Help please with shady beers

[ColmR]

Just an update on this after the NCB meet up last night. It turns out that I may have been a tad paranoid about the US-05 batches.

However there were definite phenolics present in the WLP810 batches. The second brew used the yeast cake (rinsed) from the first batch and I think I brought any issues from the first in to the second beer. At the time of brewing the second batch I had no indication from tasting that there were phenol issues or other with the first batch. The phenols in the second batch were way higher than the first batch, but it's still very young so I don't know if the beer will mellow at all. But Will had a brilliant idea of how to possibly save these beers. He suggested serving them in jugs with a slice of lemon or orange. Could definitely be on to a winner . I wondered if the reason for the off flavour was because of a slightly out of date yeast vial, but the lads reckoned that it was probably not the case.

With the US-05 batches I must have brainwashed myself into thinking that there were phenols present. Mad what the mind can do. Anyway those beers were quite tasty and had a nice hops aroma/flavour.

In typical NCB fassion we discussed process in really good detail. Re chlorine question: most of the guys don't filter or use campden tablets and haven't experienced phenols in their beers. We tasted the Swords tap water as well. Once we got past the blackcurrant flavours from the "clean" glassware, we could detect chlorine but the levels weren't that high. Will felt that the chlorine levels out his way are higher than what we tasted there and he does use a carbon filter, but I reckon that my own tap water was very similar to the Swords water. I think I'll try a campden tablet next time to see if there is any noticable difference.

For the temperature question, Brian brought a stout that was brewed with US-05 but fermented at around 30 degrees. There was a tartness that Brian wanted to discuss but none of us thought that it was a fermentation related issue. It was a good clean brew and we thought that the tartness was probably a result of too much dark malt in the grain bill. It was interesting to taste the beer brewed at the high temp and not detect any flaws. Will dubded it the World's first Summer Stout!

[mr hoppy]

Phenolics can be wild yeast, which might make sense if you're repitching.

[Greg2013]

Interesting food for thought ColmR cheers. I reckon my next few brews if i cant get bottled water handy i will just add a campden to 25 litres overnight.