red wine taste to beer, what did i do wrong?

[F_R_O_G]

made a copper ale to a few week ago , actually a lagunitas censored. when i opened it up today i could taste something like red wine, i think i under pitched it but not sure if that's what i'm tasting it's not fruity/nail polish remover. what could be the cause? it never was fermented hot. 70max but went down to 60 at night.

 

[PLOVE]

How warm did you ferment?

 

[W0rthog]

could be a bacteria or wild yeast.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[PLOVE]

70max but went down to 60 at night.

Sorry. Read right on through the last part.

If you think it's more on the line of nail polish (acetone), then you'd probably be looking at fusel alcohols like propanol, butanol, isoamyl and even phenolics. However, these alcohols are typically of hot fermentations - like in the 80's.

Alternatively, perhaps the fruity part is more pronounced? Could be esters. You can get this from underpitching, even if you ferment in the right temp range.

How much yeast did you pitch for your volume of wort? Fresh yeast? Starter? What strain?

 

[Grinder12000]

Maybe you are getting a tannin feel on your tongue?? Many new brewers squeeze the last drops out of your grain to get that last teaspoon of sugar and that add's a lot of tannin.

Just throwing it out there.

 

[boydster]

I know you say it was 70 max and down to 60 at night - just want to check whether that is ambient temps or if that is the actual temp of the beer you measured. The beer can be several degrees warmer than ambient, so if those are the air temperatures you measured the beer could have gotten into the mid or even high 70's. If that was the actual beer temperature, 10 degree temperature swings are not going to make the yeast very happy.

The tannin thing has been shown to be a myth. You can squeeze the grain bag as much as you want without getting a tannin flavor - BIAB folks do it all the time. As long as your pH isn't crazy high, that's probably not your issue.

Take a look at this page and see if maybe some of the descriptions listed match what you are noticing: http://morebeer.com/content/homebrew-off-flavors

What was the recipe?

 

[F_R_O_G]

pretty sure I significantly underpitched, i guess what i find to be red wine is more like esters to everyone else. 15lb grain bill to one package of English ale (white labs wlp002) no starter. now I remembered that i added yeast nutrients to see if i can get away with a lower pitching rate, that could be the problem to, to much zinc.

 

[PLOVE]

I think it was your description of "fruity" that tipped me, but boydster is also correct that temps would likely be above 70, if you were measuring air temp and not wort temp.

Unless you added a lot of yeast nutrient, like a couple of tblsp, then you're probably fine in 5 gallons. How long did your batch take to kick? When you pitch correct cell counts you typically have krausen within 8-12 hours. If you had to wait longer then that's a likely indication that the yeast was going through a prolonged reproduction phase (using O2!). Not sure the yeasties figure out when there are enough kiddies in the pool, but they do - and then they start fermenting.

P

 

[PLOVE]

i guess what i find to be red wine is more like esters to everyone else.

BTW. What kind of red wine do you typically drink? Some reds are certainly much more Jammy/Fruity than others. Just reminds us how difficult it is to pinpoint and describe a taste/smell in words. One person's redwine is another's grapejuice.

If it were my beer I'd just be patient. If it's fusols, they'll disappate with time; if it's esters, remaining yeast might continue munching (but I doubt it). Time is typically the cure for a big beer with an off taste.

Good luck!
P

 

[F_R_O_G]

i don't normally drink wine, don't like the taste. it's usually the cheap stuff not sure exactly what type. maybe Merlot or Pinot Noir

this was all about a month ago and i'm not good at keeping records. I think this batch didn't have a strong krausen, maybe an inch, more like 1/2 inch. wasn't worried about how long it took so timing was ok i guess. i'll let it sit till i make my next batch, running out of bottles