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I had a couple of batches of ale recently come out with a definite clove taste. I used US-05 at 68F in both cases, and it was the second batch of wort for each pitch with a good sanitation after the first clovey batch was detected. The first batch of both pitches came out as expected, the second ones had a clove flavor. I often brew back to back brews on yeast cake of previous pitches w/o unsealing fermentor. I've gone as many as eleven successive batches with good success, though the longer runs have usually been cold fermented lagers.
While not as overwhelming as the time I got clove from BE-256 a few years back, it is enough to be a flaw in flavor to my taste.
The obvious conclusion is I somehow picked up a infection with a yeast that makes clove taste. The other possibility is that the packets of US-05 were not a pure as they could have been, and contained traces of some kind of farm or Belgium yeast contamination, and the contaminating yeast got a good foothold in fermentor after first batchs. Yeast packets were from the same run produced in 2022.
Anyone else who does successive batches on same yeast cake get this result with US-05 lately?
In any case, I did a thorough breakdown sanitation of gear and am brewing a second batch on a pitch of S-04 right now, hopefully problem solved.
While not as overwhelming as the time I got clove from BE-256 a few years back, it is enough to be a flaw in flavor to my taste.
The obvious conclusion is I somehow picked up a infection with a yeast that makes clove taste. The other possibility is that the packets of US-05 were not a pure as they could have been, and contained traces of some kind of farm or Belgium yeast contamination, and the contaminating yeast got a good foothold in fermentor after first batchs. Yeast packets were from the same run produced in 2022.
Anyone else who does successive batches on same yeast cake get this result with US-05 lately?
In any case, I did a thorough breakdown sanitation of gear and am brewing a second batch on a pitch of S-04 right now, hopefully problem solved.