acetaldehyde problem. I try a bottle a day after the first couple of days carbing up to monitor progress (typically I get full carbonation in about a week), and at first it was undrinkable. It was bad enough so that I assumed it was contaminated on day three when I first tried it. On the good side, it has calmed down A LOT over the course of 5 more days (been in bottles 8 days total) and shows no signs of contamination. On the bad side, I have no idea what caused it, no idea how to prevent it from happening again (aside from switching to kegging), and worst of all, I don't know if it would be a good idea to reuse the harvested yeast now. There are a few factors I can think of, but none seem like they would cause this problem:
-It's hot af where I am conditioning, high 80s-90. However, it's been like that over my last few batches, all with the same yeast, and all have turned out great.
-I am using t58 for bottling yeast, since my first batch with conan didn't carb in the bottles. It has proven to be great at sticking to the bottom of the bottle, carbing super quickly, and contributing no flavor. However, I am still on my first packet and it has been in a ziplock back with the air pressed out, which could oxygenate it I suppose. Any chance that could be it? With a very low FG and only a couple of days, contamination couldn't be to blame, but could the t58 be spoiled and give off such a strong A-hyde bomb as a result? Seems like a stretch but I don't know...
That's all I can think of. I actually let this batch sit on the cake several days longer than any other because of time constraints, and not only did it taste great at bottling; I just drank the beer on top of one of my mason jars of harvested yeast before dumping the yeast. It's light, fruity, hoppy, and perfect, so there was zero A-hyde in there before bottling (well...undetectable anyway).
After looking this up, most forum members suspected contamination with acetic acid bacteria in others' posts, but now that he beer is cleaning itself up and tasting passable with normal carbonation, seems like that wouldn't be the case. Any insight is welcome.
Lastly, I'm thinking I should dump the harvested Conan. It sucks because I was really looking forward to gen 3, but I don't want to risk ruining another batch just in case that is what's to blame. What do you all think? Dump it since something went wrong in bottle conditioning? Or keep it since the beer tasted perfect prior to bottle conditioning including right now off of the Conan cake?
Sorry for the long post. Feel free to just weigh in on whatever part(s) you feel like.
Thanks,
Tyler