Hi All, I bottles an ESB extract kit two weeks ago, opened a couple to see how it was doing and discovered a Clove like finish to the drinking of the beer. Otherwise tastes great but I hate the unwanted Clove taste. Any ideas what I did to screw it up?
The clove taste is more than likely a yeast and fermentation temperature issue. The fermentation temperature during the first three to five days can cause different flavors to be noticeable for the same yeast.
What was the yeast and fermentation temperature?
I agree with @flars. I’m betting 70°-72° ambient.
Safale Dry yeast at a fermenting temp of 66F. Thx.
All, do the liquid yeasts have this same issue of leaving a Clove hint behind?
Which dry yeast strain produced by Safale was used?
Any yeast, dry or liquid, will produce esters if you don’t control temps. If you go by ambient temps the beer will always be higher as fermentation is exothermic (produces heat).
Fermentis-Dry Ale Yeast. Never used it before.
You might have nailed the temp issue spot on. It appears that my daughters unplugged my cooling system during primary. Temps could have reached the low 70’s if this indeed took place.
I thought I used Safale. I was mistaken.
I’ve gotten a light clove flavor from fermenting around 62F after my mash spent a few minutes between 110 and 115. With an extract beer, the extract producer would have to have done something strange. The dry yeasts that most reliably produce the clove flavor are Danstar Belle Saison and Safbrew WB-06 (wheat beer yeast). Other dry ale yeasts have also produced a light clove aroma - rarely.
There was an excellent thread on this forum a few years ago about brewing Bavarian Wheat Beer. It ended (after 50+ pages) with the conclusion that high fermentation temps (68+) emphasize banana flavors, while low temps (62) emphasize clove flavors. Wheat in the mash also seems to encourage the clove and banana flavors.
Knowing the extract and yeast manufacturer and strain name would help. Or, maybe the kit name.
It was the NB ESB extract kit, based on the base kit of a pale ale. This is the third kit that went Glove on me. The others were a Wheat ale and a Scottish ale. I’ve done many other kits with great success. These were disappointing with the Glove finish.
Maybe a Wild yeast infection
The ESB comes with safe ale s-04the Scottish wee heavy comes with Notingham, and the wheat comes with Munich wheat ale. Since these are all different yeast that rules out the yeast so to speak (some people use the same yeast, treat it the same, and get the same flavors in their beer).
One thing is it’s a young beer. Age them a bit and see if it dissipates.
If it doesn’t try rebrewing and really focusing on controlling your ACTUALLY brewing temps. If this is an infection it will still be prominent.
Thanks everyone for the help. Much appreciated.
I would bet more that it’s an infection than a yeast issue.
