dudius
Well-Known Member
A little background info. I've dabbled in homebrewing making mead and a 1 gallon beer from a kit from Brooklyn Brewing Company, courtesy of the SWMBO. I made the jump to a 5-gallon kit and figured I'd use a beer kit to get used to the different process.
I made my first batch using a Brewer's Best kit for Pumpkin Porter. Everything seemed to go well and everything looked and smelled normal throughout. I fermented in primary for one week and then transferred to secondary for about three weeks. Bottled and everything looked and smelled fine.
Fast forward one week and I want to see how the beer is progressing so I put one in the fridge for a few hours and crack it open. Instantly I could smell something was wrong. It smelled very astringent. I was afraid to taste. I tasted it anyway and it tasted as awful as I thought it would. It tasted like beer but a little soapy and very, VERY astringent. Fast Forward another week and I put another bottle in the fridge and leave for two days. Cracked open, smells astringent. Tastes astringent but more mild than the first beer.
I've done some reading and I've taken note of things I can pay attention to with my next batch of beer. I've got one variable that I will definitely look for as I keep testing bottles of this batch though.
Before bottling, I cleaned all of my empties with Oxyclean. Some of them were allowed to dry before washing in a no-rinse sanitizer (the stuff that came in the kit) but not all. I've read that some chemicals will cause astringency; is it possible that not rinsing the bottles after the Oxyclean wash is responsible for the very sudden and extreme astringency?
I noticed none of the smell or taste during bottling and its suddenly showing up in the bottles . I'll continue bottle conditioning and treat each bottle as unique. I filled a growler which was not cleaned with Oxyclean and was sanitized and sealed, so if that beer ends up fine I'll be pretty certain its from not rinsing the Oxyclean solution well enough.
All ideas and opinions are welcome. I realize it can very well be something to do with my process so I won't take anything personally.
I made my first batch using a Brewer's Best kit for Pumpkin Porter. Everything seemed to go well and everything looked and smelled normal throughout. I fermented in primary for one week and then transferred to secondary for about three weeks. Bottled and everything looked and smelled fine.
Fast forward one week and I want to see how the beer is progressing so I put one in the fridge for a few hours and crack it open. Instantly I could smell something was wrong. It smelled very astringent. I was afraid to taste. I tasted it anyway and it tasted as awful as I thought it would. It tasted like beer but a little soapy and very, VERY astringent. Fast Forward another week and I put another bottle in the fridge and leave for two days. Cracked open, smells astringent. Tastes astringent but more mild than the first beer.
I've done some reading and I've taken note of things I can pay attention to with my next batch of beer. I've got one variable that I will definitely look for as I keep testing bottles of this batch though.
Before bottling, I cleaned all of my empties with Oxyclean. Some of them were allowed to dry before washing in a no-rinse sanitizer (the stuff that came in the kit) but not all. I've read that some chemicals will cause astringency; is it possible that not rinsing the bottles after the Oxyclean wash is responsible for the very sudden and extreme astringency?
I noticed none of the smell or taste during bottling and its suddenly showing up in the bottles . I'll continue bottle conditioning and treat each bottle as unique. I filled a growler which was not cleaned with Oxyclean and was sanitized and sealed, so if that beer ends up fine I'll be pretty certain its from not rinsing the Oxyclean solution well enough.
All ideas and opinions are welcome. I realize it can very well be something to do with my process so I won't take anything personally.