Beer Forum

Had my California Common (JZ's recipe) tasted on The Session last night and Doc (and I think Sully) commented on it being too fruity.

There was a comment about my fermentation temp perhaps being too high (it was 62F, like JZ suggested). I used the Wyeast 2112.

Wondering how these two yeast strains differ? Or if they are the same.

The two products will vary slightly, but they are historically the same strain.

Keep in mind there is more to fermentation than yeast strain and temperature. The amount of O2, the pitching rate, pitching temperature, and the health of the yeast are all factors that will influence ester production. Too much or too little of any factor can result in higher ester levels.

California Common can have a light fruity note to it. If it is more than a background character, then it is too much.

Thanks for the quick reply, Jamil. Too bad you weren't on the show. I'd really hoped to get your feedback since it was your recipe.

One thing that just came to mind is this - when I used your pitch rate calculator (fantastic tool btw), I didn't realize you had the drop down menu for beer types.

Rather than setting my type to hybrid, I used ale. So I definitely underpitched. I did oxygenate the wort with pure 02 for a minute before pitching the yeast at the fermentation temp.

Another lesson learned is that I need to continue refining my palette. Doc and Sully (and even Justin) certainly picked up on some things I hadn't noticed.

I've had poor luck with WLP810 over the last year. Nothing fundamental about my process had changed, but I had odd obvious phenolic off flavors and bad lag time with this yeast strain at 59F. I've worked with about 10 yeast strains over the last year, and I've had the worst luck with this one.. Either I happened to stumble upon a bad pitch, or this strain is just tricky to deal with. I had an interesting conversation with Adam at Linden St. about this yeast strain, and he had also experienced odd recent performance with the White Labs source and had switched to a supplier in Colorado with more pleasing results..

BrewerB wrote:
Another lesson learned is that I need to continue refining my palette. Doc and Sully (and even Justin) certainly picked up on some things I hadn't noticed.

I am studying for BJCP right now. Our homebrew club has classes where the experienced judges are teaching us noobs. Boy, once you get your palate refined to what beers are supposed to be like, you'll never enjoy a beer like you used to unless its outstanding. Smelling a beer is the hardest part. There are far more complex smells than tastes.