"I can taste the priming sugar"...huh?

Ok, so I have this "know it all" friend (who coincidently comes to me when he has a problem with brewing. When I try to trouble shoot his problem he gets insulted and plays off the help like it's stupid and won't work....so, now you understand his personality ) who keeps saying the same thing to me. Now it’s really starting to annoy me.

"I really like your beers, but they would be better if they were kegged. I can taste the priming sugar and it's horrible".

I'm calling BS (I don't say it, I just ignore what he says). I use the appropriate 3/4 a cup for ALL of my bottling. All the beers are perfectly carbed and don't explode in the bottle so I’m not using too much. I don’t taste priming sugar in my beers and no one else has ever said anything. Is there any ways that what he’s saying can be true?

Simple solution is to stop giving him beer.

Even in a lighter beer, I can't see the priming sugar having a noticeable effect on flavor. Ask him what it tastes like.

^What he said. This clown doesn't deserve your beer.

Once your beer is carbonated, there is NO priming sugar in it. Sounds like he could cover the back forty all by himself.

How exactly can he taste the sugar after the yeast have consumed it all up?

kuphish said:

How exactly can he taste the sugar after the yeast have consumed it all up?

Click to expand...

Ya know, I'm going to ask him that very same thing next time. He'll probably get flustured and come up with some BS statement liek, "It produces off flavors".

Ha! A friend of mine has another friend just like this. Except it's an odd mustard-like aftertaste that only he can taste. These people are amusing and, imo, ultimately jealous.

You should come up with something really fancy sounding and say that all his beers have it.

Seriously though, if he's brewing his own and complains about yours, tell him to bring his own.

Too much sugar CAN produce off flavors. That's why I said to ask him what it tastes like, if he says sugar, you can call him on total BS. Like I said, though, the amounts we're talking about it shouldn't be an issue at all.

Every time he comes to you for advice on his beers, tell him you think they seem to lack an adequate "wetness factor ratio." See if he can figure that one out.

Two words- cock punch.

peel the label off some micro brew, invite him over and hand it to him to see if he can taste the priming sugar. Tell him it's your new brew.

Present two identical bottles to him. Tell him that one was "grüngeschlaucht" (you bottled at the time when the beer was a few points from its terminal gravity) and that the other was primed with sugar.

Ask him if he can taste the difference. If he does, it is up to you whether you indulge your self to call him a charlatan to his face or just keep it too your self.

BrewsCampbell said:

These people are amusing and, imo, ultimately jealous.

Click to expand...

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

BrewsCampbell said:

Seriously though, if he's brewing his own and complains about yours, tell him to bring his own.

Click to expand...

He does, and they aren't really that great.

Munsoned said:

Every time he comes to you for advice on his beers, tell him you think they seem to lack an adequate "wetness factor ratio." See if he can figure that one out.

Click to expand...

wildwest450 said:

Two words- cock punch.

Click to expand...

ROFL!

Donner said:

peel the label off some micro brew, invite him over and hand it to him to see if he can taste the priming sugar. Tell him it's your new brew.

Click to expand...

DerBraumeister said:

Present two identical bottles to him. Tell him that one was "grüngeschlaucht" (you bottled at the time when the beer was a few points from its terminal gravity) and that the other was primed with sugar.

Ask him if he can taste the difference. If he does, it is up to you whether you indulge your self to call him a charlatan to his face or just keep it too your self.

Click to expand...

I'm liking those ideas but don't know if I want to spend the effort....

What effort? You only have to open two bottles of the same brew (perhaps mark the cap of the other with a magic marker for effect), tell a small story and your trap is set...

Three words.

EAC

DerBraumeister said:

What effort? You only have to open two bottles of the same brew (perhaps mark the cap of the other with a magic marker for effect), tell a small story and your trap is set...

Click to expand...

I'd have to strip off the label off a beer because when I bring over my beers he looks at them when he puts them in the fridge.

jds said:

Three words.

EAC

Click to expand...

Exact Audio Copy, Education and Assistance Corporation?

I agree with the commercial substitution...love to see what kooky criticisms he comes up with.

+1 to the cock punch

sub-zero said:

+1 to the cock punch

Click to expand...

Like this?

+1 Cock Punch, but with the BMC bottle in hand. Then leave it for the swelling to minor parts.

When he comes around again, just explain you don't want to hear the crap anymore. If you can't say anything constructive, keep the pie whole shut.

TeufelBrew said:

+1 Cock Punch, but with the BMC bottle in hand. Then leave it for the swelling to minor parts.

When he comes around again, just explain you don't want to hear the crap anymore. If you can't say anything constructive, keep the pie whole shut.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm all open for what people think about my beer. Infact, the only opinions I want are honest opinions. I'd be more offended if someone said "I like you beer" when infact they thought it was crap.

But he doesn't have anything really to say other than the corn sugar thing. He's a fellow homebrewer (actually showed me the basics way back when), but I've so far surpased him with experience and brewing knowledge that I think he's pissed.

jds said:

Three words.

EAC

Click to expand...

ROFLMAO! I didn't think anyone talked about that anymore!

Help me out, what's EAC stand for?

imaguitargod said:

Help me out, what's EAC stand for?

Click to expand...

You really have to search for that one....


This looks like it had potential to being an epic thread.

I vote cock punch....

imaguitargod said:

Help me out, what's EAC stand for?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing...Eat A Synonym for Rooster.

EAC = East Australian Current........ Dude....

so bottle a batch using dme instead of the corn sugar and tell him nothing. but even then he's still gonna be a whining little butch who knows your a better brewer than he is.

JKoravos said:

I'm guessing...Eat A Synonym for Rooster.

Click to expand...

Eat a chanticleer?*







*sarcasm

Okay - Cock punch for the win - but only after you have made him make a total a$$hat of himself by doing the label switch. I'd just stop giving him beer or tell him to bbuy you a kegging system.

Bottom line is he is full of it.

EAC = Erroneous Alcohol Consumer, I thought everyone knew that this was the official acronym for beer tasting bull$h*ters.

josiahcox said:

Okay - Cock punch for the win - but only after you have made him make a total a$$hat of himself by doing the label switch. I'd just stop giving him beer or tell him to bbuy you a kegging system.

Bottom line is he is full of it.

EAC = Erroneous Alcohol Consumer, I thought everyone knew that this was the official acronym for beer tasting bull$h*ters.

Click to expand...

Erroneous Alcohol Consumer....I'm going to have to use that one!

Alright, I think I can add something to this conversation and it may... MAY help you understand what this dingbat is saying about your beer.

I had a buddy who always said of both of our homebrews that it still had that, "homebrew note" and I had to agree at the time. There was just something that it had that didn't taste like mass brewed swill but was not an off-flavour. I found when I switched base malts that the "homebrew note" disappeared. It was never a bad flavour only one which was slightly sweeter than what I was used to tasting in commercial brews.

If you are using different base malts than your foolish friend who scoffs at a free beer he may be commenting on the residual sweetness of your base malt or some other malt common to many of your brews. In any case, only a true ass-hat derides free homebrew.

Cock punch the bastard.

imaguitargod said:

Erroneous Alcohol Consumer

Click to expand...

I can assure you that a true EAC would take serious issue with that.

While I'm not familiar with the HBT usage of EAC it makes me chuckle. Several years ago I dated a girl who had a pair of friend (females as well) who were vulgar and hilarious. One of the first times I partied with them they used the word "anus" more times in one night than I had previously heard in my prior 20 something years of life. They also lived in Elgin, IL. So, my friend Mikus and I dubbed them the EAC or Elgin Anus Crew.

+1 to cock punch btw. And I'll give you a bonus 10 points if you do it from one knee like the guy in the animated .gif a couple pages back.

Just a suggestion…. Take a bottle of your beer, open it and pour out about half and drink it. Take 5 or 6 Habenero peppers, cut ‘em up and boil for a few minutes in about a half pint of water. Pour through a strainer and top off the half bottle of beer, re-cap and stick it in the fridge (where you won’t mistake it for a non-“modified” bottle!!!). The next time the ingrate comes over to bad-mouth your beer… tell him you have a strange off-flavor in your latest batch you can’t identify… (I mean if he can taste priming sugar, he should be able to tell what it is….. right??) and pour him the “modified” bottle…. More fun than the fourth of July.

ceannt said:

Just a suggestion…. Take a bottle of your beer, open it and pour out about half and drink it. Take 5 or 6 Habenero peppers, cut ‘em up and boil for a few minutes in about a half pint of water. Pour through a strainer and top off the half bottle of beer, re-cap and stick it in the fridge (where you won’t mistake it for a non-“modified” bottle!!!). The next time the ingrate comes over to bad-mouth your beer… tell him you have a strange off-flavor in your latest batch you can’t identify… (I mean if he can taste priming sugar, he should be able to tell what it is….. right??) and pour him the “modified” bottle…. More fun than the fourth of July.

Click to expand...

Nah, we're both chili-heads and have concocted beer far hotter than that.

Darn. how about gasoline? oh, never mind, too expensive.... cock punch it is.

ceannt said:

Darn. how about gasoline? oh, never mind, too expensive.... cock punch it is.

Click to expand...

ROFL10characters

To everyone jumping on the cockpunch wagon, this could be a valid off flavor. I had a very repeating off flavor in all the batches I bottled. Stopped when I went to kegging. I attribute it to Boiling the priming sugar in the water as apposed to boiling water, then removing from heat and dissolving the sugar into solution. I wouldn't call it a sugar taste. It was a very twangy flavor and was in extract, PM and AG batches alike with bottled and tap water both. I've tasted other naturally carbed homebrewers beer with the same flavor and ask if that is how they prep their priming solution and it was.

So as nice as it is to just take the forum members side and cockpunch the guy, you can't dismiss the off flavor completely as being related from priming sugar.

Maybe you were tasting some residue that was left after cleaning and sanitizing your bottles.