About 6 months ago I left a trial jar sat out with some fresh wort in it and went away with work for a few days. When I got back the sample was visibly fermenting! I simply put it down to the jar not being cleaned properly or something being spilt next to it. Anyway - I forgot about it and cleaned everything up.
Moving forward a few months I brewed an APA to use up some yeast (San Diego Super) I had lying around and it finished WAY dryer than expected and I kegged it at 1006. It had a really strong saison smell to it. It's quite a distinctive smell so there was no mistaking it. The beer was good but didn't really have any hops popping out. That yeast was discarded after fermenting and I started the next brew with a fresh vial of San Diego super yeast.
About 6 weeks ago I gave Jed (Mackiwi on here) a load of Yorkshire Square yeast and he used it on a english bitter and that finished WAY lower than he expected.
I then brewed a hoppy pale ale last month and it's on tap just now at my place. It again hasn't got the hops popping out like I intended and finished at 1010. The only thing that concerns me is a toffee/chocolate taste which is completely out of character for the style/yeast and the only thing I can think of is that I mashed too hot and some funky sugars were extracted or there's another yeast in there along with what I intended?
I've also got a Maibock lagering at the moment and that was brewed again with a fresh vial of yeast pitched direct into fermenter with no starter. That was planned to finish at 1019 but it's gone down to 1008.
So in summary I think something is going on in my brew area/garage. My sanitation is pretty thorough and everything is cleaned by hand (to prevent scratches) with warm water and then soaked in VWP. I then star san everything before use. Yeh the area is a bit dirty (it's a garage!) but the thing that need to be clean are clean.
I don't want to be known for producing manky beers as I've had compliments on my brews and have only had this issue after 70 AG batches!
The obvious weak spot is my fermenters as they've done all 70 batches. I have 4 buckets so they've been on rotation and some will have done more than others. I'm going to bin them all once the brews in the garage are done and replace them with brand new ones. I'm also going to spray bleach on everything and clean everything down. I'll then star san, dry then start up again.
Like I said, none of my beers are "bad" but I'm getting odd things happening with gravities/hop utilisation that I'd like to fix.
Anyone got any thoughts? Anything I've missed other than the FV replacements and bleaching everything??
K
Moving forward a few months I brewed an APA to use up some yeast (San Diego Super) I had lying around and it finished WAY dryer than expected and I kegged it at 1006. It had a really strong saison smell to it. It's quite a distinctive smell so there was no mistaking it. The beer was good but didn't really have any hops popping out. That yeast was discarded after fermenting and I started the next brew with a fresh vial of San Diego super yeast.
About 6 weeks ago I gave Jed (Mackiwi on here) a load of Yorkshire Square yeast and he used it on a english bitter and that finished WAY lower than he expected.
I then brewed a hoppy pale ale last month and it's on tap just now at my place. It again hasn't got the hops popping out like I intended and finished at 1010. The only thing that concerns me is a toffee/chocolate taste which is completely out of character for the style/yeast and the only thing I can think of is that I mashed too hot and some funky sugars were extracted or there's another yeast in there along with what I intended?
I've also got a Maibock lagering at the moment and that was brewed again with a fresh vial of yeast pitched direct into fermenter with no starter. That was planned to finish at 1019 but it's gone down to 1008.
So in summary I think something is going on in my brew area/garage. My sanitation is pretty thorough and everything is cleaned by hand (to prevent scratches) with warm water and then soaked in VWP. I then star san everything before use. Yeh the area is a bit dirty (it's a garage!) but the thing that need to be clean are clean.
I don't want to be known for producing manky beers as I've had compliments on my brews and have only had this issue after 70 AG batches!
The obvious weak spot is my fermenters as they've done all 70 batches. I have 4 buckets so they've been on rotation and some will have done more than others. I'm going to bin them all once the brews in the garage are done and replace them with brand new ones. I'm also going to spray bleach on everything and clean everything down. I'll then star san, dry then start up again.
Like I said, none of my beers are "bad" but I'm getting odd things happening with gravities/hop utilisation that I'd like to fix.
Anyone got any thoughts? Anything I've missed other than the FV replacements and bleaching everything??
K
