Brew with an unpleasant aftertaste

[Johnbeer]

I am on my third brew and although the first two turned out fine, a St Peter golden ale and a bulldog evil dog, the Young's new world saison is not so good. It has a strong, quite unpleasant aftertaste. It doesn't upset the stomach or smell bad so it would appear to be safe to drink. It was in the fermentation bucket during the heatwave we had a couple of months ago. Temperatures in my kitchen, which are usually cool with a concrete floor, rose to 25-26 C and I was resorting to wet towels wrapped round the bucket to try and cool things down. It was also brewed using tap water rather that than Aldi spring water. I am guessing that one of these things or a combination of the two is the problem.
Of course it could be I just don't like new world saison !

 

[Thumper]

Higher fermenting temperatures can cause the yeast to produce esters that you don't want present. And using untreated tapwater results in the yeast converting the chloramines used to sterilise tapwater into chlorophenols*, which taste like TCP (TCP is an abbreviation of TriChloroPhenol). Could be either of those things.

If you can identify what the off taste is, wiser heads than mine can probably tell you what caused it.

*Treating the tapwater with a Campden tablet before brewing apparently converts the chloraphenols into chlorosulphates, thus solving the issue. I've yet to try this, having so far stuck to bottled water, but will probably be using this method for my next brew, once I've got a mixer-tap adapter and a length of clean hosepipe. I can't be buying bottled water every time I want to make beer; even if the own-brand stuff is dirt cheap, it's a pain in the **** to transport 12 x 2l bottles.

 

[mr_bridger]

The New World Saison kit should be brewed higher anyway, I usually do mine about 28°. Saison can be an acquired taste, see if you can get a Saison Dupont or similar from local bottle shop to compare.
That NWS Saison also does have an interesting blend of dry hops which again gives it a very distinct / different flavour. I quite like it really cold on a sunny day. (Not that we get many of those lol)

 

[Clint]

I'm currently drinking the youngs new world saison. Yes it is quite an acquired taste. ..initially very tart but complex at the same time. I like it!

 

[Richard_H]

I'm near the end of my Youngs Saison brew and although i find it very refreshing it does have a very distinctive flavour that is not to everyone's taste, mine also fermented right down to 1.004 so it has quite a dry and crisp edge

 

[dad_of_jon]

saisons need quite a while to calm down but i think its untreated tap water that is the culprit. leave for 2 months the saison will improve further but if its chlorine in your (untreated)tap water it will still taste bad.

I pay £1.87 for bottled water for my brew 11x17p and pick it up as part of normal shopping so no hassle for me. if you don't shop by car then bottled water would be a right pain.

 

[Slid]

saisons need quite a while to calm down but i think its untreated tap water that is the culprit. leave for 2 months the saison will improve further but if its chlorine in your (untreated)tap water it will still taste bad.

I pay �£1.87 for bottled water for my brew 11x17p and pick it up as part of normal shopping so no hassle for me. if you don't shop by car then bottled water would be a right pain.

This is a risk with kit brewed beer, as the boiling of an extract or AG brew will drive off the chlorine. This has happened to me 3 times and every time it was deeply exasperating.

You just cannot trust the water to be safe to brew - only safe to not make you ill. Especially at the weekend, when we tend to brew.

 

[Johnbeer]

Using tap water is certainly a mistake I will not be making again, as is brewing during a heatwave. I have 3 brews on the go at the moment and will get another one started this week, in an attempt to get more conditioning time.
The three brews? Bulldog 4 finger jack, Festival summer glory and Woodford's sundew.

 

[Spike101uk]

Similar to you I made the youngs Amber ale and the temp shot up to 26-28 during a heatwave whilst fermenting and it's barely drinkable , has a real twang of an aftertaste and hasnt gone away in 2 months of conditioning, it did start of banana like but now it's just bleeuurgh

 

[davidgreen]

Using tap water is certainly a mistake I will not be making again, as is brewing during a heatwave. I have 3 brews on the go at the moment and will get another one started this week, in an attempt to get more conditioning time.
The three brews? Bulldog 4 finger jack, Festival summer glory and Woodford's sundew.

I have used tap water for all my brewing in several different locations here in Canada and the only problem I have ever had was a medicinal flavour which was resolved by using campden tablets in my brewing water every time I brew.
One of the other things that people often do which can cause off flavours is to pitch the yeast at a temp that is too high, I always pitch at a lower temp and allow to warm naturally, remember that even if you have your beer in a cold room at say 18c for instance the working yeast actually creates heat which can me more than 2 deg C so if you are starting somewhere near the top of the range you could even be fermenting outside its range.
I have experienced that off flavour from temperature spike recently, decided to ferment outside my cold room and 2 days of a spike and the whole 10 gal was undrinkable...

 

[Johnbeer]

Well I got down to the tap on the keg of Saison and as the Bulldog 4 finger jack was ready to go, I ditched the last few pints. i am glad I did this new brew is a whole lot better.
In other brewing news I keged my Woodford sundew and started off a Bulldog premium bitter.