Letting air in while tasting give some of my beers a harsh finish

Kaiser · 03-10-2008, 04:06 AM

Recently I noticed, that the finish of some of my beers changes to a more harsh, dry sometimes astringent finish when I open my mouth while tasting the beer. This seems to be more pronounced with the hoppier beers (25 - 30 IBU) that also have finishing hops. It does not appear when I keep my mouth shut after taking a sip.

I never really came acorss this taste in commercial beers, and it does bother me a little since it is one of a few things that keep my beers from being perfect (by my own assesment).

Anybody else noticed something like this.

Kai

Judd · 03-10-2008, 04:10 AM

Sort of. I'm not sure if it's the same phenomenon you are talking about, but it's interesting. When I taste a beer, I usually breathe some air through it in my mouth, to get a more intense flavour and assess it better. With homebrew, I can taste it oxidizing in my mouth when I do this. Not getting astringent, just the sherry flavour of oxidized beer. Commercial beer doesn't do that as much, in my experience.

Kaiser · 03-10-2008, 02:00 PM

That is very interesting and I would like to see if others notice this as well.

Homebrewjosh · 03-11-2008, 02:14 AM

Have you ever watched the way coffee manufactures taste coffee? They taste coffee is such a way where they get as much air in their mouth when tasting a sample.

I thinks this maximizes the flavor the coffee has to offer. I think the same is true with beer.

I have tastes some brews using this method (alone) I see a big difference. (with hoppy brews)

Just thought i would drop off my 2 cents worth .

celtic_man81 · 03-11-2008, 02:54 AM

Astringent, you say? Are you using grains, or is it an extract? If it is grains, it could be due to mishandling grains. Don't crack them too much, you just want the insides showing. It could also be that your temperature is too high, over sparging your grains, or using too much salts during water treatment. It could also be that you are using too much hops. Maybe you already know that info, but I thought I'd help you out anyways.

celtic_man81 · 03-11-2008, 02:54 AM

Astringent, you say? Are you using grains, or is it an extract? If it is grains, it could be due to mishandling grains. Don't crack them too much, you just want the insides showing. It could also be that your temperature is too high, over sparging your grains, or using too much salts during water treatment. It could also be that you are using too much hops. Maybe you already know that info, but I thought I'd help you out anyways.

Kaiser · 03-11-2008, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by celtic_man81

Astringent, you say? Are you using grains, or is it an extract? If it is grains, it could be due to mishandling grains. Don't crack them too much, you just want the insides showing. It could also be that your temperature is too high, over sparging your grains, or using too much salts during water treatment. It could also be that you are using too much hops. Maybe you already know that info, but I thought I'd help you out anyways.

No. I pretty much ruled this out. pH (measured) is always below 5.7 (even for the last runnings) and I condition my malt to minimize husk shredding.

This does puzzle me. I'll have a few brewers over on Saturday and will give them some of the beers that I think show this taste. Let's see what they think.

Kai

celtic_man81 · 03-11-2008, 04:34 AM

Alright. Interesting. What about temperature and sparging? Your hops seem to be ok, the IBU isn't too high.