Nottingham off flavors

Kyle · Jul 1, 2017

Has anyone experienced off flavors with nottingham? I've made 2 brews with it and both have had the same off flavor. It's a sort of alcohol taste that takes over and isn't that appealing. I do have temperature control and the first time was an IPA fermented at 65 and the second was an APA at 60. I thought the first I may have rushed it because it was a 7% abv that I ended up having to dry hop a couple times to cover up the off flavor, but this next one had an OG of 1.047 and finished at 1.012 with the same flavor. It's only been in the keezer for 9 days and hasn't fully cleared yet but the exact same flavor is still there.

On a side note in between those brews I brewed up the cream of 3 crops recipe with US 05 with zero off flavors using the same equipment and fermentation chamber. Just seems to only happen with notty.

ncbrewer · Jul 1, 2017

I've never gotten off flavors with Nottingham. It's possible you just don't like the yeast character that Nottingham gives.

Kharnynb · Jul 1, 2017

notty is about as neutral as they get, especially at low temps. wonder what you've got there...maybe you just don't like english flavours?

MaryB · Jul 1, 2017

Notty has some esters, that may be what you dislike...

coyotebrew · Jul 2, 2017

Ive had good brews with notty and hot liquory flavors ive never pinned it down but i suspect mashing schedule releasing only wrong chains of sugars!

stylus1274 · Jul 3, 2017

I have to agree with the people chiming in here about the flavor characteristic of Nottingham. I'm betting you just don't care for it.

I did a split batch IPA with notty and 05. I preferred 05 over the notty and thought the notty was a bit 'off'. Sort of like you are describing.

I then made an English Brown Ale with notty and loved it. It fit right in.

It may just be your taste preference.

Just my opinion anyway

kh54s10 · Jul 3, 2017

I also suspect it is a character of Notty that you don't like. I have only used Notty in darker beers like browns and porters. I like it a lot for those styles.

Kyle · Jul 3, 2017

Thanks for the input guys guess I'll stay away from the notty till the colder months come and I can experiment with darker beers. I always heard it was as neutral as they come so I've been going back to my process to see if there was something I was doing wrong.