troglodytes
Well-Known Member
Question. How bad can mutated yeast possibly taste?
I ask because I think it's the culprit of my last APAs issues, but now I don't know what to think.
TL;DR. Brought WLP002 back from the dead. Brewed an APA. Tasted decent but also tasted like I used Belgian yeast for about two weeks (5 weeks post bottling) then started to taste like I had made a Heineken clone fermented at roughly 98F and secondaried with oolong.
I decided (probably incorrectly) to attempt to bring back some WLP002 slurry back from the brink. It was 8 months old and stored in just a ball jar in the fridge, except for that period of time it was out in the blazing hot for a week last Summer when I moved to a new house. It had no business being alive but after a week of stepping it up slowly I created a culture of something that didn't taste bad in the flask so I decided to go for it with an inexpensive APA recipe.
Fermentation went off without a hitch. I hit literally all of my numbers and was actually super excited to see what I made. Fermentation looked super clean not sign of contamination after 3 weeks and dryhopping, and the smell was out of this world with some new hop varieties I wanted to try out. After bottle carbing I had a sample which tasted...weird; only because it was unexpected. I realized halfway through my glass that it tasted like I made an APA with WLP530, which coincidentally was the yeast I had used in my previous batch. I started to kick myself for not cleaning out the fermentor well enough because everything else seemed so spot on with this beer, including the best head and lacing I've achieved to date.
Fast forward a week and I cracked one and the hops flavor was completely gone and the belgian yeast flavor was really pronounced. It was drinkable, but certainly not great. I gave one to a friend and beer enthusiast claiming it was a belgian Pale Ale and his critique was that it was good, not great, and his crituques are always honest
Fast forward another week and I just cracked another last night and it was super carbonated, but only after I started to pour; and the giant head subsided quickly. Alarm bells started to go off and I prepared for it to taste contaminated; however it didn't. It was bad, but not in a contamination way. Its like several off flavors decided to join forces and magnify in intensity. Heavy yeast flavor, check. Homebrew twang, check. Skunky, double check. Tea leaf flavor, triple check.
This is the weirdest thing, because I often have beer turn out unexpected, but my process is pretty tight and I don't think I've ever had any off flavor issue other than slight oxidation in the past, and to have what seems like every off flavor known to man except DMS and diacetyl is really strange.
Now I won't throw out the possibility that I have a contamination despite my best sanitary practices. But I'm beginning to think I created some sort of WLP002 mutated monster. Is this possible with old and mishandled yeast? I'm just really scared at this point that my cold side equipment may be contaminated (especially since I use a hdpe speidel). I did multiple overnight PBW soaks followed up with a long soak in star san to make sure whatever yeast or bug was in there does remain, but I just have to ask because this is probably my 30th batch and I've never tasted or experienced anything like this, and I make sours (on separate equipment of course).
I ask because I think it's the culprit of my last APAs issues, but now I don't know what to think.
TL;DR. Brought WLP002 back from the dead. Brewed an APA. Tasted decent but also tasted like I used Belgian yeast for about two weeks (5 weeks post bottling) then started to taste like I had made a Heineken clone fermented at roughly 98F and secondaried with oolong.
I decided (probably incorrectly) to attempt to bring back some WLP002 slurry back from the brink. It was 8 months old and stored in just a ball jar in the fridge, except for that period of time it was out in the blazing hot for a week last Summer when I moved to a new house. It had no business being alive but after a week of stepping it up slowly I created a culture of something that didn't taste bad in the flask so I decided to go for it with an inexpensive APA recipe.
Fermentation went off without a hitch. I hit literally all of my numbers and was actually super excited to see what I made. Fermentation looked super clean not sign of contamination after 3 weeks and dryhopping, and the smell was out of this world with some new hop varieties I wanted to try out. After bottle carbing I had a sample which tasted...weird; only because it was unexpected. I realized halfway through my glass that it tasted like I made an APA with WLP530, which coincidentally was the yeast I had used in my previous batch. I started to kick myself for not cleaning out the fermentor well enough because everything else seemed so spot on with this beer, including the best head and lacing I've achieved to date.
Fast forward a week and I cracked one and the hops flavor was completely gone and the belgian yeast flavor was really pronounced. It was drinkable, but certainly not great. I gave one to a friend and beer enthusiast claiming it was a belgian Pale Ale and his critique was that it was good, not great, and his crituques are always honest
Fast forward another week and I just cracked another last night and it was super carbonated, but only after I started to pour; and the giant head subsided quickly. Alarm bells started to go off and I prepared for it to taste contaminated; however it didn't. It was bad, but not in a contamination way. Its like several off flavors decided to join forces and magnify in intensity. Heavy yeast flavor, check. Homebrew twang, check. Skunky, double check. Tea leaf flavor, triple check.
This is the weirdest thing, because I often have beer turn out unexpected, but my process is pretty tight and I don't think I've ever had any off flavor issue other than slight oxidation in the past, and to have what seems like every off flavor known to man except DMS and diacetyl is really strange.
Now I won't throw out the possibility that I have a contamination despite my best sanitary practices. But I'm beginning to think I created some sort of WLP002 mutated monster. Is this possible with old and mishandled yeast? I'm just really scared at this point that my cold side equipment may be contaminated (especially since I use a hdpe speidel). I did multiple overnight PBW soaks followed up with a long soak in star san to make sure whatever yeast or bug was in there does remain, but I just have to ask because this is probably my 30th batch and I've never tasted or experienced anything like this, and I make sours (on separate equipment of course).
