Yesterday I tasted the first bottle of my last batch brewed without fermentation control. It was a really simple lawnmower-type ale w/ Vienna and 2-row and hopped with Perle and Tettnang (OG 1.051, FG: 1.008) on Safale-US-05 - nothing fancy. My wife and I sniffed, tasted, and both looked at each other saying almost at the same time, “are there strawberries in there?”
Has anyone gotten this “off” flavor on this yeast? I’m trying to think back of the month of weather when this thing was fermenting. I’m guessing closet temps were anywhere from mid-60s to high-70s and could’ve been fluctuating a lot. Overall I think the beer is just barely above “drinkable” but not anywhere near “good.” I think the mash ran a bit hot and obviously not controlling fermentation temps didn’t help (ferm chamber is up and running now). To me, hints of strawberry are not really desirable in a light ale but hell, maybe someone would like it and I’m just wondering if anyone else has thrown this flavor with this yeast.
Anyway, long time listener, first time caller of the AHA Forum. Y’all are the best!
Unfortunately, overly fruity yeast character from an otherwise neutral yeast comes from lack of temp control. Fermentation is an exothermic, heat producing reaction, so the beer was likely fermenting from 5-10 degrees F warmer than the closet, ie., too warm. Try this - next time place the fermenter in a Rubbermaid type plastic tub of water, and add frozen water bottles a couple times a day, for the first 3 or 4 days. After that it’s ok, even desireable, to let the beer warm up to closet temp, to spur the yeast to attenuate well and clean up off flavors and aromas. I did this for years with good results.
I have never heard of strawberry character and have not experienced it with the US-05… but that doesn’t mean you are wrong either. Many people say the US-05 is not really as clean as everyone might be led to believe. There could be all sorts of fruity esters coming out especially if you underpitch or ferment warm.
There could also be some contribution from the Vienna malt which to some palates tastes slightly fruity. Some people would say plum or raisin but it is very subtle. So that is another potential contributor.
And what was your FG? Is that 1.000? I get around 81%AA with 05, but never anywhere near 100%. If that number was 1.000, something else may have gotten in there, think possible infection, and added flavors of its own. If that FG was not 1.000, you can probably disregard my Comme ts
Ha - yes, that’s 1.008 FG - not a smily face. I have a fermentation chamber now with temp control and I’ll be getting the first bottles of that coming online within a few weeks. Very excited to see (hopefully) a difference in “cleanliness” of my beers. I’ve only been brewing for ~6 months and I’ve had more misses than hits regarding off flavors and general “hotness” in my finished product. I haven’t had a complete dumper yet but one was pretty close. My friends and family drink it and are either too nice to say anything or don’t have a decent palette for beer because I can certainly taste a lot of mistakes that are likely due to no fermentation control on those first batches (my wife on the other hand will tell me straight up if it’s crap). The fermentation chamber was going to be a necessity anyway if I was to continue brewing through the summer here in TX (we keep our house at 80F through the summer in order to not completely drain our bank accounts on electricity alone).
I’m not sure if this is a common experience of new brewers but looking back now on the first handful of beers I made, I think I was overly concerned about the particulars of the recipe and when to add what hops rather than taking good care/control of the yeast. If I could go back and tell myself what I need to do to make consistent beer - not necessarily good/great beer but at least a consistently drinkable beer with minimal off-flavors - I would’ve invested far more time/money in yeast health (pitch rate, O2 and temp control) and just started with some simple recipes. Oh well, it’s a hobby and learning and making mistakes is part of the process and fun.
Thanks for all the input. I too have always heard 05 was a really clean strain so I was surprised to find that strawberry note.