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Eliminating Fruity Flavours

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 1:16 pm
by Stangas
Most of the beers i have brewed have had a fruity flavour to it.. altho the missus likes it, i dont.

So how do i go about eliminating that flavour.. short of overpowering it with hops

Is it due to the brewing procedure, the yeast used, time for sitting?

Cheers

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 1:18 pm
by JaCk_SpArRoW
One of the reasons this may occur is the temp at which the brew ferments from what I have been told...you may get variations of this or even more in-depth informtation

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 2:04 pm
by Jacko
I used white sugar on my first brew and got a cidery/fruity taste, after using better ingredients like dextrose and malt, the taste improved heaps.

cheers...

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 3:22 pm
by 501
yeh I reckon some ales at > 22deg is a tad sweet as well.

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 3:36 pm
by Chris
Higher than 22*C will give fruit flavours, as will sucrose. This suits some styles, but tastes terrible in others.

Also, if you rack, you can often minimise the effect of fruitiness in your brew, as the esters will disapate.

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 5:05 pm
by Jay
I agree with fruitiness being attributed to using sucrose and fermenting at high temps but I also think we are overlooking the fact that ales generally are fruity.

Since most yeasts supplied with homebrew kits are ale yeasts this explains a lot of the fruitiness.

One way of eliminating the fruitiness is to use lager yeast. The down side is, ideally, you have to brew at lower temps (10-15C) so, without a fridge and thermostat, most homebrewers have to wait till winter to brew lagers.

By the way. Most commercial beers are brewed with lager yeasts (even so called ales) and this can account for the reasons why you don't come across many fruity beers at the pub and why my mates always comment on the fact that my homebrew is really fruity when compared to what they are used to.

Cheers,
Jay.

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 7:05 pm
by Stangas
yeah cheers guys

i will use lager yeasts and drop the temps..

looks like a fridge will be needed.. for fermentation purposes

Posted: Thursday Jan 05, 2006 9:29 pm
by Dogger Dan
You can actually use the ale yeast, then at the end add the lager and drop the temp. The lager yeast will clean up the ale left overs.

Dogger

Posted: Friday Jan 06, 2006 6:48 am
by JaCk_SpArRoW
So what you're sayin Snoop is to use 2 different yeasts?
Will this affect the sediment significantly or the FG?

Posted: Friday Jan 06, 2006 8:18 am
by Rubber.Piggy
does using a better ale yeast help??

Posted: Friday Jan 06, 2006 1:21 pm
by Shaun
Rubber.Piggy wrote:does using a better ale yeast help??
Not so much a better yeast just yeast with the characteristics that match the flavour you are after. Have a read of the yeast profile on Wyeast or White Labs web sites to get an idea of what I am talking about

http://www.wyeastlab.com/
http://www.whitelabs.com/

Oliver yeast info such as Wyeast, White Labs and SAFyeast profiles would be a good sticky.

Posted: Friday Jan 06, 2006 1:25 pm
by JaCk_SpArRoW
Has anyone tried the method of differing yeasts in the different stages (Primary & Secondary) and if so what was the result?

Posted: Friday Jan 06, 2006 7:07 pm
by Dogger Dan
Captain,

It shouldn't affect the sediment much, FG may be a bit lowere than expected if using both yeasts.

Dogger

Posted: Monday Jan 09, 2006 12:50 pm
by JaCk_SpArRoW
Snoop,
Yet another great piece of advice...cheers! :lol:

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 10:33 am
by Oliver
Shaun wrote:Oliver yeast info such as Wyeast, White Labs and SAFyeast profiles would be a good sticky.
Did I hear someone volunteering to put a sticky together? :wink:

Oliver

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 10:36 am
by Chris
Jack, I brewed a watermelon beer with lager yeast, and then pitched wine yeast when I racked.

As dogger said, it lowered the FG, by around 5 points.

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 10:37 am
by JaCk_SpArRoW
Chris wrote:Jack, I brewed a watermelon beer with lager yeast, and then pitched wine yeast when I racked.

As dogger said, it lowered the FG, by around 5 points.
Cool, thanks Chris! 8) 8)

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 10:54 am
by Dogger Dan
I think that was you taking about stickys Oliver

Dogger

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 8:54 pm
by Shaun
Oliver wrote:
Shaun wrote:Oliver yeast info such as Wyeast, White Labs and SAFyeast profiles would be a good sticky.
Did I hear someone volunteering to put a sticky together? :wink:

Oliver
I did ask for that didn't I :lol:

Posted: Thursday Jan 12, 2006 10:57 pm
by Lebowski
I recently made up a muntons premium gold midas touch ale (one of those expensive 2 can ones in a box) which i got free cos it was past the useby by a few months. I used some new safale s-04 yeast with it but it has a really fruity kind of flavour to it after beeing in the keg for a couple of weeks. Any ideas why? (anyone made this particular beer before?) Will the taste go away with more time?

Edit: forgot to mention it was brewed at a constant 21 degrees and I didnt rack it, purged keg with co2 before putting beer in etc.