Help -- Bad Attenuation / Medicine Taste

[ChiUMBrew]

Here's my recipe:

5.5 lbs muntons wheat
5.5 lbs muntons wheat

2 oz german hallertau 60
2 oz german hallertau 30
Irish moss 15
1 oz saaz 10

OG 1.070
FG 1.041
ABV 3.81

2 packages of Wyeast American Ale Yeast.

I used the brew jacket set at 68 degrees. My first attempt was almost the same recipe and I got to 5.78 abv.

Both results tastes like medicine. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

 

[jheinikel]

100% wheat or are one of the malts wrong?

 

[ChiUMBrew]

100% wheat or are one of the malts wrong?

My bad. One was Muntons Light.

 

[kh54s10]

Found this on medicinal in John Palmer's How to Brew.

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid? like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

 

[dmtaylor]

It's your water probably. Get chlorinated water, chlorine bleach, and garden hoses out of your process, and the problem will magically disappear.

 

[ChiUMBrew]

It's your water probably. Get chlorinated water, chlorine bleach, and garden hoses out of your process, and the problem will magically disappear.

I've considered that. But my other recipes--same water and sanitizer--seem fine. Also, the attenuation is really low. I'm not sure if the heating/cooling element in the BrewJacket is screwing something up.

 

[dmtaylor]

I've considered that. But my other recipes--same water and sanitizer--seem fine.

That's called "luck". My beers with chlorinated water turned out just fine for many years, until eventually they became medicinal. A friend who works at the city water company told me why -- he said they recently upped the dose of chlorination. Aha!

Do you use city water? You can use it, but it has to be treated with Campden, about 1 tablet, crushed, per 10 gallons of water, before adding anything to it. For extract brewing, however, I would recommend distilled water, as the extract already contains minerals.

Also, the attenuation is really low. I'm not sure if the heating/cooling element in the BrewJacket is screwing something up.

That's hard to say what is going on there. If you haven't racked yet, you could try swirling the fermenter to get the yeast back up into suspension.

 

[ChiUMBrew]

That's called "luck". My beers with chlorinated water turned out just fine for many years, until eventually they became medicinal. A friend who works at the city water company told me why -- he said they recently upped the dose of chlorination. Aha!

Do you use city water? You can use it, but it has to be treated with Campden, about 1 tablet, crushed, per 10 gallons of water, before adding anything to it. For extract brewing, however, I would recommend distilled water, as the extract already contains minerals.



That's hard to say what is going on there. If you haven't racked yet, you could try swirling the fermenter to get the yeast back up into suspension.

This is great stuff. Thanks! Would off flavors be the result of such poor attenuation as well? Or would the off flavor for poor attenuation be more sweet?

I haven't racked. Going to swirl now.

 

[dmtaylor]

Poor attenuation will just make the beer more thick and sweet. Shouldn't have off-flavors, unless you fermented too hot or something like that.

Good luck.

 

[thehaze]

You had an Original Gravity of 1.070 and the Final Garvity was 1.041? That yeast was not finished fermenting. And 2 whole packs of Wyeast? What happened?

Did both your beer had such high original and final gravity?

 

[ChiUMBrew]

You had an Original Gravity of 1.070 and the Final Garvity was 1.041? That yeast was not finished fermenting. And 2 whole packs of Wyeast?

2 Whole packs, yes.

Poor attenuation will just make the beer more thick and sweet. Shouldn't have off-flavors, unless you fermented too hot or something like that.

Good luck.

You rock. Thanks for helping this amateur get off the ground.

 

[kh54s10]

I think there are 2 separate problems here. The medicinal is probably due to water or some other chemistry problem.

The low attenuation is different. How old was the yeast? Do you know if it was mishandled in shipping - too warm or too cold at any point.

I suggest, always making starters when using liquid yeast. That way you know you have enough cell count of healthy yeast.

The temperature from your fermentation control should not be the cause unless it got really hot or pretty cold. Above 140 degrees or below 50.

 

[dmtaylor]

Was there a long lag time on this beer after pitching the yeast? Do you recall when you first saw activity?

The reason I ask is that assuming fermentation took off normally, there is PLENTY of healthy yeast in there.

 

[MVKTR2]

There is another possibility to consider per the medical taste, infection. It is possible for certain infections to result in this flavor profile. I'd add an under attenuated beer would seem to offer more of an opening for an infection if it had low yeast cell counts providing less biological competition to wild yeast bacteria etc.

 

[ChiUMBrew]

You had an Original Gravity of 1.070 and the Final Garvity was 1.041? That yeast was not finished fermenting. And 2 whole packs of Wyeast? What happened?

Did both your beer had such high original and final gravity?

Yes, 2 whole packs. I smacked them, and neither bloated. After pitching I noticed that each had a double-cell inner pack. One cell of each had not burst and contained an amber fluid. I assumed that I failed to smack the nutrients and that's why it didn't bloat. My understanding is that shouldn't have tanked the operation, as the yeast would have gotten the food it needs from the wort.

I'm wondering whether the heating/cooling element in the BrewJacket might have been a problem. The brew jacket requires that you put a thermocouple on the outside of the plastic bucket. But it takes a while for the outside of the bucket to change (lower) temp to meet the temp of the wort. So I wonder if the element started off too cold. Just a musing.

 

[Smellyglove]

Did you measure with a hydrometer or refractometer?

 

[ChiUMBrew]

Did you measure with a hydrometer or refractometer?

Refractometer.

 

[Smellyglove]

Refractometer.

That's your answer to the high reading if you didn't convert the numbers you got out of the refractometer. Google it. "Refractometer fermenting beer"

 

[ChiUMBrew]

That's your answer to the high reading if you didn't convert the numbers you got out of the refractometer. Google it. "Refractometer fermenting beer"

Got it. I used the NB calculator. It gives 6.1 ABV (16 to 9 brix). Beer Smith predicted 6.6.

Thanks much!

 

[dmtaylor]

On my refractometer, 16 to 9 Brix would give me 1.066 and 1.018 for an ABV of 6.3%. It's somewhere around there.

Each refractometer reads slightly different and has its own "wort correction factor". Some say the average factor is 1.04. However on mine after about a dozen batches, I know the factor on mine is 0.99. YMMV.

Cheers.