Off Flavour?

[maglorski]

So I did a second batch of a Zombie Dust clone (extract + specialty) and I'm noticing some different (off?) flavors than the first go-round. With my limited tasting vocabulary I would describe the different taste as more of a Belgian style type of brew. The beer is still consumable but I was definitely happier with the first batch w/o the 'Belgian' flavorings. Who knows too, maybe I was actually closer to the mark with my method the second time around and the first batch was an anomaly.

Some additional info...

I used US-04 for yeast.

We keep our basement at 18C but I did get a Mangrove Jacks heat pad. In my haste I read that the pad should be used in environments at 12C- 15C. My thought is that would be the source of the differing taste.

Thx in adv.

Mike.

[Lucas]

Yes, I would think that you would get some phenolic flavours if you used a heating pad in an 18C environment.

[maglorski]

Thanks Lucas, oh well...lessons learned.

I did a DIPA on the heating pad in the basement too...just bottled it on Saturday. It won't be my proudest attempt at our next bottle swap if it suffers from the same affliction.

Mike.

[mumblecrunch]

Ironically 18°C would probably have been a pretty good ambient temperature to ferment at. Beer temp would likely have stayed at or below 21°C and you would have gotten "acceptable" esters from the yeast (it's an English yeast after all).

But with the heating pad you were probably well above ideal ferment temps and that's most likely where the flavors came from. I believe the only way you're really going to be able to get rid of that is time, i.e., package it and wait, possibly months.

[maglorski]

Good to know I'm getting consensus...might be putting the heating pad up for sale I suppose.

[jason.loxton]

Especially with a big beer, you're going to be fermenting a couple of degrees C above ambient just from yeast activity. That's going to put to pretty high for S-04, even without the pad. (You don't need the pad for your basement, unless you're doing saisons or something; 18 C is going to put you in on the high side of acceptable ale temps already.) The Mangrove Jack's is a 25 watt heater from what I can tell. Looking at the manufacturer's instructions from some other 25 watt heaters, it looks like you get about a 10 F bump above ambient. That's probably putting your wort temp into the 80+ F range, which is far too high.

That said, I'd expect more fusels and esters, and not phenolics. I suspect that you've got wild yeast. If you bottle, see if the problem continues getting worse as a bottle ages at room temp. If so, you're going to want to revisit your sanitation as well, and probably ditch anything plastic that is involved in your process. I had a persistent wild yeast problem, that resulted in clove-y everything, early on in my brewing. It was a bitch.

[jason.loxton]

Do you have anywhere cooler in your house? I wouldn't ditch the pad, if so. I'd grab a controller from Dave at Everwood (~$50). If you have an environment that is something like 60-62 F/16 C, with the pad and a controller you'll be able to dial in ale temps beautifully.

https://www.everwoodavebrewshop.com/sea ... &records=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[maglorski]

The APA conditioned at room temp for two weeks then it went into the crawl space (10C). I've had probably ten bottles of the APA so far and it doesn't seem like the off-flavours are getting any more prevalent.

[jason.loxton]

Well, that's good news!

As an aside: A blanket or other insulation, temp. controller, and the pad in your crawl space and you've got perfect temp control!