thatjoshguy
Well-Known Member
Alright, I'm at my wit's end here (no pun intended). If I can't figure this out I may have to give up this hobby entirely because the SWMBO will not let me keep dumping money into beer that no one will drink.
To sum up: two batches, different beers, same soapy taste. Batch A = True Brew Amber, batch B = NB Irish Red Ale. Both batches seem to have gone smoothly. They both looked beautiful, carbed well, cleared and carbed. No off-smelling aromas. The Irish Red in particular looks and smells delicious, although the yeast didn't seem to flocculate as much as I'd hoped. Could be the strain (Wyeast 1272 American Ale II).
based on what I've seen in other threads, here are the possible causes I can determine:
I will gladly ship a bottle to anyone who can help me identify the cause of the soapy flavor, or if you are local to north-central West Virginia I'll bring you a bottle myself. I would love to continue brewing, but it's very discouraging when your first two batches are failures, yet no one can pinpoint exactly why. I've seen this problem posted several times on several forums, but rarely is it solved. Actually, i've yet to find a thread where the brewer came back and said "THAT WAS IT!". Batch A did improve at one point, but then went straight to hell later on. Batch B, I gave an additional 6 weeks to bottle condition and after tasting last night it seems like it's getting worse.
Please HomeBrewTalk community... save me! Gather your spirits and pray to the brew gods that they should bestow upon me the same good fortune that so many of you experience!
Why hast thou forsaken me, brew gods?!? WHY?!?
To sum up: two batches, different beers, same soapy taste. Batch A = True Brew Amber, batch B = NB Irish Red Ale. Both batches seem to have gone smoothly. They both looked beautiful, carbed well, cleared and carbed. No off-smelling aromas. The Irish Red in particular looks and smells delicious, although the yeast didn't seem to flocculate as much as I'd hoped. Could be the strain (Wyeast 1272 American Ale II).
based on what I've seen in other threads, here are the possible causes I can determine:
- Soapy equipment - already ruled out. Didn't use any dish soap or anything like that on my equipment/bottles for second batch
- Cleanser/sanitizer - batch a i used one-step, batch b i used B-Brite to clean and Star-San to sanitize.
- Trub - "How To Brew" has an entry on leaving beer on the trub too long. Both batches I racked to a secondary fermenter after 8-10 days. Only thing I can think of here though is that when I bottle a week or two later, there's about 1/2in - 1in of sediment in the secondary as well.
- Yeast - two different types of yeast (can't remember batch A, batch B used Wyeast 1272 American Ale II). I'm almost leaning towards the idea that the yeat is dying though... see previous note about the amount of sediment in the secondary, could this be an issue?
- Water - I guess this could be somewhat ruled out. First batch I used tap water (our water tastes pretty good), second batch I used distilled water I got at the store for the full 5 gal. My father in law used to brew back in the day using well water and their beer never tasted soapy
- Fermentation Temps - Maybe? First batch was left in a closet and it got fairly warm (lower 70s). Second batch was fermented in the basement, average temp 65-68F
I will gladly ship a bottle to anyone who can help me identify the cause of the soapy flavor, or if you are local to north-central West Virginia I'll bring you a bottle myself. I would love to continue brewing, but it's very discouraging when your first two batches are failures, yet no one can pinpoint exactly why. I've seen this problem posted several times on several forums, but rarely is it solved. Actually, i've yet to find a thread where the brewer came back and said "THAT WAS IT!". Batch A did improve at one point, but then went straight to hell later on. Batch B, I gave an additional 6 weeks to bottle condition and after tasting last night it seems like it's getting worse.
Please HomeBrewTalk community... save me! Gather your spirits and pray to the brew gods that they should bestow upon me the same good fortune that so many of you experience!
Why hast thou forsaken me, brew gods?!? WHY?!?