Need experienced brewer to taste my beer

First off, you have to be able to handle really bad tasting beer to agree to this job! I'll ship a couple to you.

My batting average with homebrewing is really starting to SUCK. All extract kits from Midwest. Muntons Dry Yeast on all but the wheat. started sanitizing with bleach, now use StarSan. 5 gallon bucket fermenter. Have Better Bottles with the racking adapters, etc. which i have used for secondary. have used RO water, tap water (Macon, GA was voted the nations' best drinking water in 2008 or 2009), spring water. Use a copper wort chiller, no aerator, just shake fermenter. have always rehydrated my dry yeast. do not keg, just use bottles. use a bottling bucket. Of 5 batches:

1. first batch was good, bit band-aidy (plastic burps) but good. Sierra Nevada Clone. knew nothing about what i was doing but all the beer was quickly polished off. used bleach so probably didn't rinse good.

2. Tried a Lemon Coriander Wheat- still hasn't carbonated after approx. 4 months. What i've tasted is drinkable but not great. my fermenter still smells like this batch which used Danstar

3. Newcastle Clone. Dumped. Absolutely undrinkable, not going to get better. I know that's a cardinal sin but you couldn't even smell this stuff much less drink it. tasted really bad out of the fermenter. I thought it would get better. It got worse.

4. Pumpkin Ale- does not taste like beer. Tastes like a toned down version of the Newcastle that was dumped. Hint of spice but overall: bad. any pumpkin drowned out by the horrible first impression and aftertaste. Tasted like that out of the fermenter.

5. Irish Red Ale- tastes just like the pumpkin. Bad. Close to saying undrinkable but still bottle conditioning after 1.5 months. I really went all out on this one. Followed the advice I read here that quoted Chris Colby (one time editor of BYO magazine or something) of how to brew a great extract beer. Same bad smell and taste out of the fermenter. Has gotten worse in bottles not better.

I need someone who knows what the heck they're doing to taste a pumpkin and irish red and see what in the world i'm doing wrong. I've poured tons of money into this hobby (way more than i should have), I've studied this forum, books, websites, etc, bought all the right stuff. I love beer. I want to brew good beer and from what i read here, it's very possible. I can only type so much here and i know there are so many variables but man, if someone would take me under their wing, I would be SO grateful. I feel like my technique is solid but something's breaking down somewhere. I need help finding that. There's not a huge brewing community in small town Georgia so I'm kind of on my own for now. No LHBS.

I've got a $50 Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Clone recipe with my first liquid yeast in the fridge waiting to be brewed (even bought a stir plate for starters) but I'm scared to ruin another batch until i get some feedback from someone. Any advice and help appreciated.

You are welcome to send me beer but I thought I'd make some suggestions based on what you wrote.

1. You might try a new primary fermenting bucket or go to a glass carboy. I noticed that the first batch was drinkable and apparently you cleaned the bucket with bleach afterward. You may still have traces of bleach in the plastic. It's also interesting that you say a newly fermented batch tastes like the one you brewed before. Sounds like something must be hanging around in the bucket, probably in the plastic. Are you using a food grade plastic bucket?

2. Try using liquid yeast. Homebrew supply houses can ship it to you. The yeast should match the type of beer you are brewing. For instance, your Newcastle clone should have used British Ale Yeast.

3. You mention a bad smell. Rotten egg sulphur? That could indicate a bacterial infection and you should review your procedures to see where you are letting the critters get started.

4. Be sure to leave the wort in the fermenter long enough. Forget whether or not the airlock is bubbling. Leave it in there until a hydrometer tells you that the beer has reached its final gravity. Then rack it to secondary and let it sit a couple more weeks. (Or just leave it in the primary.)

Just a few things to think about.

John

Also what are your fermentation temperatures? Make sure they fermenting at the right temperature range for the style of yeast. Join a local brewclub or find some brewers to brew with so they can critique your process. And be patient you will brew good beer.

That sucks. My first batches with Mr. Beer I sanitized with bleach but I then moved to iodophor when I started doing five gallon batches.

See if you can hang out with other homebrewers while they brew, or latch on to a homebrewing club in the vicinity.

Don't lose hope, you can make great tasting beer. Keep it simple, use dry yeast and stick to ambers, stouts or porters for the next couple of batches. Keep it simple with dry yeast until you make good beer then try the stir plate when you get the process figured out.

none of these clubs within driving distance? They may be able to lend some assistance

http://www.beerinfo.com/index.php/pages/homebrewclubGA.html

Thanks to all.

I've found a local homebrew club that meets rarely but at least they meet. bdaddy, thanks for that info too. I can also drive 1 hour north to another club AND there is a homebrew store there. Will do that soon.

Stormrider, I'm going to get a new primary. Mine is a food-grade but I confidently believe that my bucket is like you said, a main culprit. All beer smells the same when it comes out of primary in that bucket and only seems to get worse the more it ages. Was going to get a 6 gallon Better Bottle as they're quite easy to manage.
On the smell,it seems to be (from what I've read) much more chlorophenol (i think) i.e., plastic, artificial, etc than infected. have made sure to allow proper time for fermentation primary and secondary.
thought i would also note that i made a batch of Edwort's Apfelwein which did not age in my primary but instead in a Better Bottle and it is a hit. No off flavors. Very enjoyable. Another confirmation of the "bucket theory" i think.

ElShauno, didn't really watch fermentation temps in first batch and it turned out miraculously to be the best one. (brewed in July in Georgia!) I know that's not the norm but since i've been very diligent about keeping temps in right ranges. Will continue to do so.

You likely have some nasty little bug that you won't get rid of from a plastic bucket with any amount of sanitising. Chlorine shouldn't linger in a plastic bucket that has been washed and used as much as yours has. Definitely time for a new fermentor.

There is something horribly wrong with your brew procedure or equipment, the odds that 5 brews will come out undrinkable or with off flavors are very slim.

Replace what you think might be bad equipment, and if that doesnt work, go to www.howtobrew.com and just read read read, take notes, envision yourself going through every step, then brew your next batch.

gtpro said:

Replace what you think might be bad equipment, and if that doesnt work, go to www.howtobrew.com and just read read read, take notes, envision yourself going through every step, then brew your next batch.

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That's one thing I have done A LOT of. Reading. Palmer, papazian, this forum, hours at Barnes and Noble. I feel like I've got a great handle on the education side of it. That's what makes it so frigging frustrating. I'm doing things right and things are turning out wrong. I understand that having knowledge is WAY different than applying knowledge.

I'll start with a new fermenter and see what happens

How did you clean the plastic bucket? Did you use anything abrasive in it, as scratches in the plastic can harbor bacteria? Did you take apart the O-ring and grommet from the lid and clean under and around them too?

Bleach is great at disinfecting stuff if (a) you get the concentration correct (b) the bleach can actually get to the bacteria (organic debris like dried on hops or scratches in the plastic can hide the bacteria) and (c) you rinse it out really well. Soak it overnight in oxyclean before bleaching, and gently rub with a paper towel or soft sponge. Don't use a scouring pad! I don't recommend bleach regularly though, just if you get an infection.

When I had a suspected infection, I soaked all of my equipment for at least 1 hour in a 1 cup per gallon bleach solution. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. Haven't had a problem since. Some people just go and and replace all their plastic.

I also switched from iodophore to Star san, and get everything covered in wonderful foam.

I'd suggest a well cleaned and bleached (or new) fermenter, and just a cheap simple batch of something to see if it comes out. Say the Winter Warmer for when (and it will happen) you figure this out.

Good luck

It sounds like a new fermenter is in order.

Try a glass carboy. No worries about anything soaking into the plastic.

ANd how are you holding temperature? Just fyi if you didn't already know, during peak fermentation the temp inside will be 5-10 degrees warmer than ambient temp. I usually set my carboy in a giant tub of water and add ice/hot water as needed.

Im not too far away in Columbus. By no means an old pro, but would love to brew with someone. Drop me a line.

jpzep4 said:

Stormrider, I'm going to get a new primary. Mine is a food-grade but I confidently believe that my bucket is like you said, a main culprit. All beer smells the same when it comes out of primary in that bucket and only seems to get worse the more it ages. Was going to get a 6 gallon Better Bottle as they're quite easy to manage.

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The plastic in those white buckets is permeable, and once
some organisms get in it, you can't get it out. That happened
to me after about 8 batches. The dried yeasts inevitably give
you a lag time after pitching, letting wild microorganisms grow in
your wort, and it only need to happen once and you're done.
After switching to glass, I got better results (actually
I did two things at once: switched to glass and immersed it
in a water bath in a big trash can to control the temp; later
I got a temp controller for a fridge). But I didn't get
great results until I temperature controlled AND used a yeast
starter made from a liquid yeast.

So if I were you I would make a starter. If you can make a starter
that doesn't smell bad, you should know that your technique is ok.
Get the foil pack of yeast and break the inner pack, let sit
for 24 hours.
Get a quart beer bottle, sanitize it along with a small cork
that fits it with a hole, put your airlock on it just like
with a glass carboy. Make a dilute solution of wort (1/2 cup
dme in 3 cups water, I also add some hops for their anti
microbial properties but many people don't), bring it to
a boil for 3 minutes with a thermometer in it, then let it
cool to ~80. Use a small funnel to pour it into the bottle,
add the contents of the yeast pack and let it sit at room
temp. If this is at 7pm at night, it should be actively
fermenting and ready to pitch at 1pm the next day. If you dont
want to use it right away just stick it in the fridge and
use it later, warming to room temp first. All this may sound
complicated, but it's really easy. If you don't want to make
a starter, I would at least switch to glass and then use one of the
dry yeasts recommended on this forum, like Safale.

Jim

Halldawg said:

Im not too far away in Columbus. By no means an old pro, but would love to brew with someone. Drop me a line.

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That would be cool. Let's try to hook that up sometime. Do you guys have a homebrew club over there? I'm going to try to get in with this one in Macon and I'll let you know about it too.

An old thread, but I'll write anyway.

I personally switched to glass carboys. For those who are uncomfortable with the idea of one large glass carboy and its dangers, then buy two five-gallon carboys and put two and a half gallons in each carboy. That will also give you lots of headspace for kraeusen. Glass is great because you can scrub it out with a brush and any cleaner and it will not retain odors. It's a little harder to clean a better bottle unless you soak it. I love being able to scrub my glass carboy. I agree with the other fellows here that your plastic is likely the culprit. Switch to glass and that will probably help.

biobeing said:

how did you clean the plastic bucket? Did you use anything abrasive in it, as scratches in the plastic can harbor bacteria? Did you take apart the o-ring and grommet from the lid and clean under and around them too?

Bleach is great at disinfecting stuff if (a) you get the concentration correct (b) the bleach can actually get to the bacteria (organic debris like dried on hops or scratches in the plastic can hide the bacteria) and (c) you rinse it out really well. Soak it overnight in oxyclean before bleaching, and gently rub with a paper towel or soft sponge. Don't use a scouring pad! I don't recommend bleach regularly though, just if you get an infection.

When i had a suspected infection, i soaked all of my equipment for at least 1 hour in a 1 cup per gallon bleach solution. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. Haven't had a problem since. Some people just go and and replace all their plastic.

I also switched from iodophore to star san, and get everything covered in wonderful foam.

I'd suggest a well cleaned and bleached (or new) fermenter, and just a cheap simple batch of something to see if it comes out. Say the winter warmer for when (and it will happen) you figure this out.

Good luck

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+1

I just realized this is an old thread...

jdzep4-What was the outcome....What did you change and how did it come out?