SkiGladys

Recipes 

I have been brewing for over a year w/ around 12 batches made so far. Lately, three batches that I have made have a sour or astringent aftertaste. I am not sure how to describe it.
I make extract beers w/ specialty grains steeped at around 155-160 degrees. The pale ales and IPA's don't have this flavor, but a Brown, a Stout, and a Scottish Ale have all had this problem.

Regardless, I am wondering if a couple of things may have caused this annoying flavor:
1. I have been squeezing the juice out of my grain bags after steeping. I just read not to do this and to just rinse the grains instead. Could this cause the aftertaste?
2. I don't check the ph for my water and I have no idea if I need to do anything to adjust the ph during the brewing.
3. I just switched to kegs. Is it possible I am just drinking beer that is too green (the Stout has been in the keg about three weeks since removing it from the secondary and has not improved much in flavor in those three weeks).

Thanks all

sundaybrewingco

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1.) Like you said, squeezing the juice from the grain bags isn't a good move.. I'm not exactly sure if that is causing the off-tastes or not..
2.) I'm pretty sure the pH of the water doesn't effect extract brewing (I am guessing that is what you are doing since you are steeping grains). Maybe someone else can comment on that.. As long as your tap water is filtered, that should be fine.
3.) Maybe the kegs or the lines in the kegs are not clean enough which might be causing some of the off tastes?

Most folks on here will say that time will heal a lot of issues when it comes to beer. You might be correct that you are drinking green beer. Let it sit a bit longer and give it another taste to see if it still tastes off.

I doubt any of that helped you at all, but its at least worth a bump.

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bikeboy389

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Is it the last three batches you've done, or just three times you've made darker beers, with pales and/or IPAs coming out OK in between dark (sour) batches?

I ask because if it's happened on your last three in a row, maybe it's not the style of beer. Maybe you have an infection that's not getting cleared out of your fermenter or other equipment. I hear that can happen with plastic bucket fermenters, and bacteria that make lactic or acetic acid as a by-product could cause a sour flavor.

Not at all saying this is the case--I'm a bit of a noob myself, so what do I know?--but it's worth considering.

BioBeing

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I had an astringent flavor in two of my beers (batches 2 and 3 for me). They took about 8 to 12 weeks in the bottles to clear up to where they were drinkable. One was the Boddington's recipe from this site, another was Irish Red. Both were extract + steep. The Boddy's ended up quite good, but the Irish Red still has that flavor, and I gave the last of it away (my brew buddy's SWMBO liked it). I have done other beers since then and not gotten that taste again... so far! I never figured out what it was, and I have gone all grain for my last few anyway.

khiddy

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Or perhaps your water has changed... are you on municipal water? Maybe the city has started adding choloromine or otherwise changed their processing ... process?

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SkiGladys

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This has happened to three of the last four beers. The other one is an arrogant bastard clone that has such strong flavors, I'm not sure the off taste would be apparant.
I will go to extra efforts to clean my equipment before my next brew, but I thought I had done a pretty good job of sanitizing before.

I'll also check the water supply through their website for what khiddy mentioned.

thanks, t

ericd

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I think I have the same problem. I'd like to know if anyone's figured it out.

monty3777

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dumb question but I'll ask it. have you switched kit suppliers? when i switched to NB i noticed that a lot of those flavors disappeared from my brews.

SkiGladys

Recipes 

I replaced all of the o rings and seals on my kegging equipment and did a thorough cleansing with a beer line cleaner. I have also stopped squeezing out the grain bags and have started rinsing the grains after steeping with hot water.
I have not noticed the problem with any of the last 3 batches, so hopefully one of these two changes fixed the problem. That or something else entirely different, but for now I'm pleased with my recent results.
I'm not using kits, so that couldn't have been the problem or solution (for me at least).