Has anyone had any experience with getting a strong phenol presence in a beer after decocting? I recently brewed two beers one day apart, and one came out amazing while the other came out really terribly plasticy and medicinal to the point of being undrinkable.
Recipe:
10 lb floor malted bohemian pilsner malt
3 lb munich malt
1 lb vienna malt
Mash in at 98°F, pull decoction, rest at 155°F for 15 min, boil 15 min, recombine to hit 122°F. Repeat to hit 155°F, and then 170°F.
Fly sparge with 2.5 gal.
Begin 90 min boil
2 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrüh @ 60 min
0.5 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrüh @ 20 min
Chill to 60°F, put in 50°F swamp cooler, pitch wy1007 (1.6L starter, stir plate - 300 billion cells - 150% recommended cell count pitch). Ferment at 55°F for 3 weeks.
OG 1.056 FG 1.008
carbed to 2.5 vols
I'm at a complete loss as to why this one came out disgusting and the other one came out incredible. 1007 done that low should be clean as hell. The only thing that I can think of is that the decoctions made the chlorine gas that Chicago uses in their water react with the grain... but it seems like the chlorine gas would just boil off and not do anything. Everything is sanitized with fresh starsan, and no bleach ever comes close to any of my equipment.