Strong yeast taste in my beers.

[Swaroga]

Hi all.
I wish to do a clean tasting IPA (for example). My beers have well improved since my first batches. But still I get a strong yeast flavor going a bit bitter on the end.

That doesn't really bother me in my Belgian style ales, although I would prefer them to have a better aftertaste. I specially worry about my IPA.

For the moment I suspect the bottle conditioning to be the problem. I imagine if I rack it to the keg (that I don't have yet) and force carbonate it then I will get rid of that impurity. What do you think .

The taste comes strongly from US-05. A bit less from S-33.

 

[theonetrueruss]

Strong yeast taste should not be a problem with US-05. Tell us about your process, temps etc and maybe someone can help. I don't think kegging will be the magic answer.

 

[ol-hazza]

Pitching temperature and fermentation temperature!!

I have had a similar problem, one of my beers went from a plastic aftertaste and mellowed to yeast taste, and i think the temperature i pitched at was to blame.
Fermentation temp im mentioning just because it is important, not sure if it would give a yeasty flavour though.

Also worth mentioning is stirring up sediment when your pouring, and reducing sediment through cold crashing or finings.

I don't think kegging is the answer to this problem.

 

[Swaroga]

Strong yeast taste should not be a problem with US-05. Tell us about your process, temps etc and maybe someone can help. I don't think kegging will be the magic answer.

I pitch at about 63°F. Then it's the room temperature. But I put it in quite a cold room where I have around 65°F. It vary a bit though. I usually leave it to ferment for about 2 weeks (for IPA) and then do a week in the secondary for clearing the beer and dry hopping. I never to the cold crush because I have no equipment for that.

Usually I do 3 week fermentation and then bottle it.

One step that I'm a bit suspicious is I add sugar with very warm, almost boiling water for priming... is it a bad idea ?

 

[Swaroga]

Pitching temperature and fermentation temperature!!

I have had a similar problem, one of my beers went from a plastic aftertaste and mellowed to yeast taste, and i think the temperature i pitched at was to blame.
Fermentation temp im mentioning just because it is important, not sure if it would give a yeasty flavour though.

Also worth mentioning is stirring up sediment when your pouring, and reducing sediment through cold crashing or finings.

I don't think kegging is the answer to this problem.

I rehydrate the yeast in a "whatever" temperature I have my water. I use mineral water with ph6,2 but I must admit I don't check the temperature of it. it's usually around room temperature.

 

[theonetrueruss]

How long are they in the bottles before you are tasting them? Also, what are you doing to get any chlorine out of the water? I always do 3 week fermentations and have found that works better for me.

 

[ol-hazza]

Ideally you would cool the priming water to the same temperature as the beer but as it should only be a small amount it shouldn't be critical.

Those temps sound good, do you take temp readings of the beer? It can get quite a bit above ambient temperature as the yeast activity produces heat.

Do you use a fresh packet of yeast each time?

 

[Swaroga]

I use mineral water with a low ph. No tap water. The yeast taste is only an issue in the aftertaste and while warming it's getting worse (obviously).

I don't take exact temperature reading apart leaving a thermometer close to the fermenter. When it comes to yeast I rely on the shop that it's a fresh and well kept yeast packet. I keep it refrigerated until the brewing day. Then I warm it in my pocket .

When it comes to bottle conditioning I do the regular 3 weeks in the room temperature. As I bottle 40l batches I still have them after couple of months. I must say the aftertaste is even more intensive with aging.

 

[ol-hazza]

Maybe try gelatin finings in your secondary, and keeping an eye on the actual beer temperature (try a stick on thermometer), but other than that I'm out of ideas.

Im pretty sure when I had this problem it was because I was pitching my yeast at too high a temperature, but 63 sounds spot on.

 

[joshesmusica]

a lot of people are talking about pitching warmer these days in small homebrew batches. for example pitching into wort that is around 21C, then putting into fermentation chamber where temp is around 19C.
i keep mine in a room where ambient is 17C. never had a problem fermenting with that temp, and i use us-05 for most of my beers.
when you are pouring your beers, are you making sure to pour slowly and to make sure that you're not getting the yeast sediment from the bottom of the bottle?
i've honestly never seen us-05 get so far out of control with ambient that low. so i have to disagree that it's necessary, for your problem, to check temps.

i like this site to troubleshoot off flavors:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[DrankGoodness]

i like this site to troubleshoot off flavors:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

thanks for the link! i wasn't entirely clear on some of those.