Soy Sauce Aroma

[kanemcg]

Hi folks,

I'm Kane, first time poster on AHB. I've been homebrewing for almost 2 years now, started 2 Coopers kits then jumped straight into small batch all-grain BIAB.

My last couple of batches have been darker style beers (a Wee Heavy that ended up lower in ABV than desired, and a Smoked Brown Ale).

They taste perfectly fine to me but my wife says the first thing she smells is soy sauce. I can kind of pick it up only after she mentions it, so it might just be me really looking for a fault, but does anyone know how they would get a soy sauce smell to them?

I've read that it can be from lots of dark and roasted grains, and that it can be found in very old beers, but mine are very fresh.

The only part of my brewing process that I suspect might be the cause is that I am often too impatient to wait for my wort to cool down the few extra degrees to ideal pitching temperature, and I just chuck the yeast in. I have read that doing this and having the wort then cool down once the yeast has been added isn't ideal, which makes sense.

Just wondering people's thoughts.

 

[MHB]

Classic yeast autolysis fault!
If you are killing off some of your yeast by pitching too hot, two things are happening.
First, you are adding some dead yeast to the brew very early so it has more time to break down and give off bad flavours.
Second you are effectively reducing the amount of yeast, so less yeast is working harder and it struggles. Under pitching (adding too little yeast) means the yeast depletes some of its reserves of stored nutrients and is more prone to breaking down (autolysis).

Given that you want to avoid soy sauce and other related faults and make better tasting beer: -
Unlike kit brews made on well aerated tap water, a boiled wort is very low on dissolved Oxygen that yeast needs, aerating the wort will help.
Pitching the yeast at the right temperature will help.
Pitching more and/or better yeast will help.

Mark

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Open this and search (Ctrl s) for "soy"
View attachment Complete_Beer_Fault_Guide.pdf
M

 

[kanemcg]

Cheers Mark, I have read about autolysis and thought that might be it.

I will just have to be more patient lol I live in Alice Springs and even using a plate chiller and hose water the wort comes out about 34C!

 

[motman]

Fermenting fridge will be the only way forward! I had the same problem in Brisbane.

 

[Grott]

Either control the pitching and fermentation temperatures or buy loads of dim sims.

 

[Jack of all biers]

And think about pre-cooling your chilling water by having it run through a copper coil sitting in an esky full of ice prior to running through your plate chiller. Will take the wait time down prior to pitching, as opposed to hose temp only + refrigeration.