Author: Marshall Schott
If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein ~
I trust many people view as silly the extent to which we here at Brülosophy go to test certain aspects of brewing. I don’t necessarily disagree. It seems ludicrous for most homebrewers to invest the time, energy, and money into making a batch of beer that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t be very good. Thankfully, perhaps luckily, the variables we’ve tested thus far haven’t seemed to have this effect, in fact nearly every xBmt batch produced has resulted in both beers being at least drinkable.
Okay, I’ve written about a few quasi-xBmts, if you will, where I put some haphazard hypothesis to the test and the resultant beers were utter shit, but even those I wouldn’t necessarily consider failed xBmts since they still provided some meaningful data– WLP090 likely isn’t used to bottle condition Port Brewing beers, shit harvested from a bush in my front yard doesn’t make good beer, and leftover wort sloppily soured with grains was terrible. In all of these cases, I wasn’t performing a triangle test, the question of “whether or not” was still essentially addressed. Relative to our purposes here, failure only occurs when something goes so awry in an xBmt that it makes collecting and/or reporting the data impossible.
Today, I’ll be sharing my experience with the first officially failed xBmt. I wasn’t sure how to go about this, initially considering formatting it like a typical xBmt article, though given the fuck up figured it’d be best to do things differently. Since I already had the pics, I’ll share them, though I’ll admit it’s partially to demonstrate my process remained the same and ultimately support my theory as to the source of the problem.
This xBmt started just like any other, I settled on the variable to be tested, boil length, and a beer style I thought would help exemplify any potential differences. A couple days before brewing, I built up a rather large starter of WLP029 from a jar I’d harvested from another starter about 8 weeks prior.
The evening before my brew day, I collected 1 liter from the starter to save for later then tossed the flask in my cold chamber to crash overnight. At this point, I noticed the faint aroma of banana wafting from the collection jar, but I told myself this was something I’d experienced before and blamed it on the warm (75°F) environment within which the starter fermented. The following morning, I got to brewing as usual, mashing in and hitting my target temp for both batches.
Following a 1 hour mash, I collected the wort from each batch and proceeded to boil, both receiving the first hop addition at the 30 minute mark to accommodate for the short-boil batch. Chugging right along.
Despite the 1 hour difference in boil length, the OG between the batches was only 0.002 apart, which isn’t perfect, but certainly close enough.
I filled separate 6 gallon PET carboys and placed them in my fermentation chamber to finish chilling, a requirement for me during this time of year when my groundwater temp hovers around 76°F. A few hours later, I returned to find both worts sitting at my target fermentation temperature. After decanting the starter, I evenly split the slurry between both fermentors and noticed obvious signs of activity just 12 hours later.
A couple days in is when I began to notice a faint whisper of banana aroma emanating from my chamber, which I optimistically concluded had everything to do with the 66°F fermentation temperature and use of wheat malt. Why? Probably denial. I returned to check the FG after about 10 days, both appeared to have finished just a tad drier than I expected, though given the low mash temp of 156°F (yeah), I wasn’t terribly concerned.
The hydrometer samples tasted, umm, yeasty. Yeah, that’s it, the yeast was contributing a banana character with a little clove in the background. Nothing a 2 day cold crash and fining with gelatin couldn’t fix. I kegged the cold, clear beer about 2 weeks after brewing it.
After 24 hours at 40 psi in my keezer, I dropped the pressure to 13 psi and pulled a pint. Even after nearly 500 batches, this always excites me, the culmination of so much effort represented in a single 16 ounce pour. Except when it sucks, which in this case, it sort of did. But it looked pretty.
I sampled both side-by-side and detected absolutely no DMS in either beer, though it’s wholly possible any creamed spinach character was covered up by the almost Hefeweizen-like yeast character I was certain would lager out, so I held off on collecting data for 10 days. To me, the time had helped a little bit, I mean, I’d been sampling both beers daily and would have sworn any this-shouldn’t-be-in-a-Kölsch flavor was dwindling. And so, to participants the beers were served.
The first participant was Scott Bailey, a board member of the local San Joaquin Worthogs homebrew club. After completing the triangle test portion, he continued onto the comparative evaluation, which toward the end includes a description of the xBmt and the style of beer used. When he read it was a Kölsch, he immediately turned to me, eyes squinted in a demonstrably puzzled fashion, and said he assumed this was some sort of Saison or Belgian yeast xBmt.
Greeeeaaaaat…
Next up was Wes Tarvin, the dude who spent months isolating an infection only to discover it was his nasty valves. Similar story, except he was making faces of obvious displeasure from his first taste during the triangle test. He was slightly more frank than Scotty, saying something like, “This doesn’t taste like any Kölsch I’ve ever had, I get way too much clove.”
Mmm hmm…
Finally, Brülosophy contributor Ray Found stopped by my place while driving through on his way home from a work trip. He was aware of the nature of the xBmt and wasn’t asked to complete the survey, though I’d yet to mention anything else about the beers except that it was a Kölsch. Upon first sip, Ray, in his gentle and ever-so-sensitive manner, offered the following words:
“This isn’t a fucking Kölsch, you know that, right? This tastes more like a Hef, a shitty one at that.”
We began to discuss the potential issues and eventually whittled our way to a culprit. Based on the fact both batches were equally compromised, we determined a post-pitch contamination was highly unlikely, which left us with really only 1 reasonable source: the yeast. Somehow over the course of 7 uses, the WLP029 I’d been harvesting must have picked something up, likely a wild yeast, which was propagated in a starter and split between 2 carboys full of my beer.
What was I to do with this mess of a Kölsch? I proposed the idea of continuing to collect data for the xBmt since, you know, the infection was a constant. However, Ray was adamant that we pass on this one, convinced the phenolics and esters produced by whatever wreaked havoc on the beers would arguably get in the way of participants perceiving any actual differences caused by boil length.
I finally accepted defeat. And so it goes…
Anxious about the other jars of harvested yeast in my collection, I spent some time the following weekend going through my yeast fridge. While rifling through the 15+ samples, I ended up tossing a couple jars that were just too old and I had no plans to use, then eventually stumbled on a jar of WLP029 harvested on the same date from the same starter as the jar I’d used for this xBmt. Surely, if the yeast was indeed to blame, this jar would contain aromas similar to that of the beer I’d just poured down the drain.
Bingo!
When I opened that jar and immediately recognized the smell, it all came together, the yeast was responsible, and I started breathing again, relieved I wouldn’t have to spend months isolating a million little things to try to discover the source of the pesky problem. Whew.
When you brew as often as I do, the chances of something going awry naturally increase. The fact this is the first unintentionally contaminated batch I’ve ever made, at least that I can recall resulting in a dumper, ameliorates some of the shame. And since the beer wasn’t consumed, I like to think it doesn’t count against my 200 gallon federal allotment.
Without giving too much away and potentially biasing my participant pool, I will say that a new boil length xBmt of similar nature is underway, the results of which ought to be out soon… ish.
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28 thoughts on “An exBEERiment Failed, or How I Lost 10 Gallons of Beer”
We’ve all dumped beer. If you never dump beer, you’re not trying new things. It’s just the cost of learning. I’ve dumped a porter that had way too many Campden tablets in it when I was experimenting with oxidation. I’ve also dumped a saison that had huge amount of DMS from a (I guess weak boil) and 60 min. length instead of 90. I’m not sure what you could do to make sure this never happens again, maybe not re-using the yeast so many times with your procedure. You could beef up your procedure for handling the yeast or just dump sooner? I don’t know.
I would have mixed it with some fruit juice and served it to my wife’s friends. What do they know? More banana radler, ladies?
I had one like that too. Gave it a fancy name, “Phlatt Orange Blonde Banana Bastard” and my friends loved it.
You have weird friends (so do I) 🙂
If you still have that yeast, you should try the chlorine dioxide and see if that fixes it.
Ehh, I tossed it, along with a bunch of other yeasts from the back of the fridge. Honestly, as interesting as the ClO2 thing is, it seems much easier just to snag another vial of yeast… which is exactly what I did. I’ll have to play with it at some point, if solely for the sake of science.
For science!
A picture is worth a thousand words. I am talking about the picture of you having to dump all that beer down the drain. Makes me sad too. It’s almost looks like you are a nice guy and you are helping your sick keg throw up 🙂 At least there was no hair to have to hold back. Prost !!
Haha. I am SO glad I didn’t have put my keg’s hair in a shitty ponytail while it drooped over the sink.
🙂
That is one perk of kegging. Bottling, you have to go through every single bottle and dump it. When the issue is an infection that leads to over carbonation…safety glasses, gloves, long sleeves and an apron time. Welding mask/face shield if you’ve got it. Did that once with a cranberry stout. I’ve been making pumpkin ales for awhile and I always mash the pumpkin and butternut squash in the grains. I hadn’t done another fruit beer in ages, so I thought, do the same with the cranberries! Maybe there are some starches and they’ll get converted. WAY too acidic. Didn’t take a PH test of the mash. Didn’t do a starch test. Just straight up mashed, boiled, took a gravity measurement, pitched the yeast and bobs your uncle. It was 1.055. At bottling time, it was 1.028…oh crap. Check with some idophor…STARCH BOMB! Stupidly, I had already dropped the priming sugar in the bucket and didn’t want to transfer it again (after dropping enzymes in to convert the starch). So I stupidly bottled it since it didn’t taste terrible (kind of tart and thick). This was after giving it 4 weeks to ferment out before transferring to my bottling bucket
3 weeks later, I cracked a bottle. It tasted not great, but not terrible…but it was kind of over carbonated. Opened a bottle at the 4 week mark, massively over carbonated. Opened another the next day, even worse. I placed the entire batch in to a rubber maid container as I couldn’t empty them outside that night (the last 2 exploded over my kitchen upon opening). The next day I donned my protective gear and emptied them on my compost pile. One bottle cap upon deftly and swiftly popping it off was blown about 150ft across my neighbor’s back yard and hit their house. How none of the bottles exploded, I still do not know, but it was “exciting” opening all of them.
Only batch I have ever dumped (other than a horrid cider, but that isn’t beer).
Yeah, I worry about over building starters and harvesting even. But, I figure at $6 per batch saved in costs, it doesn’t take many batches to save the cost of the entire batch if it funks. Most of my batches are only about $18 of ingredients for 5 gallons. So if 1 in 4 batches goes south, I am still at a break even. So far I’ve oversized and harvested I think 8 times with zero contamination.
Gotta do it again tonight for a pumpkin stout and some WLP090. 5th time with this yeast (I do like the WLP090 more than WLP001 or S-05 I’ve decided. Just made a wicked smoked cherry wheat with it). Harvesting slurry always worries the heck out of me. Though I’ve done it a couple of times, both with success. Pitched on top of the yeast cake for one and harvested a tiny bit and made a starter with the other).
You should have tried distilling it. Been anxious for a bad batch to get some consolation booze…
Interesting idea, to be sure, though it would require both a still and interest in distilling, of which I have neither.
” … groundwater temp hovers around 76°F.” You sure about that? Groundwater temperature is fairly constant year-round.
I’d say it’s more likely the variable is the temperature of the water in the holding tank.
Run the pump long enough and much cooler water will flow from the spigot.
In california, most of our municipal water is stored in above ground tanks and water towers. So the water absolutely changes temperature with the seasons. We still refer to it as “groundwater”, but what we really mean is “Tap Water”. Last brew day, my tap water was over 80F.
I hope you have beer to drink….
One question about mash temperature. 156 F isn’t very high for a kölsch?
Cheers!
I’ve only ever used WLP029 once, and I got banana/hefe flavours as well. Starter was made up from a fresh vial. Googling “wlp 029 banana” gives quite a few results, so I wonder if there is something in this yeast where certain conditions can cause it to throw these flavours? I haven’t used it since because of the banana issues I had the first time.
Very curious.
Marshall — been reading quite a while and have learned a ton from you and the others contributing to this site. Thank you.
Man, this failed exbeeriment made me feel so much better. I have 2 kegs in the fridge right now with the exact same problem (and I’ve been in too much denial to dump them). Same issue, the starter was made with 4th gen WLP007 collected from other starters. “Hey, what’s that clove-y smell? It was surely because the starter was in the sun and got too hot. It’s too much trouble to run to the store now and grab a new vial. It’ll be fine! RDWHAHB, right? Hey, that attenuated a few (many more) points more than I expected. Must be because I was short on the OG by 2 points. Ugh, that’s terrible — no, no, no — it’s a ‘Belgian IPA’.”
Bleh, wild yeast got in there somehow and I should have known better. Thanks for exposing your mistake so I don’t feel like an idiot without some company! I’m gonna go home and dump these today.
BTW, next time you’re north in the Bay Area, I’d love to meet you and participate in one of your triangle tests! See you at MoreBeer sometime, I hope!
Hey Noah, I’m sorry for your loss, though I strongly believe the freedom experienced when we jump out of denial feels good enough to at least balance things out.
I always try to make my whereabouts known on social media, especially when I’m in places like the Bay Area! If you’re not already, consider following my FB page, I update it often when I’m travelling: http://facebook.com/brulosophy
Cheers!
What refractometer did you use? Beacuse the SG scale is wrong, it doesn’t fit the brix values.
A cheap one I got on Amazon. The Brix scale may be off, but SG perfectly aligns with my hydrometer, and I’m all about SG, so it works for me.
Marshall,
Could be a coincidence, but I find my harvested Kölsch yeasts are very short lasting. Too bad about your batch!
GB
That’s interesting!
Want to hear something interesting? The exact same thing happened to me with a rye Kolsch I made using WLP 001 I saved from a pale ale.I thought I smelled bananas in the starter and assumed it was the 75 degree ferment temp. Sure enough, the final beer was hazy and had a distinct clove spiciness. I though I had mis-labeled a jar of between yeast. I didn’t dump my batch of rye kolsch; I sniffed another jar of wlp001 and got bananas. Thus, all that yeast got dumped and I drank all 5 gallons of rye while pondering my brewing snafu.
That’s dedication.
I’m a little worried. I have a WLP029 starter on the stir plate. It was originally purchased last August and has been used 5-6 times since then. I THINK the starter smells normal. On the other hand, it’s been stored in the fridge next to my wild sourdough yeast – maybe not the best place for it. Oh well. I don’t have anything else, so full steam ahead!