Witbier Tastes Like Wine

[Slight]

I tried out Doc's saison ale recipe a few weeks ago and bottled it on sunday.
The weather has been quite hot over the last few weeks and at one point in the fermentation the beer hit 28 degs!

Secondary fermentation was kept around 20 degs for a week and a half.

When I racked the beer, it tasted fine, but after a few days in the bottle is smells and tastes like cask wine!

Is this a problem with the yeast at high temperatures or is it due to an infection? I have resently started to use idophor instead of brewshield so that may be a problem (Not sure if I'm using it correctly)

 

[Doc]

What yeast did you use ?

Beers,
Doc

 

[Slight]

Argh.. should have mentioned that.

Wyeast belgium wit 3944

 

[Weizguy]

prob due to high phenolics @ 28C.

If it smells a little like bandaids, or a strong antiseptic or clovey smell, your beer is probably not contaminated, but may never reach its true potential due to the excess of phenolics, produced by the Wit yeast.

Been there, done that.

 

[neonmeate]

summer sucks for brewing....

i made a wit this time last year with the same problem. it had a real raunchy armpit smell on it that try as i might i couldnt get rid of.
i even lagered the bottles for a few months and that helped smooth it out a bit, but it still had that phenolic stink.

kind of annoying how it's only averaging 17-20 in sydney about two months of the year - the other 10 months you spend trying to cool your fermenters down or heat them up.

 

[Slight]

I can't work out if it's actually the beer style or a combination of infection/high temps.

Theres are hundreds of other variables too, like too many corriander seeds or using supermarket marmalade instead of orange rind.

After cooling the beer I've found some of the wine flavours have subsided. Hopefully It'll get better in a few weeks.