slippery, even maybe oily finish in beer

Hey all, I've been posting a lot lately trying to diagnose some issues in my extract beers. I started a thread earlier in the week about some bitterness in my first two batches. I decided to pull another taster today of my pale. I'm pleased to say that the beer is improving, and I probably jumped the gun and whined about the bitter finish. It still finishes a little dry with bitterness, but it may legitimately be hop bitterness. I'm happy to report that the beer is coming along well and the the beer is really improving with age (who would have thought, right). OK, but here's my real question:

I have complained that the finish has been a bit dry, but mainly that it kind of makes my throat mucus up and all together finishes kinda oily. Have you ever seen people like spit and suck it back in cause their saliva is all...mucusy (gross thread right). That's how it makes my mouth after each sip. What causes this kind of mouthfeel? Low levels of diacetyl? I did only let it ferment like 10 days then crash cool and keg...What gives? The beer was brewed on 4/9 and kegged on 5/6.

does it taste buttery?

Hard to say without a bunch of specifics, but I would recommend not kegging/bottling/etc until the yeast flocs out and clears naturally. No reason to rush it and can only serve to make the beer worse, really. Depending on the gravity/yeast strain used rousing or slightly raising the temperature to encourage the yeast to continue cleaning up the beer can help mitigate off-flavors. Diacetyl reduction happens with time -- and if it wasn't cut down during conditioning it could give some slickness to the mouthfeel.

No, doesn't taste buttery. I had this same slick, loogy off flavor in the first two beers I did. Both had a primary of around 10 days until crash cooling for 2 weeks then kegging for 3 weeks. I have a beer in primary now going on 4 weeks, so if it is diacetyl then this next beer should turn out great! If I take the beer out of the fridge and leave it at 70 for a week, do you think it will go away?

oh, the whole batch is being refrigerated at once? i'd take it out and hope for the best, it won't happen at a cold temp.

10 day primary, secondary cold crash for 2 weeks, transfer to keg where it's sitting on the gas. It'll be done carbing on Saturday so I'll take it out and let it sit for a week. Thanks!!

just a thought...but does your water go through a softener? I have noticed that water that goes through a water-softener can tend to feel slick, slimy, etc...perhaps this is carrying over into your beer?

I have had this before. I even posted a thread about it once. Let me know if this relates... The mouthfeel is kind of like the feel of fish scales.. or in my isolated case (the mouthfeel of diesel fuel when trying to siphon it out of my tank because me idiot buddy filled my snowmobile with something other than premium.

I noticed this taste in my bottles after about 10-15 days of conditioning.. The carbanation was good, but it clearly wasn't ready. After another couple of weeks the mouthfeel and off taste mostly went away.

My biggest problem with that particular brew was that I heated my Steeping grains up to 200+ degrees and it may have something to do with the tannis of the grains.

Either way, both the mouthfeel and taste pretty much went away, and it was consumable... But not my best

Xaphoeous said:

just a thought...but does your water go through a softener? I have noticed that water that goes through a water-softener can tend to feel slick, slimy, etc...perhaps this is carrying over into your beer?

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Bottled spring water

To answer another question, I dont know about fish scales or diesel taste??

tmurph6 said:

10 day primary, secondary cold crash for 2 weeks, transfer to keg where it's sitting on the gas. It'll be done carbing on Saturday so I'll take it out and let it sit for a week. Thanks!!

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Diacetyl can present on some palates as only a slick mouthfeel, with no little to no buttery taste. My advice would be to leave it in the primary for longer, maybe 3 weeks, cold crash (crash is a fast moving thing, IMHO) for 2 days, then keg on gas.

Give your yeasties some time to finish cleaning up the off flavors they produced. And hey, with the above method, you're actually not losing any time in your process from "grain" to glass.

Braufguss said:

Diacetyl can present on some palates as only a slick mouthfeel, with no little to no buttery taste. My advice would be to leave it in the primary for longer, maybe 3 weeks, cold crash (crash is a fast moving thing, IMHO) for 2 days, then keg on gas.

Give your yeasties some time to finish cleaning up the off flavors they produced. And hey, with the above method, you're actually not losing any time in your process from "grain" to glass.

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Exactly! In lower amounts, diacetyl is often perceived as just an oily mouthfeel. The thing is, is if it's not treated it will get worse and worse. and then it'll taste buttery.

I'd suggest a longer primary, and raising the temp at the end of primary. Then cold crash, but not so soon!

I think this will solve a world of problems for me!