Sierra Madre not the same

Good morning,
I recently brewed a 5-gal batch of Sierra Madre. The brewing went fine. I’m still a novice and never used liquid yeast before. I had the yeast (Wyeast 1056) stored in the fridg for about a month I’d say. Never looked at the date on the package. The bottom line is it was dead. I had zero fermentation after 72 hrs. Temperature was 67 degrees. A local brewing supplier suggested to pitch a dry yeast (Safale us05). I had very good fermentation within 24 hrs. OG 1.052. FG 1.002. Bottled after about 3 weeks in fermentation.

Bottled and conditioned for two weeks. Tried one last night and was really disappointed. Not the same Sierra Madre I remember. It had almost no aroma whatsoever. Not sure how to describe the taste. Very little hop flavor, just kinda malty. Carbonation was perfect.

I assume I can’t expect the same results after a failed liquid yeast? Can anyone comment on this? Very other step in the brewing process was fine and right on according to the recipe.

Thank you for any thoughts!

Jeff

Bummer about your yeast. Wort sitting for 3 days is never good for flavor. I’d suggest continuing to try liquid yeast, but I’d get started on getting comfortable making starters. Takes the dead yeast variable off the table.

I don’t think the problem with the liquid yeast would have any effect on the finished beer. US-05 is the same yeast strain as WY 1056. Give the beer another two weeks of warm conditioning, then three days of chilling before tasting another one.
An IPA I brewed, Dead Ringer, did not start tasting good until about week five.

Edit, Before week five is was to carmelly with little hop flavor.

[quote=“flars”]I don’t think the problem with the liquid yeast would have any effect on the finished beer. US-05 is the same yeast strain as WY 1056. Give the beer another two weeks of warm conditioning, then three days of chilling before tasting another one.
An IPA I brewed, Dead Ringer, did not start tasting good until about week five.

Edit, Before week five is was to carmelly with little hop flavor.[/quote]

You know, that’s an excellent point. One thing I’ve learned after almost 20 years of homebrewing is that patience truly is a virtue. The only beer I’ll make that I’ll even think of drinking a month after brewing it is a hefeweizen. Ales are a 2 month minimum and lagers at least 3 months. Leave the hurry up it’s done approach to the commercial folks…

Thanks for the replies. I’ll enjoy the remaining dozen or so bottles of the Innkeeper I brewed around early November and forget about this one for a while and try it again later. I’ll post the results of my second tasting. Thanks again for the feedback!

Jeff

You may have an infection, with your starting and final gravity that’s 96% apparent attunation. Us05 and 1056 can go like 85% but 96 is very high.

I tasted during bottling and had the same reaction - ok taste, but no hop at all. Did bottle aging restore the aroma? I let mine go 5 weeks before bottling, and wonder when i should taste my first bottle.

Hmmm, it’s been a while but I do remember it being better another 4 weeks of bottle conditioning. Didn’t do much for restoring aroma but I remember enjoying it more. Hope yours turns out the same!

Jeff

The final product has a lot more hop flavor to it than before carbonation. It could probably have stood for a little dry hopping, but all in all, I am very happy with the way the beer turned out. I also wonder how much of the flavor balance is due to testing at 72F versus a chilled bottle. At any rate, I am really enjoying this beer.