Blonde Ale Off Flavors

[bjanu]

Hi All,

Its been awhile since I brewed and I jumped back in a couple of weeks ago with an easy all-grain blonde.

However, I messed too much with the mash and ended up mashing with too low temperatures (around 147°). In the end, the gravity was slightly high (1.054), but not overly concerning. Fermented in a conical for about 6 days at 70°; removed trub daily. My final gravity ended up at 1.011. With an abv at 5.4%

Racked to a corny keg. That’s when I noticed the alcohol flavor (or, more appropriately alcohol burn). I know fusels can be produced due to low mash temps. Right?

Anyway, I filtered the beer and force carbonated. The beer is drinkable, but that burning sensation at the back of the throat is not to my liking and not really characteristic of a blonde ale.

I was going to go ahead with the bottling anyway and let it sit for weeks. What do you think? Will the wait mellow this out a little? Or is this a lost cause for the style?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Joe_K]

Why are you removing trub daily? Try fermenting at 66 and ramping up to 72 for the last third to clean up any off flavors.

 

[bjanu]

Thanks, Tom. Actually, I misspoke about the daily trub. I removed trub on day 3, then on days 5 and 6.

My basement is at a constant 70°. I'm brewing an amber in a couple of days and I'll bring down the wort temp to 66° and try that. Never had a problem at 70° though.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks, Tom. Actually, I misspoke about the daily trub. I removed trub on day 3, then on days 5 and 6.

My basement is at a constant 70°. I'm brewing an amber in a couple of days and I'll bring down the wort temp to 66° and try that. Never had a problem at 70° though.

If your basement is at 70 degrees, and you had an active fermentation, you could have been fermenting at up to 80 degrees in the fermenting. How do you check that to make sure it doesn't get above, say, 72 degrees?

Some yeast strains are more forgiving of higher temperatures, but few remain neutral below 72 degrees, and at 75 or higher, fusel alcohols may become apparent.

Which yeast strain did you use?

 

[day_trippr]

[...]I know fusels can be produced due to low mash temps. Right?[...]

Well, no. Fusels are typically the result of fermenting at too high a temperature for the yeast strain used.
I wager one could take pretty near any mash and end up in the same place if the yeast are run hot.

Fusels generally do not attenuate with time, unfortunately...

 

[bjanu]

The wort temp never got above 72°, according to conical thermometer.

I used (for the first time) Omega West Coast Ale I yeast. My supply shop didn't have the Wyeast I usually use.

 

[Joe_K]

Thanks, Tom. Actually, I misspoke about the daily trub. I removed trub on day 3, then on days 5 and 6.

My basement is at a constant 70°. I'm brewing an amber in a couple of days and I'll bring down the wort temp to 66° and try that. Never had a problem at 70° though.

Which yeast are you using? Before I bought a chest freezer I used to ferment US-05 at 70 ambient without a problem as long as I had a fan blowing on it. Some other yeast strains I tried had similar results to what you're experiencing. Best thing I did for my beer was buy a 15 cu ft freezer and an inkbird.

 

[Sadu]

For this batch, bottle it, give it a few months or more, see what happens. My experience is that some truly awful beers can get pretty good, or at least drinkable, with time.