mlucia

Recipes 

I'll try to keep this short - I brewed for 3-4 years about 10 years ago... divorce, move, blah-blah

My new wife asked me to brew for Christmas last year, which I did with an extract kit and bottled it - very very nice beer. Had another couple of decent beers, both AG and extract, everything else has been kegged.

The last 4 batches have had a very bitter taste that lingers on the back of the tongue, and renders the beer pretty much un-drinkable. I'll have a glass now and again, only to get irritated at the lingering bitterness.

I tried all of the following:

water from 3 different sources, one of which was bottled water.. all of which tested with no chlorine

a couple of extract kits, from two different places

going back to all of the equipment I used 10 years ago (I've since improved my rig)

reducing the hops significantly

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I believe I've narrowed it down to one of two things


1. My use of "One Step" sanitizer - I used to use iodphor

2. a bad bottle of CO2


Anyone????

Thanks

hamiltont

Recipes 

Can't remember where I got this from but it's a thought anyway...
Astringency


Description: Think of the sensation you get in your mouth when sucking on a teabag, or chewing on grape skins (Yeah, I know, not stuff you do every day). Sometimes confused with bitterness. Astringency is a dry mouth-puckering sensation, whereas bitterness is detected on the back of the tongue and is desired and assertively noticeable in certain styles, such India Pale Ale or American Pale Ale.

Cause: Several causes. Extract brewers sometimes have problems with astringency from steeping their steeping grains too long, or at too hot of a temperature. Overcrushing your grain, oversparging or sparging with boiling-hot or alkaline water, and bacterial infection. Excessive oxidation also produces a rather unpleasant astringency.

Remedy:Pay more attention to water temperature whether mashing, sparging, or steeping. Keep good sanitation practices. Make sure grain is crushed, not pulverized into powder. Try to minimize oxygen exposure after fermentation to decrease chance of severe oxidation

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