Bubblegum off flavor

[abatsch]

After doing some searching on here regarding the bubblegum off flavor I found that it was usually due to high fermentation temperatures. I don't think that this is the case here. I closely watch my temps daily and they stay in the 67-68 range. I have had two beers give me this flavor and aroma. Both of them were bigger beers. One a barley wine and the latest a IIPA. I used a starter with both beers. I used a 1-gallon starter of 1056 for the barley wine with an O.G. of 1.110 and a 2-liter starter of 1028 for the IIPA with an O.G. of 1.090. I used a stirplate for both and the barley wine starter was a 2 step starter. I keg everything and haven't had the off flavor with any other smaller beers (pale, IPA, wheat and red). Any insight to help me fix this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

What yeast was used and at what temp for both batches?

I rarely get any "bubblegum" out of any american/british strains, once they start getting higher you tend to get fusels
Some Belgian strains if fermented a tad high could throw some of those banana/bubblegum phenols
I Actually enjoy the flavor and brought my 3522 up to around 76* to pull out some bubblegum.

 

[progmac]

yeast issue for sure

big beers usually rock out at about 8 degrees above ambient. was 67-68 ambient or beer temp?

how do you oxygenate?

 

[Xpertskir]

yeast issue for sure

big beers usually rock out at about 8 degrees above ambient. was 67-68 ambient or beer temp?

This...and also did you use a lot of columbus in those two beers?

 

[TrubHead]

After doing some searching on here regarding the bubblegum off flavor I found that it was usually due to high fermentation temperatures. I don't think that this is the case here. I closely watch my temps daily and they stay in the 67-68 range. I have had two beers give me this flavor and aroma. Both of them were bigger beers. One a barley wine and the latest a IIPA. I used a starter with both beers. I used a 1-gallon starter of 1056 for the barley wine with an O.G. of 1.110 and a 2-liter starter of 1028 for the IIPA with an O.G. of 1.090. I used a stirplate for both and the barley wine starter was a 2 step starter. I keg everything and haven't had the off flavor with any other smaller beers (pale, IPA, wheat and red). Any insight to help me fix this would be greatly appreciated.

I'm currently experimenting to rid some of this flavor. No firm conclusions yet but fermenting temps and possibly yeast count (lack of) are the contributing factors.

 

[abatsch]

I oxygenated by shaking for about five minutes in the carboy. The temp reading came from the temp strip on the side of the carboy. It could be off I suppose. With both of them being bigger hoppier beers I wasn't able to get a full five gallons out of it so I couldn't put a thermometer in there to verify the temperature. I was just trusting the strip. No Columbus hops were used, well maybe a blend of them, there might be Columbus in falconer's flight and that was used for the barley wine, but not the IIPA.

 

[progmac]

hard to say. I feel like the thermometer strip is reasonably accurate. Certainly it isn't off by 8 degrees. I would try lowering your primary temp by about 5 degrees next time, see if that helps.