blonde ale with US-05 tasting like Hefe

Ingredients
1

Very strange. I have a mason jar of harvested US-05 yeast that I use over time. I brewed the same batch that I used the same slurry with previously. It had been in the mason jar for a few months so I pitched about 1 cup. After 2 weeks in secondary, the beer has not cleared at all and has a very yeasty smell. I kegged today to take a sample and it was one point above the previous batch. It seriously has the characteristics of a hefeweizen. It doesn’t have off-flavors per say but I guess off-flavors for this strain. Any ideas? Could it be an infection?

I assume that most will ask about temperature. I believe that I did pitch high and it cooled down over the next few days. Pitch temp was probably above 70 and ambient room temp was 62. I have used US-05 well into the 70s before with no effects like this.

2

Did you take “few month” old yeast and pitch it directly into wort? Or did you make a starter?

Sounds like stressed out little yeasties to me.

3

THIS^^^^

4

I am pretty sure I always stress my yeasties out  :wink:

No starter. I guess that explains it. I always underpitch without negative results such as this. I even used a lot more than normally would so I assumed that wouldn’t be the culprit. I guess ignorance has been bliss up to this point…haha. Trust me, I understand that I don’t follow accepted practices…

Somehow my buddy gets away with using one vial of yeast for 10 gallon batches without any issues…never understood it. I probably use twice as much yeast for half as much beer compared to him.

Thanks guys! Should have occurred to me sooner. Stressed US-05 = Hefeweizen

5

A little extra time may help get it back to tasting semi-normal

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Pitching temperature and proper areation are, in my opinion, the 2 most critical facets to pitching yeast.

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I have seen Chico strain mutate like this a few times. Hazy and rubbery yeast aroma. Time to buy a new packet of us-05. Don’t break the bank. :wink:

8

That sounds accurate. That was the last of it anyways. I have used US-05 so much now that I want to experiment with some other yeasts a bit more.

S-04 is my new yeast for now. I haven’t been impressed after reading descriptions about how well this yeast drops out. My summer ale on tap has yeast floating all over the place after cold conditioning for a couple of weeks…

9

That really surprises me that S-04 isn’t dropping well for you. It has always formed a compact layer in my fermenters. I always ferment S-04 at 62F, FWIW.

10

Is your water especially soft? Water low in calcium can have a negative effect on yeast flocculation.

11

I had 2 back to back batches of repitched US-05 that didn’t taste quite right. Thought it was the malt I was using as I had switched venders. Tossed the yeast and started with fresh US-05 and last 2 batches with the same malt have been fine. Takes a little for me to burn up 150lb

12

I got some clovey banana flavors from an overpitch of US-05 once…so I try to limit my repitch volumes of dry yeast  any more.  Never seem to encounter it with lager yeast, though.