So, What's This Floral/fruity Ester, Solventy Flavour In My Beer?

[AndrewQLD]

Just a quick follow up on this.

The odd flavour and aroma seems to be fading. I've just cracked a bottle of the first AuPA and it's very much reduced and much less cloying. At this stage I'm leaning towards overuse of cluster as being the culprit, as the other brews I've done without cluster since do not have this flavour at all.

It's quite nice now. I may just have to crack another just to be sure!

Best advice I can give is send a bottle to another experienced brewer for a tasting, while your description is very descriptive it is easier to pick up a fault ect if you can taste the beer.

Andrew

 

[Fat Bastard]

Best advice I can give is send a bottle to another experienced brewer for a tasting, while your description is very descriptive it is easier to pick up a fault ect if you can taste the beer.

Andrew

Yep. It was hard enough to pick from tasting the beer let alone describing it! Just tried the ABA that had the same complaint and it's gone too.

I'm a relatively new brewer, using new hops and a constantly evolving technique, so it's all a learning experience. From the first brew club meeting I attended where the guy that got the best beer of the evening and also the worst beer, I'll be less shy about letting others taste my beers in future.

Also time. The old enemy heals as well as destroys.

 

[vr4_psych]

I had what sounds like a very similar problem to yours. I isolated it down to either insufficient wort aeration or fermentation temperature fluctuation.

Aeration - I was just dropping from cube to fermenter. Now, I also shake/rock the fermenter for a minimum of 10 mins prior to pitching yeast. I give a further shake up after pitching.

Fermentation temp fluctuation - I ferment in my beer fridge and use an aquarium heater to keep fermentation at the right temps. However, adding the heat directly to the fermenter caused too much temperature fluctuation for my liking so now I put all my fermenters in a bucket of water which acts as a thermal blanket. By controlling the temperature of the water in the bucket instead of the fermenter I have much more stable fermentation temps.

Whichever the solution, the yeasties seem happier and that tends to make me much happier, too!

Leigh