Is my crush too fine? - Page 4

Matt Up North · 01-22-2012, 04:04 PM

What Forrest said is the most true in my eyes. Not rinsing or having too much no-rinse can give that taste. My early bottled beer had that and by letting my bottles and bottling equipment dry fully it solved the problem. Too much sanitation can be a problem.

Your crush looks great, don't worry about it. Some will say not enough fines, others perfect. The grind is personal preference that many a good beer has been made from many a different grind.

**msa8967** · 01-22-2012, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanadianQuaffer

Perhaps this video will help:

How to Adjusting the Barley Crusher Grain Mill - YouTube

Thanks for posting this video. It will make any adjustments I need to do very simple now that I see which screws/bolts need to be loosened first.

**msa8967** · 01-22-2012, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golddiggie

Oxidation is supposed to give a cardboard flavor to the brew, not medicinal. As long as you're not sloshing the brew around in the bucket as you carry it up, after removing the lid (letting air in) you should be fine. There should still be enough CO2 covering the brew to protect it from careful transport.

Try using PBW instead of oxyclean for a few batches. It's easy to get a complete rinse of PBW.

You might want to try bottled water, that's not store brand, for a few batches. If the filters they use were towards the end of their life, for the batches you bought, they could be letting more through. Or they could just be giving a casual filtering and calling it RO water. Unless you get it tested, you won't know. You could also invest in an under sink water filter system. You can get them for under $100 that will filter out high "9's" for what's in the water. I have one of those and the water from it [basically] has no flavors to it. Best way to describe it is 'wet'...

Mine is a two cartridge system, with a larger micron first, followed by a smaller one (2 micron then .5 micron)...

Thanks for your reply to my problem with a medicine aftertaste in one of my brews. I had not thought of the source of the RO water possibly being the problem. This last batch of water came from Walmart and I would not be suprised if quality control on this was not a priority.

We do have a water filter on our kitchen sink for drinking water in additon to a water softner for the entire house. The faucet filter system we have is very slow at producing large quantities (like 1-2 quarts at a time) so I am thinking of putting in another filter system that might work faster.

1. Do you think this new filter system should be installed in front of (before) the water softner or after (behind) the softner?

2. What type/size/brand system should I look for that will filter enough large quantities water for brewing? Often if I drain 1 gallon out of our current filter system in the kitchen the flow will be very very slow for quite some time and this really irates my wife so I am hesistant to try to use what we have in the collection of 8 gallons of water.

3. Is there anyway someone could post a picture showing their setup for this process so I have an idea of what to look for?

thanks for the detailled replies.

**Golddiggie** · 01-22-2012, 06:08 PM

PM sent, but this is the system I have under the sink:
http://www.amazon.com/Sta-Rite-OT32-Cartridge-Undersink-System/dp/B0002YU6ZI/ref=pd_sim_hi_13
The filters are even cheaper than when I ordered them last. I'll probably order a new set soon, so that it's easier to change them when I need to...

BOBTHEukBREWER · 01-22-2012, 06:47 PM

I always rins off "no rinse sanitisers" with water from my hot tap no problems so far but I have only been brewing 43 years so far....

**Austinhomebrew** · 01-22-2012, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msa8967

I use Starsan (not idophor) for my sanitizer which I have read should not affect the taste of the beer if bottled wet and used at the proper concentration. I am wondering if I did not rinse the buckets enough the last time they were cleaned prior to using them. Just in case this was the problem is there any way to remove any remaining oxyclean or bleach that was not rinsed off well from the inside bucket surface at this point or should I just retire these buckets and order new ones to use?

Just rinse them really well. Taste the water going into your beer. do a batch with no ingredients and taste the water along the way and see where the problem is. It is not the ingredients so rule them out.

Forrest

**3PegBrew** · 01-22-2012, 08:05 PM

Some people say the crush looks good. Somebody said it could be crushed a bit more. I say run it through a second time, if you are still having an issue once the adjustment is made on the mill.

**Golddiggie** · 01-22-2012, 08:46 PM

The BC I had, for a short time (before getting my MM2-2.0) was set to .039" gap from the factory. That's what it should be if you line up the notches in the adjustment knobs and on the frame. That's normally a good baseline setting to go with. A few batches at that gap and you can decide if you want to start messing around with it.

**msa8967** · 01-23-2012, 12:56 AM

Picked up a set of feeler gauges on my home from the local home brew club meeting so I will be checking out the settings later this evening. All four beers I brought tonight were well received (which is a first for me since these brewers mean business when it comes to their own brews). Thus, I agree with many of the opinions received in this thread that the gap size on my barley crusher may not be the source of the problem with this batch that finishes with a medicine taste.