Wlp380 - Cloves From Hell

[PostModern]

I saved the dregs from Berto's wheat beer in the NSW Xmas case and recently pitched it into a Weizen. Man alive, WhiteLabs got it right when they said "Large clove and phenolic aroma and flavor". It is all I can taste. I noted a strong clove flavour when I tasted berto's but in my own weizen it's overpowering. The recipe was 60% wheat, 3% Munich and the balance Pils, bittered with Northern Brewer and a dash of Tettnanger with 20 mins to go.

Has anyone else brewed with this yeast and noted the *intense* clove flavour?

 

[berto]

Hey POMO,
Im sitting here right now drinking a wheat i made with this beer before the NSW case, but lagered it for 2 or 3 months. Did nothing to hide the cloves at all. possibly stripped it of hop flavour though so theres a lot more clove present now. I noticed some comments on mine being infected in the XMAS swap. Hope this wasnt so, and hopefully yours is a clean yeast sample. Could possibly be the large amount of cloves which made people think it was infected? Maybe im looking for an excuse here. haha

The first time i used this yeast, i fermented far cooler. About 16 i think. And you wouldnt even know it was a wheat beer. So maybe if you drop ferment temps in future you might notice less cloves.

 

[timmy]

I thought the exact same thing when i first used this yeast. THe esters are huge.

 

[neonmeate]

So maybe if you drop ferment temps in future you might notice less cloves.

[post="104773"][/post]​

from what i understand the cloves are accentuated by the lower temps?

i used 380 in a weizenbock 2 years ago and did the ferulic rest and fermented low and everything and still got more banana than clove - but i guess that's to do with the higher grav fermentation producing more esters. still, a nice yeast - i get bored with the weihenstephan strain.

 

[PostModern]

So maybe if you drop ferment temps in future you might notice less cloves.

[post="104773"][/post]​

from what i understand the cloves are accentuated by the lower temps?

[post="104853"][/post]​

This is what I thought too. Cooler ferment => clovey phenols, Warmer ferment => fruity esters but I can't pick up a trace of banana despite a low/mid-20's fermentation

I posted a long reply last night, but it seems not to have made it to the board (from a laptop with a kid begging for a bedtime story, so I may have shut down the machine without clicking "add reply"...) In summary:

berto: I don't think your Xmas case beer was infected, just overwhelmingly clovey, like my brew. Mine stopped at 1.011 - certainly not a sign of infection.

 

[Weizguy]

G'day,

I cracked a bottle of Berto's (edit: NSW Xmas 2005) wheat last night.

OK, you may call me slack, or whatever, but my motivation was to save the yeast. I just forgot the bottle and found it a week ago.

I noticed the strong phenolics and absence of fruity esters. that may have been due to age (IMO), but the beer must not be contaminated by wild yeast or otherwise. Evidence? see below...

First up, the beer was not excessively gassy. After all this time, I'd expect a very foamy beer or maybe a bottle bomb. If anything, the beer was a little undercarbonated for a weizen.

I took a small sample and degassed it by repeatedly squirting it through a small syringe (head improver) until it was flat. I then measured the sugars with a sample placed onto my Refraktometer glass. The reading was a very clear line at 5.3 Brix. Surely if the beer was contaminated, the sugars would be almost all gone.

Anyway, I gonna save the yeast, but I may never use it, coz I likes me esters!
The beer pretty much matches the yeast profile, as per the Whitelabs website, so I reckon it's OK for re-use.

A belated thanks to Berto for the yeast culture, and the beer of course. It seems to have retained its flavour a lot longer than estery weizens brewed with other yeasts. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I thought you (and other forumers) would like to know.

Beerz
Seth