I may need to create a new category called “Off-Flavors”. I never wanted to be an expert in off-flavors…but…
So I cracked open a bottle of the honey wheat ale and took a few sips. Although it has a great honey-like aroma and some honey-like sweetness, there is a little hotness in the mix as well.
What I am detecting is some fusel alcohols. They are making my beer a little too hot/spicy…which is a bummer.
Now, my off-flavor was caused by a high temperature primary fermentation. I was trying to keep it under 80F and I thought I had accomplished that (my temperature strip on my fermenter was reading 78F most of the time).
It still came out a little hot. Some other reasons include:
- Not pitching enough yeast
- Not enough oxygen dissolved in the wort before fermentation
- Low nitrogen content in the wort before fermentation
Bad thing about fusel alcohols is that they are in my beer for good…
I am going to keep conditioning the bottles in my cooler basement. We’ll see if this brew gets any tastier.
The good thing is that the beer is still drinkable, although flawed. The better thing is knowing that I have to work on my fermentation temperature in the summer time.
Señor Brew
If you have a basement to condition your bottles, why don’t you also ferment down there? I assume you’re in New England, since you were able to enter the Patriot competition–shouldn’t your basement stay in the 60s throughout the summer? I would ferment your ales under 70F, not 80F, the upper 70s are still way too high in my opinion.
John
Senor,
Yes, I am in New England and I did ferment in the basement. But it was hot. Damn hot. Outside it was high 90s during the day…and the ambient air temp in the basement during the 2 weeks in August when I was fermenting in the high 70s. I got the fermenter down to the low 70s after the 4th day of fermentation…but I think the damage was done.
Hunington
It’s just too iffy relying on ambient temperatures, ice, wet towels, etc. If you’ve got garage space, buy yourself a used refrigerator and a Johnson controller — you just plug the frig into the controller and set the temperature to your desired fermentation temp. Tape the temperature probe to the side of the carboy and cover it with a bit of styrofoam insulation so that you get the wort temp and not the ambient temp. The frig keeps the temperature very steady, and with the capability of cooling, keeps the ferment temp within the proper range, even if the fermentation is heating up the liquid. You will be shocked by what a huge difference this makes in your brewing.
If you need to heat the interior temperature, instead of plugging the controller into the frig, plug it into a heating pad which you have placed under the carboy. All of it still inside the frig of course because of the insulating qualities of the box.
Temperature control is the second most important technique in brewing — second only to sanitation.
John P.
I think I have experienced this as well with a honey beer I made. I didn’t know what it was called at the time. I guess that’s what I get for fermenting in the house, not in the basement.