Off Taste (minty?)

[qpoint]

Hi all!


Not that far away from bottling/racking into secondary ferment (haven't decided which yet) an IPA style brew. Just did a SG reading and had a taste test and encountered a weird flavour.

So for the sake of providing enough information, the recipe is:
Coopers heritage IPA kit.
Coopers Light LDME
500g light crystal steeped
250g DME
40g fuggles - (20g @ 40 mins, 15g @ 20 mins, 5g @ 5 mins)
OG: 1057
what appears to be FG: 1012

So this is the 8th day of ferment and I'm about to rack into a secondary or bottle it. Had a taste test and it was definitely the best I've brewed seeing as it's my first attempt at a proper specialty steeping and hop schedule... but then the aftertaste hit me.

I guess the only way I can describe it is that sort of cooling feeling at the back of your throat you get with a strong chewwy or mouthwash. I tasted it about half an hour ago and i can still feel it every time I breathe in.

I'm wondering if it's due to high ferment temps... pitched the yeast at 28C and when I looked at it the next morning it hadn't cooled down like I'd hoped. Put a wet towel and fan on it and got it down to 21 but in the last couple of days it's shot up to around 25, although the ferment appears to have finished.

Anyway, I'm off to drink something to get rid of the aftertaste, any help would be appreciated... trying to build skills by working out the different flavour components, both good and bad B)

 

[BjornJ]

Hi ,
not sure what your off-flavour is, but if fermented that warm, could it be "hot" or fusel alcohol off-flavours?
that it's not actually minty but a hot alcohol kind of aftertaste?

What was the yeast?

Bjorn

 

[speedie]

scando your good!
at stating what!
more on good stuff!

 

[Cocko]

scando your good!
at stating what!
more on good stuff!

Carry on...

 

[bum]

scando your good!
at stating what!
more on good stuff!

You're being unfair here, speedie. Hot alc flavours combined with slight vegetal hops flavours (admittedly not discussed in Bjorn's post) do come across as 'minty' to me. It might not be relevant to OP but it isn't necessarily irrelevant.

qpoint, in the few beers I've had that come across as minty the flavour does subside - give it some time and see if you like it more then. I've personally never gotten minty from Fuggles but if this is the most hops you've used before it might be the flavour I've described above if you fermented at the top end for your yeast. Same as Bjorn, this is a bit of a stab in the dark and I hope it helps.

 

[qpoint]

Hey, sorry was away from a computer for a week or so. Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a kind of fusel-alcohol taste, less 'minty' i guess but more cooling on the throat. I was using Safale S04, and the ferment was going quite violently once it kicked in. The only other thing I can think of is that I remember I probably used a little too much bleach in water to clean the fermenter, but not sure if that'd be kicking off those kind of flavours.

So the main factor would be ferment temp? Good to get direct experience of these things and to learn from mistakes. Does anyone know what a good stretch of bottle conditioning would do to hot-alcohol flavours, or are they pretty much there to stay?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Hey, sorry was away from a computer for a week or so. Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a kind of fusel-alcohol taste, less 'minty' i guess but more cooling on the throat. I was using Safale S04, and the ferment was going quite violently once it kicked in. The only other thing I can think of is that I remember I probably used a little too much bleach in water to clean the fermenter, but not sure if that'd be kicking off those kind of flavours.

So the main factor would be ferment temp? Good to get direct experience of these things and to learn from mistakes. Does anyone know what a good stretch of bottle conditioning would do to hot-alcohol flavours, or are they pretty much there to stay?

I've had the same - an almost hot taste after the beer in an ESB.

Brisbane weather got very humid and warm for a couple of weeks (duh! I know) and my ESB, which I started when the floods were on (and weather was very cool and I couldn't leave the suburb) and I'm a bit disappointed in how the beers are turning out.

I know I need temp control. I've ordered a fridgemate, so that is next on the list. But in the meantime I have 20 litres of okay, but not great beer and that is quite upsetting.

That was with Notts yeast, which is usually pretty decent in my experience at not producing fusels (well not overtly anyway).

Goomba

 

[fergi]

i have had this before in my kit brews,tastes nice for the first mouthful or two then a couple of minutes later it has that tweek to your tonsils that is not overly pleasant, i h ave found it does get more subdued but it will probably take about 6 weeks in the bottle, looking at my notes in my beer book i notice the brews were all made before i had a brewing fridge,so i reckon its fermenter temperature ,probably only need a day or two at high temps to give it a funny taste, also when you drink it make sure you get it really cold.
fergi