conditioning times

[dave81]

Hello

As rough guide how long should it be taking for a 6% ale to lose the alcohol flavour/taste in a keg bulk primed.i have left one for 2 months and it was still tasting of alcohol.?
Cheers

 

[Pogierob]

What is the malt profile?

 

[dave81]

From memory 5.25kgs maris otter and 250g crystal 40 to 1061og-1011fg , 3 weeks in primary and kegged today with 55gms dextrose/250ml water in the keg

edited malt profile

 

[Dan Pratt]

The tasting of alcohol with only a 6% beer would be from the unbalanced bittering & flavour for the beer, if that is not balanced you get a warming alcohol taste....another possibility is that you havent accounted for the increased abv% from the bulk priming...more sugars = more alcohol.....it may be a 6.5% beer now h34r:

What was your IBU and hop schedule?

 

[warra48]

More to the point, what temperature did you ferment this one at?
Which yeast did you use, and did you pitch sufficient for the size and SG of the batch?
A 6% beer should not taste of alcohol, unless you've generated fusils through your fermentation process.

 

[dave81]

60mins = EKG 21gms + target 25gms
10mins = ekg 21gms
5mins = ekg 21gms
0mins = ekg 21gms +target 10gms
dry hop = ekg 15gms and target 10gms
wyeast 1469 1L starter on stir plate
19-20.c
(it was not this beer that tasted harsh but this is my latest 6-6.5 beer i wondering about)

 

[Pogierob]

The only times I have had strong "alcohol heat" were when I put 2kg of sugar into a coopers tin brew and it was basically undrinkable due to the alcohol taste.

the other was recently when I tried to make a saison and I didn't treat the yeast the way is should be treated and once again it was basically undrinkable.

you should be able to taste the "alcohol heat" already so if you can't in this batch I wouldn't worry.

if you can I would look at your process to try and work out why you got it as per suggestions above.

I have also tried blending one of these brews and I would not recommend that either, you just end up with double the amount of low quality beer to drink, - better ditching one **** one and enjoying one good one IMHO.

 

[dave81]

talking of temps i remeber my last beer had an issue where the stc1000 probe came loose from the fermentor and when i found it it was at 28.c
the beer b4 that was possibly a mistaken alcohol flavour from over use of crystal and just a harshness when i was starting out(it was quite a while ago).
i did taste the sample of this and there was something there but i may have been mistaking alcohol for something else(it was 8am and im pretty sure i got a bit dry hop in my sample) :blink:
so given this beer has done 3 weeks in the primary and was kegged today i might put it on tap in 2-3 weeks :chug:

Edit added pic

 

[Dips Me Lid]

I'd second what Warra48 said, noticeable alcohol flavours at 6% sound like the yeast may have been stressed. Ferment temp, pitch rate, yeast health, aeration, these factors could all attribute harsh alcohol notes if they're not under control.

 

[panzerd18]

Would fusel alcohols contribute mainly to harsh like alcohol taste?

Alcoholic
A sharp flavor that can be mild and pleasant or hot and bothersome. When an alcohol taste detracts from a beer's flavor it can usually be traced to one of two causes. The first problem is often too high a fermentation temperature. At temperatures above 80°F, yeast can produce too much of the higher weight fusel alcohols which have lower taste thresholds than ethanol. These alcohols taste harsh to the tongue, not as bad as cheap tequila, but bad nonetheless.
Fusel alcohols can be produced by excessive amounts of yeast, or when the yeast sits too long on the trub. This is one reason to move the beer off of the hot and cold break when the beer is going to be spending a lot of time in the fermentor.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[dave81]

Awesome info thanks all for your replys.i definately had enough yeast this time (according to beersmith) and temps were all good.will find out in a couple of weeks.may just need to stick to tried and tested recipes for a while otherwise.will also have to look into aeration of some sort as I just agitate with a mash paddle in a drill atm.

 

[panzerd18]

Awesome info thanks all for your replys.i definately had enough yeast this time (according to beersmith) and temps were all good.will find out in a couple of weeks.may just need to stick to tried and tested recipes for a while otherwise.will also have to look into aeration of some sort as I just agitate with a mash paddle in a drill atm.

Give it time to condition. It will mellow out with age.

 

[pat86]

I think the time when I really noticed any 'alcohol' flavour was on a beer that had fermented warm - probably between 20-25 or 26C with some fluctuations. since then have done heavier beers with no alcohol flavours. Time will probably help if it does taste a bit rough.

 

[manticle]

Higher gravity is prone to giving alcoholic flavours (one reason being simply there'll be more alcohol in it, fg dependent). Essentially the less stressed the yeast, the less likely you are to get fuselly, metho-like, solvent ****.
This means big, healthy pitch, abv tolerant yeast, plenty of pre-ferment oxygenation, cool ferment and using tricks like gradual, incremental feeding when active ferment has slowed. Then mature that beer in the cold for as long as you can.