Rubbing Alcohol Taste...

[TastyAdventure]

I just had the last of one of my homebrews. It was brewed for a friend, supposed to be a clone of Widmer Bros Drifter Pale Ale. I bottled it about 3 months ago, and it now has a harsh rubbing alcohol flavor in the back. Anybody have an idea of why?

Here's the recipe:
5 gal batch.

6.5 lbs pale liquid Extract
1.5 lbs light DME
Steeping grains:
8 oz carapils
8 oz crystal 10
4 oz cara vienne
4 oz crystal 80

Hops
Warrior 1/2 oz 60 min
Nelson Sauvin 1/4 oz 5 min
Summit 1/4 oz 5 min
Nelson 1/2 oz dry hop
Summit 1/2 oz dry hop

I did a 60 min boil after steeping my grains for about 30 minutes.

I pitched dry US-05 Safale. Fermented at 72 deg. for 27 days.
Bottled with a cup (5 oz) of corn sugar.

Any ideas as to why the alcohol is so astringent 3 months in would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Beernik]

Strong alcohol taste is usually fusel alcohols from fermenting too warm .

 

[Cyclman]

72 degree ambient, or beer temp.

Beer can be several to many degrees warmer than ambient, so this is likely too hot, causing the fusel alcohols.

I like to ferment at the low side of the recommended yeast range, usually in the low to mid sixties. A bucket of water with ice bottles does this if you don't have temp control.

 

[jro238]

rubbing alcohol is indeed almost always a problem with fusels from fermenting too warm, but it is a little odd that they didn't show up until 3 months in. Usually this flavor will be strong immediately. Don't know what else can cause the flavor though.

 

[timrox1212]

I had this same thing happen to my first attempt at a porter. The first 2 weeks the beer was bottled it tasted ok, still had a slight rubbing alcohol taste, so I decided to age the rest of the batch for 6 months and when I opened one up it was so sickening I dumped them all.

 

[Beernik]

It might have been masked by the hops. Now that the hops are fading, it could be becoming more apparent.

 

[TastyAdventure]

72 degree ambient, or beer temp.

Beer can be several to many degrees warmer than ambient, so this is likely too hot, causing the fusel alcohols.

I like to ferment at the low side of the recommended yeast range, usually in the low to mid sixties. A bucket of water with ice bottles does this if you don't have temp control.

Shoot. Is the tub with ice bottles reliable enough to keep the temp pretty consistent? Given that I change them out every 12 hours?

 

[nymtber]

72°F for US05!?!?!

I ferment that yeast around 62-64 max (ambient) in my fermentation chamber. You definitely have fusel alcohols from too high of temp.

I built a fermentation chamber with a mini-fridge (has to be the ones with a refrigerant pump) and 2" thick insulation foam board. Since doing so, my beer has improved drastically! I can JUST get it down to 4°C to cold crash beers. I also built a temperature control from the STC-1000 controller off Ebay, with a small space heater in there as well. Set it and forget it

 

[TastyAdventure]

72°F for US05!?!?!

I ferment that yeast around 62-64 max (ambient) in my fermentation chamber. You definitely have fusel alcohols from too high of temp.

I built a fermentation chamber with a mini-fridge (has to be the ones with a refrigerant pump) and 2" thick insulation foam board. Since doing so, my beer has improved drastically! I can JUST get it down to 4°C to cold crash beers. I also built a temperature control from the STC-1000 controller off Ebay, with a small space heater in there as well. Set it and forget it

Yeah, unfortunately 72 is the only option I have. You should totally do a write up on your set up how much did all that end up costing you?

 

[Gixxer]

I ferment with 5 gal buckets, I have a rubbermaid tub that is fairly larger than the bucket... Bucket with batch in it goes in tub, I pour a couple gallons of water in the tub, maybe halfway up the bucket... I monitor the temp of the water and add ice every 12 hrs or so to get the water to 60deg (I use US05 too) for the first few days. After fermentation calms down I take the bucket out of the water to avoid nasties growing in the water and on the bucket and stuff... Is it fairly accurate? meh the water temp goes up obviously a few degrees before I can get home from work, but that is better than nothing. I do not know my fermenting temps in the bucket yet (working on a thermowell for that) but I do not have a prob with fusels over maybe a dozen batches.

I need a ferm chamber, monitoring and slinging ice gets old after a while

 

[ballsy]

72°F for US05!?!?!

I ferment that yeast around 62-64 max (ambient) in my fermentation chamber. You definitely have fusel alcohols from too high of temp.

I built a fermentation chamber with a mini-fridge (has to be the ones with a refrigerant pump) and 2" thick insulation foam board. Since doing so, my beer has improved drastically! I can JUST get it down to 4°C to cold crash beers. I also built a temperature control from the STC-1000 controller off Ebay, with a small space heater in there as well. Set it and forget it

Not so sure about that, I have a thread on US-05 ideal temps and more than one person said they fermented as high as 75 with it and have never had off flavors from it (though I can't remember if that was 75 ambient or 75 ferment temp).