What's the deal with my Pilsner?

[andre the giant]

Over the last year and a half, I've brewed around 20 batches. Three of them have had what I can only describe as a "solvent" taste/smell in them. Originally I used bleach as a disinfectant, now I use Starsan. I'm kinda crazy about sanitizing equipment, so I don't think that's the problem.

The three batches were, Pale Ale #1, Pilsner #1 and Pilsner #2. (Since brewing Pale Ale #1, I've brewed the same recipe again and had no problemo, Pale Ale #2 tasted fantastic.)

The smell/taste always develops during fermentation. The beers were all fermented on the warm side, 70 degrees for the Pale Ale #1 and around 55 degrees for both pilsners. I've heard that at higher temperatures, some lager yeasts produce alcohols that have a solvent like characteristic. But that doesn't explain why the damn Pale Ale would have the same taste. And the Vienna lager I just brewed doesn't have it, and it was brewed at 55 just like the Pilsners.

I'm getting frustrated. I'm starting to despise Pilsner beer anyways. Maybe I'll just stick to ales.

Where's Monk when you need him?

 

[j_oracle]

I brewed a pilsner with 11.25 lbs of Pilsner malt for a 5 gallon batch (got the recipe from the BYO mag) and the O.G. for a little over 5 gallons of wort was 1.063 (corrected to 60) quite high for a lager. I fermented this beer with the dry yeast Saflager S-23 (2 pkgs). Temperature was at 50F.

The beer turned out too strong in alcohol and even after drinking about 8 pints then toping the keg back up with boiled water the solvent/alcohol taste did not subside.

I blamed this taste on the high gravity wort.

Not sure: just what I have found.