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Hallertau Blanc spicy herbal flavor dominates instead of white wine and fruit?

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  • Hallertau Blanc spicy herbal flavor dominates instead of white wine and fruit?

    so long story short- i made a light brett beer the day of my sons birth, nothing but hallertau blanc in whirlpool for close to an hour. (this was at home playing with new recipes) as can be imagined, i wasnt able to give it much attention and it had 4 months of benign neglect. then bottled and let it sit for a month or so. at 6 months it was great. that white wine character came through and a bit of fruit from the brett, fantastic.

    in subsequent attempts, i kept getting a spicy phenolic flavor, almost like a saison. weird. thought it was an infection, that it was bad temp control on the brett, underpitching, not enough o2, too much o2, infected culture from white labs, etc. etc. lots of opinions, all seemingly plausible.

    but i just made it again, with different yeast lab's culture, and its the same thing. a spicy/herbal/quasi-phenol flavor.

    the only differences between the first brew and more recent attempts is .... aging time. and then the most recent also got dry hoppping.

    anybody else have these crazy different profiles from HB? i was expecting the white wine and grape but instead ive got some strange herbal/floral/spicy thing. given that i didnt touch the original beer for 6 months, is this just the normal progression of HB? not good for dry hopping?

    im totally stumped. the hops are from the same supplier, and i assume the same harvest. i would not even guess its the same recipe. definitely do not want to make 5bbls of this if its going to taste like one of those weird european herbal tonics. definitely not what i was expecting.
    Last edited by brain medicine; 08-03-2017, 05:02 PM.

  • #2
    H. Blanx

    Hey Brain, I've used hallertau blanc quite a few times. Initially it was in a single hop beer with additions from 20 minutes all the way through a 15 minute whirlpool and dry hopping. I was getting that herbal spiciness you are talking about too. So remade the beer and from my experience I don't use the hop any earlier than the whirlpool. That removed most of those flavors and let the wine/pineapple flavors shine. You can be heavy handed dry hopping too. You have to remember it is still a German hop!

    Ryan Fuchs
    Foxhole Brewhouse

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    • #3
      see thats the thing, i didnt add anything in kettle until whirlpool came down to 190, and rode it all the way to like 150 if i recall. but still got a ton of the spiciness on test batches.

      i also dry hopped this most recent time, did you dry hop with it at all? wondering if that added/brought the spice back

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      • #4
        I usually do a 15 minutes whirlpool and add hops throughout that. I dry hopped my single hop H. Blanc Ipa with 7lbs of dry hops in 5bbl and did not have any phenolic aromas or flavors. I'm not sure why you are getting that profile.

        What yeast strain? What hopping rate are you using? Is that phenolic profile coming through right away or just after adding brett?

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        • #5
          One other thought.....what year hops and were they handled and stored properly?

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          • #6
            Last years hops from german crop. Supplier gets them direct from zee germans. Typical mylar vacuum pak, etc.

            I used about 1.5 to 2 lb per bbl rate. WP lasts for like 45min or so. dump them in at 190/185 and then again down at like 165ish.

            This has been with brett c and b. Will brew again and see if i pick it up in the kettle, i dont recall offhand, but it's definitely there in fermenter.


            An acquaintance said he gets same thing when dry hopping. Im wondering if its the noble parentage putting out spicy notes. Maybe next time ill dry hop at full krauzen and see if maybe the brett can tame it down. I also remember the very first attempt having a ton of hop matter in the fermenter, which must have mingled with the brett as well for 4months.

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            • #7
              I'd be looking more at your water (you say at home, was it from the tap? Chloramines?), or the brett strains. I've definitely seen some brett strains get pretty phenolic over time...

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