Candy In My Beer

[Ross]

If it is any help, the missus' first reaction was that it was a sweet medicinal flavour. Morphine beer???

Sweet medicinal sounds like the possibility of a wild yeast infection. the usual sign is a haze that won't shift, is the beer bright? the trouble with trying to recognise faults through peoples descriptors, is that we can all taste/describe things differently. i was giving a local brewer advice on reducing "astringency" for ages, before he bought me a bottle to try & it turned out to be a wild yeast infection. I'd suggest getting a local beer judge to taste it for you.
All the best with sorting it out.


cheers ross

 

[braufrau]

Like GB and Ross said the recommended pitching rate for S-23 at 10C would be 2 packets

But then its almost as dear as liquid!

 

[rich_lamb]

Was that original description "like redskin .. candy". A kind of tart sweetness? Sounds exactly like a mild lactobacillus infection to me.

Well done - you've made a nice lambic!

On the whole "dry yeasts are inferior and REAL brewers don't use them" thing - I use both dry and liquid interchangeably pretty much. In some cases the strains are the same and I can detect no difference.
I think the drawback has been a lack of variety in dry yeasts, and when you're looking for something very specific - eg. I only use liquid (Wy3068) in a heffe.
Now the dry lager yeasts may be a different case; I hear there's historically been difficulty drying those strains with good viability, though I'm happy to admit I'm speaking with no practical experience on that subject. I don't use 'em.

 

[Fents]

Dry yeast are great if you are in a hurry or if you have a poor sense of taste.

Bwahahahahahahah! mate this one has me on the floor, thats prob gotta go down as one of the funniest comments in AHB history. :lol:

your a crack up dazza.

 

[Insight]

Sweet medicinal sounds like the possibility of a wild yeast infection. the usual sign is a haze that won't shift, is the beer bright? the trouble with trying to recognise faults through peoples descriptors, is that we can all taste/describe things differently. i was giving a local brewer advice on reducing "astringency" for ages, before he bought me a bottle to try & it turned out to be a wild yeast infection. I'd suggest getting a local beer judge to taste it for you.
All the best with sorting it out.


cheers ross

Well, I have tried the WLP833 keg and it is fine (better than fine actually!), so its a problem with the S-23 yeast or sanitation.

Ross, the beer is bright and doesn't taste like a lacto infection (pretty au fait with these as am a big fan of gueuze). Having said that, wild yeast have a habit of throwing off some strange flavours.

Mark, I hadn't actually thought of underpitching being a problem - do you think it would throw odd flavours? I would have expected underattenuation, but this started at 1.055 and finished at 1.010. The WLP833 finished at 1.013 - both were right in line with expected attenuation. My notes say that the S-23 finished in 10 days, and the WLP833 took 13 days.

Perhaps I can enter it as a Xmas Candy Cane beer at the ANAWBS