You know, Pepsi, or Coca-Cola? I've brewed some light stouts and some 60 shilling ales that are reminiscent of cola. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this in the past and how to avoid this in the future. What really set me off was that I put a shot of bourbon in a dry stout yesterday. It turned into a well drink. Don't get me wrong. Soda tastes fine, but I don't want it in my beer.
I got a soda flavor in stouts twice many years ago from fermenting too warm. One fermented at 80F with the old Edme yeast back in 1987 was a dead ringer for bourbon and coke (with nasty cheap bourbon). That was my 3rd or 4th batch in the first months of extract brewing.
Colas have a spicy component to them and acidity. Vanilla is a major spice, so if your bourbon has a lot of vanillin, and your stout has a high acid content, I can see it happening. If your stouts' roasty flavors are low, I could see them getting overwhelmed by the bourbon, so that coffee and chocolate notes disappear, and vanillin-y bourbon comes to the forefront. Citrus from the hops could contribute to cola like aromas, too (I get a lemony smell from the cola I am drinking right now).
Dry Stout: 8# MO 2# flaked barley 1# RB .5# BP 1.5 OZ EKG@ 60 S-04 yeast Fermented @62F One shot of bourbon later it tasted more like coke than anything. 60 Shilling Ale: 4.5# MO 1# C40 8 oz C120 7.5 oz Honey malt 2 oz pale chocolate malt .75 oz EKG @ 60 min Wyeast Scottish ale yeat @ 60F This one had more of a watery taste to them. The flavor was more like black tea, and coke, watered down. It wasn't unpleasant, but I still don't want Coke in my beer.
No you are not... some homebrew has the cola note nowadays, though I'm mostly getting it in a few commercial Belgian dark beers where it did not exist 10 years ago. It is somewhat less common in homebrew unless other defects are apparent. I'd speculate the 'improvements' in production of ingredients or the finished beer are to blame. It's not awful but does detract slightly from the previous wonderfulness of a few classic beers.
I've found that the Trader Joe's Vintage Ales brewed by UniBroue have a cola taste, but nothing about your recipes are anything similar to what I'd imagine their's are.
I got some cola-esque things in one of my early batches...might have even been my 2nd or 3rd on my current system. It was before I got a good thermometer so I was mashing pretty high without realizing. I think it was going to be a weird batch anyway. A target OG of 1.032 and I used a half pound each of Chocolate Malt and C120. This was also before I did anything with water chemistry, but I've got pretty forgiving water. The pH definitely could have gotten a little high, though.
Random question......do you bottle or keg? If you keg, were the kegs really clean before you racked to them? Could be residual soda in the kegs. Just my $.02
