Trying to identify a taste.

I'm trying to develop my pallet and learn what I like. Once in a while, I'll have a beer that has a specific taste to it. I'm starting to think it's related to the yeast used.

The guys at work brewed up a German Dopplebock recipe from the local homebrew store. It was good, but I noticed a taste in the background that didn't agree with me. As the beer warmed up, the taste got more intense. The only way I can describe it is kinda like gasoline or kerosine. Shortly after, I brewed a Munich Helles batch. Again, the beer turned out fine, but I got this same gasoline taste in the background.

A couple weeks ago, I bought a "Weisenbock" from the liqour store. To my surprise, it had the same gasoline taste. Today, I got a bottle of each Chimay ale and tried the Red - and it had the same gas taste. I couldn't even finish it.

What could I possibly be interpreting as gasoline? Could this be related to the type of yeast used in the beer? I'm thinking that's the case, because that's the only difference between the guys' dopplebock recipe and the one I used.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, as I want to identify what's causing this so I can avoid it in my homebrew.

TIA.

Gasoline? Sounds pretty rough. What Chimay did you buy?

While it's not unusual to come across this flavor in homebrew (it's a common off flavor), I find it puzzling that you're detecting it in commercial beers like Chimay.

What you're tasting is "higher" (in chemical complexity) fusel alcohols. It's important to make a distinction between tasting fusel alcohols and a beer simply being "larger abv alchohol" or "ethanolly". These are different flavors. Fusel alcohols taste/smell like acetone or other solvents, while ethanol when it's young, tastes like cheap vodka. If you want to train your palate, grab some acetone and waft a little of the vapor (DO NOT INHALE DIRECTLY). To taste young ethanol, take a light lager and add a shot of fleshmann's or another cheap vodka to it. Drink the lager but NOT the acetone .

A couple of additional contrasts: fusel alcohols cause a sort or burning/numbing sensation (slightly sour/tangy even), in your mouth that increases while you drink it. You can especially pick up the smell/flavor in the back of your mouth when you burp—as the volatile gasses rise. Meanwhile, an ethanolly young beer is perceived as a slower warming, perhaps sweeter alcohol (everybody's palate is a bit different here—some people taste bitterness). Again, taste cheap vodka.

While these are both off flavors, in my experience, ethanolly young beers (like a big belgian trippel or a barley wine) will mellow with time. The alcohol starts to "blend" with the body of the beer instead of sticking out like a separate entity. If you're tasting ethanol, the best thing to do is just give it time.

Fusel alcohol is a different story. This is caused by fermentation problems. I've had this happen to me when I shocked my yeast by adding say, hot honey into my active fermentation. It can also happen if you have low yeast health or viability or cell count when you pitch your yeast. I've also had it happen when the yeast get too warm in the fermenter. These are all areas in your process to look at.

Hope that helps!

The weizen yeasts put out a sort of "phenolic" smokeyness that might have reminded you of gasoline, but only if that flavor blended with some really solventy fusel alcohols.

Any such fusels detected in your own helles wouldn't be caused by phenolic characters that the yeast produces, but rather a stressed fermentation, or shocked yeast.

Thanks for the info.

The Weizenbock tasted EXACTLY like the Dopplebock. It was weird.

A shocked yeast/stressed fermentation seems likely. Normally, the recipes I use provide a packet of dried yeast. The Helles had a tube of liquid yeast. Though I thought I followed the recipe to the letter, it's entirely possible that I mucked it up. But that doesn't explain the Chimay and the Weizenbock to me.

...fusel alcohols cause a sort or burning/numbing sensation

Click to expand...

THIS is exactly what happened! I soon noticed that my tongue was falling asleep...

This is very strange. Is there any special way that liquid yeast should be handled?

Starters and controlled fermentation temperatures. Sounds like it fermented too hot and too fast