Liquorice Taste

[Doingatun]

Hi, Brewed a MO’s Real Ale - Bellhaven 80/- my 14th AG, experiencing a very strong burnt/liquorice taste and aroma, matured for around 10 weeks only just drinkable. Noticed when I was kegging/bottling and hoped it would mellow out with maturing.

Can’t understand why this should be, where could I have gone wrong to end up with this taste/aroma

[Bryggmester]

What was the temperature like when the wort was fermenting? I had a similar result a while back and I ended up pouring the beer away .
I put it down to to high fermentation temperature and gave up brewing for the summer.

[Doingatun]

Hi Bryggmester - I brewed in August in my temperature controlled fridge set at 20c the highest may be 22c, so temperature was ok in my case.

On checking through my notes, 7 day ferment using recovered Gervin English Ale Yeast. I’m now thinking that I used suspect recovered yeast (3rd use) on this occasion being a possible cause of the strong liquorice off taste. I now use only fresh yeast for each brew.

Can’t bring myself to poor it down the drain, lesson learnt

Cheers

[Dan]

I would usualy suggest high temperature fermentation as well. when i fermented in the consevertory once, I came home to find the temp had risen to 30C. It was strong burt liquorice and undrinkable.
ly

have you still got the brew? can you detect sulphur/rubber/acrid burnt smell taste. it could be strong autolysis.

[Doingatun]

Yes I still have the brew, can't detect sulphur/rubber/acrid burnt smell taste, just strong burnt liquorice smell/taste.

I think I will invest in a immersion probe for my temperature controller as it may be that cabinet temperature sensor is allowing unacceptable variations

Cheers

[Doingatun]

Hi Daab – I dissolved 450g of cane sugar in a litre of wort bolied in a pan and returned to the boiler, never noticed any burnt sugars on boiler element when cleaning.

[Doingatun]

I’m sure the sugar was totally dissolved and no caramelisation in the pan.

I'm not happy having the ATC-800 temperature probe suckered to the lid of the FV during fermentation but don't fancy putting the plastic probe in the wort/beer, trying to find a stainless steel NTC probe that will work with ATC-800 (no luck at the mo) that I can push through a airlock grommet and immerse.

Cheers

[steve_flack]

There are two possible probes supplied with ATC-800. I have one of each. Theres a plastic one which Monitors Direct now supplies with them. I believe the Chinese suppliers still supply the stainless one. The plastic one is marginally wider - as I found out when I tried to fit it down a thermowell.

[Doingatun]

Daab - Is your ATC-800 temperature probe same as mine - 20mm grey soft rubbery shroud and 15mm white plastic bullet shaped sensor tip? Do you totally immerse the probe and cable?

Been reluctant to use in wort/beer, after a water proof digital thermometer failed due to moisture ingress.

If it’s the same probe and can cope with full immersion, sterilisers etc then I’ll give it a try.

Cheers

[Doingatun]

Edit:

I've just noticed you use recovered yeast slurry for this brew, I have little doubt this is the culprit. Dried yeast isn't as suited to yeast harvesting as liquid besides at £1 a sachet there's little saving.

You should send this one out to sea.

Won’t use recover dried yeast again lesson learnt…thought I was being clever

I’ll wait for next high tide

[Doingatun]

Thanks Guys. Lessons learnt problems solved.

Cheers