Off taste

Made two batches a brown ale and an American cream ale,both drinkable but they both have a weird after taste...any ideas? I'm thinking I fermented to hot?? Thanks

Would be nice to know the recipe/fermentation temp/ process....etc

krduckman said:

Would be nice to know the recipe/fermentation temp/ process....etc

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Brown ale---prehopped muntons so mixed lme with prehopped, pitched yeast fermented in primary for a week with room temp at 70 degrees, racked to secondary for another week bottled after that

Brewers best American cream ale---mixed lme hops boiled 60 min, pitched at 65 degrees and fermented in primary for 10 days at room temp ar 70, racked to secondary for another week and bottled

Prehopped stuff turned out better than the bb kit

There are a ton of "off-tastes". Can you try to describe the taste? Might help with diagnosis.

A little twangy

Which yeast did you use? 70F room temp probably equates to 75+ fermentation temp. That is fairly warm for an ale.

gcdowd said:

Which yeast did you use? 70F room temp probably equates to 75+ fermentation temp. That is fairly warm for an ale.

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Muntons---packet from under the lid of prehopped can

Bb American cream ale--Nottingham ale yeast

First off Munton's yeast is not a great yeast, second, pre-hopped products are not great, third, fermenting at 70+ is not ideal

Lots of issues going on here, none of which will produce good beer, drinkable yes.

I suggest reading Palmer's book "How to Brew"

duboman said:

First off Munton's yeast is not a great yeast, second, pre-hopped products are not great, third, fermenting at 70+ is not ideal

Lots of issues going on here, none of which will produce good beer, drinkable yes.

I suggest reading Palmer's book "How to Brew"

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I have it saved on my comp and I have read a lot of it after these first two, my next three batches I have bought the temp tape and maintained fermentation temps between 64 and 68 degrees, was just trying to confirm the hot temps are the cause of the off flavors..

Ferm temps play a big row as discussed above.

I had an off taste in the first 8 or so batches I did. A bit "twangy". I systematically removed factors and found out in the end it was because of chloramine in my water. I use RO water now and build a profile based on the water primer on this site. No more twang.

On the topic of warm fermentation, after the fermentation period is done (say 2-3 weeks for example), does warmer temps play a part in producing off flavors?

For example, during the ferm period my ambient house temp was in the low sixties and rose to closer to 70 degrees after week 2 or so. Will this cause problems?

Pelican521 said:

On the topic of warm fermentation, after the fermentation period is done (say 2-3 weeks for example), does warmer temps play a part in producing off flavors?

For example, during the ferm period my ambient house temp was in the low sixties and rose to closer to 70 degrees after week 2 or so. Will this cause problems?

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No. In fact, most off flavors from high temps would only be produced during the early stages of fermentation. I regularly move my beer from 62 up to around 70 once a majority of fermentation is complete. The warmer temps will help the yeast clean up faster and the beer to condition

Nottingham yeast is a great yeast but once it gets above 68 it's gets gross IMO. That is most likely the culprit.

thood6 said:

Nottingham yeast is a great yeast but once it gets above 68 it's gets gross IMO. That is most likely the culprit.

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+1.

Unless you can consistently keep your fermenter temp below 68*F (especially the first week), it's advisable to use a yeast other than Nottingham. It's one of my favorite dry ale yeasts (especially in the 50's), but it's real temp range is 55-68*F.

You were probably a bit warm the first week for the Munton's as well.