Alcoholic taste in my IPA

[Hop Bomb]

American IPA
OG 1.067
FG  1.010
IBU 67
2 week ferment - 18c for first week, 20c for 4 days, 22c for 3 days, then crashed it to 4c & transferred under pressure to corny.
WLP001 2 litre starter
Aerated with pure o2 (2 lpm for 40 secs)


This beer has been in the keg nearly a week now. Its almost carbed. 2nd dry hop just went in last night. Its quiet alcoholic in taste & bitter. The bitterness is fine as its an IPA but the alcoholic thing I cant ignore. It would defo give me heartburn if I had more than 3 Id say.

Ive researched the off flavours & there is nothing in my process for this brew to warrant this alcoholic taste. The only issue was the extra long mash (dinner with family) which extracted way more than it should have making the brew an IPA (its actually .1 in to IIPA cat) instead of a pale ale. Thanks to the refractometer I saw my preboil was way over & was able to adjust the hop bill to boost the IBUs for the higher OG.

Any thoughts? (no one else has tasted it so It could just be me in one of my many phases where I find IPA hard to drink - get heartburn etc, Im not so sure though)

Can I mail some to the BJCP course to get some feedback?

Thanks
Tom.

[Hop Bomb]

Longer mash = thinner body so nowhere for the 7.6% abv to hide?

[Rossa]

You know yourself but it will probably mellow out over a month or two. Maybe take a ph reading to see how acidic it is now and if it is off the charts then there may be something else wrong.

[Cambrinus]

What kind of ph would you expect here?

[Ciderhead]

Hop loading and addition points?


Those of a sensitive palette may need to take a seat at this point





Sent from my divining rod v2.0

[Hop Bomb]

Will take a ph reading later Rossa.

@ Ciderhead:

10 gallon batch / Hop bill was:

100g Magnum @ 60 min for 48.1 IBU
35g Perle @ 30 min for 10.5 IBU
70g Cascade @ 15 min for 9.7 IBU

----------------------------------------------

50g of Cascade in the hop rocket @ 0 mins - recirc from BK -> hop rocket -> plate chiller -> BK... until wort reached pitching temp.
100g Zythos dry hop 5 days
70g Zythos dry hop 5 days

[Padraic]

Can I mail some to the BJCP course to get some feedback?

Donations of beer are always welcome for the course. We like your good beers as well as ones you need troubleshot (is that a word?)

[Ciderhead]

To quote Palmer

Alcoholic
A sharp flavor that can be mild and pleasant or hot and bothersome. When an alcohol taste detracts from a beer's flavor it can usually be traced to one of two causes.
The first problem is often too high a fermentation temperature. At temperatures above 80°F, yeast can produce too much of the higher weight fusel alcohols which have lower taste thresholds than ethanol. These alcohols taste harsh to the tongue, not as bad as cheap tequila, but bad nonetheless.

Fusel alcohols can be produced by excessive amounts of yeast, or when the yeast sits too long on the trub. This is one reason to move the beer off of the hot and cold break when the beer is going to be spending a lot of time in the fermentor.

2L isn't a big starter for 10 Gallons, how fresh was your yeast?, did you pitch at high krausen from Conical?

Or to steal one of Padraics sheets, Mash temp?

Pic on bottom, Northern brewer talks about under oxygenation? As it was a big beer to start with do you not need 1)closer to 60 secs 2) Double the amount as its 10 rather than 5 gallons?

[Hop Bomb]

My mate took the other half of the batch & had his own 2 litre starter. Its defo not a ferm problem or a yeast problem. It might not even be a problem. Its only 3 weeks old right now. Im just a worried mother.

Mashed at 66c. PH was 5.3. The only thing is we went for dinner so the mash was on a good while (probably 2 hours) & had dropped to 58c by the time we got back. Conversion was defo done before temp dropped as I only get 1c drop in 60 mins in there. The batch was split into to two fermentors. Each getting 2 lpm of o2 for 40 secs.

[Ciderhead]

And whats the pedigree or life story of the yeast?

[Hop Bomb]

WLP001 slant (slants made a few months back. All slants have been in the fridge since)  10ml then 100ml, then 1 litre then 2 litre.

Would have to dig in my phone for the date of slanting as I took pics. Perhaps the slants were too old? The starters were all solid goers though.

[Ciderhead]

I know FA about Slants, but was certain they were good for min 12 months.
If it looks like yeast and smells like yeast, then it probably was yeast, I have taken to drinking a small batch of "clean" wort poured from conical on yeasts that I am not sure about just to see if it tastes off. 
I also now do the yeast on a stirplate in the temp controlled fridge, as 18 months ago a lager one went off like a shot at 20 Degree ambient and I had to dump it

I think time will tell, keep us posted.

[Hop Bomb]

Hopefully thats all it is. I need some other mouths to taste it.

[imark]

Unless it's like nail polish remover it wouldn't be out of place in an IIPA if you ask me.

[Hop Bomb]

Few have had it & confirm its good. Strong but good. No one else got the alcohol burn so its just my taste buds this week.
PH of the beer at 20c is 4.8.