NB Chinook IPA question/issue

Brewer #117522

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Hello, so I'm recently on my 3rd batch. It was a kit from Northern Brewer, their Chinook IPA to be exact. It's day 12 now of fermenting in a bucket inside a chest freezer attached to a temperature controller and kept at 64F (probe taped to side of bucket and covered with insulation foam to get a closer reading). OG was 1.053. Used US-05 yeast. Just went to take my first gravity reading to see if it's reached FG before transferring to secondary and dry hopping. It's gravity is at 1.012. None of the above is my issue, just felt I should supply above info first. My issue is this, tasted the hydro sample (who doesn't?) and it tastes straight up like a wheat beer, not an IPA at all. It has a slight citrus aroma, but that's it. I don't see how it could be esters as it was fermented quite close to the lower end of the temp range and I also added yeast nutrient to help prevent stressed yeast. So, what's the issue? Is it just still real green and this will pass in time or is it a lost cause? The beer itself looks fine. Nothing to suggest any sort of infection that I can see. Looks like my others, just doesn't taste right. Sorry for the long question...
 
What are the rest of the ingredients in the kit? Grains and malt extract?
 
What are the rest of the ingredients in the kit? Grains and malt extract?
6lbs Pilsen LME
1lb Pilsen DME
0.75lb Carapils 8
0.25lb caramel 40

1oz Chinook @60
0.5oz @10
0.5oz @1

that's the recipe.
Did you use DME and catch some in the sample? Might throw the taste off and mute the hops

Yes, I did. But, DME still catching in the sample 12 days into fermentation at a high enough concentration to throw the taste completely out of whack?
 
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If there's unfermented sugar, it will mask bitterness. Give it a few more days and try again.
 
Yeah, I see what you're saying. It's just strange. I'm trying to describe it as best I can. It's kind of like a mix of a blue moon and a hefeweizen tastes. That's why I mentioned esters, but that itself is weird at a 64F ferment for US-05 and it's 59-75 range. Guess I'll just continue to let it ride. Good news is NB has a "no questions asked replacement guarantee" lol
 
At 1.012, there's no sugar left in any quantity that would throw off the flavor.
Here's my take...US-05 does weird things at that temp range. Lower, it's cleaner and higher, it's more standard ester/American ale flavor but at 62-64, it can produce some very different flavor notes as well as some diacetyl. I mostly get intense peach flavor out of it when it goes there, but I could see some "wheat beer" notes if it were subdued. And part of what you're getting may be extract flavor...it just doesn't settle into a good beer taste as quickly as all-grain for some reason.
No matter what, warm it up to 68-70 fairly quickly and let it sit there for a week. It may go another point or two to finish out to .010 or so and could be a completely different beer.
 

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