New to brewing beer with adjuncts Christmas ale maybe off flavor? Save or dump?

[sampling6391]

Hello

So I have a Christmas ale recipe from northern brewer which has completed fermentation. When I take the FG reading I do so with gas and a picnic tap. I always pressurize before cold crashing to avoid air ingress. I took a reading twice because it fermented way more dry than the recipe called for (might have been because different yeast than they recommended?). I always taste the sample as well to try to see if there are any off flavors or sour flavors that shouldn’t be there. This one had a strong medicinal off flavor. It isn’t really band-aid like but it is definitely something. I’ve never brewed any beer with a ginger adjunct but think it might be that? I thought I would ask the community their thoughts…has anyone brewed NB’s ultimate Christmas ale? Is my batch screwed? Can it or does it need to be saved?

potentially helpful details on the brew:

Kit type: all grain with dry ginger and cinnamon as well as honey adjuncts
Water: bottled spring water from super market
Yeast type: OYL-004 (I understand not on recommended list from NB) yeast was given head start with a yeast starter as well.
Mash equipment: 10gal cooler mash tun
Fermentation vessel: Fermzilla all rounder
Ferment type: non-pressure
11/18/23: OG 1.068 (it was 6 points under target)
11/30/23: FG 1.006 (fermented a full 10 points lower than calculated target)
Target ABV 7.6%
Calculated ABV ~8.1%


Thanks in advance

 

[fluketamer]

ginger to me tastes medicinal. was it artificail flavoring or just dried powdered ginger ? different people taste flavors differently and especially with spices. but imo most spices mellow with time. i always am leary adding spices cause a little too much and it can overpower everything else. too much cinamon takes a long time to mellow. and clove is the worst. that stuff is strong .. ill be an old man before my clove mead tastes like anything other than clove. lol . but you followed a recipe and it sounds like your process is not an issue. like you said maybe the different yeast brought out the ginger and cinnamon more (not a bad thing imo).

the lower gravity is a little off putting. i think i read somewhere off flavors (not necessarily medicinal ones) in conjunction with a lower than expected gravity reading could indicate contamination ( infection) . no real way to tell without letting it go and trying it . definately dont throw it out. bottle it and let it ride. maybe your xmas ale will turn out to be a good winter warmer instead. ( in feb) .

🙂

 

[sampling6391]

ginger to me tastes medicinal. was it artificail flavoring or just dried powdered ginger ? different people taste flavors differently and especially with spices. but imo most spices mellow with time. i always am leary adding spices cause a little too much and it can overpower everything else. too much cinamon takes a long time to mellow. and clove is the worst. that stuff is strong .. ill be an old man before my clove mead tastes like anything other than clove. lol . but you followed a recipe and it sounds like your process is not an issue. like you said maybe the different yeast brought out the ginger and cinnamon more (not a bad thing imo).

the lower gravity is a little off putting. i think i read somewhere off flavors (not necessarily medicinal ones) in conjunction with a lower than expected gravity reading could indicate contamination ( infection) . no real way to tell without letting it go and trying it . definately dont throw it out. bottle it and let it ride. maybe your xmas ale will turn out to be a good winter warmer instead. ( in feb) .

🙂

I believe it was crystallized ginger they sell. They tell you to add to the boil at 60 min which seemed excessive to me but like I said I never brewed with additives other than hops before…

Right now I swapped the airlock with a carb cap and it is cold crashing under about 3 psi of co2 so the fermenter doesn’t collapse. I might just go ahead and force carbonate it in the fermenter for a week then pull another sample to see if the combined cold and co2 change the flavor.

Thank you for the info I appreciate it!

 

[hottpeper13]

Give it time!

 

[Broken Crow]

^^ My GF is very fond of her ale with ginger, but when it's too young it taste to me like cough-syrup..mellows out a lot after another week or two.

 

[sampling6391]

I just wanted to update this. The problem was my fault researching my notes yielded several mistakes including wrong yeast… which led to me dumping this ale. I wasn’t able to grow any weird nasties in the Petri dishes so… First and foremost was the fermenter I had used was the Fermzilla gen 2 not the all rounder. This fermenter is about 3-4 years old and after pulling to go over every detail, had a very similar smell to the off flavor the ale had I believe contamination of the rubber parts caused the issue I have decommissioned the Fermzilla as I don’t usually use that one anymore since I switched to the all rounder.

Thank you all who responded for the input it is super appreciated!