Funny taste after bottling

Alright, so I'm on my fourth batch of beer being bottled and every single bottle from each batch has the same exact kind of taste...or "twang" <braces for impact from the inevitable avalanche of hate>.

Each batch was made from LME from my local shop; a pale (pale LME) ale, a scottish (pale LME) ale, an irish (dark LME) stout, and a partial mash using (dark LME) for a strong stout. The first 3 were made using LME, hops, and Munton's dry yeast...and that's it. The partial mash differed in the obvious use of grains along with LME, hops, White Labs 004 Irish Ale yeast, and the addition of nutrients after the boil. All were naturally carbonated with 4oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch.

All of these beers were bottled and left to sit for about 2 weeks before I started to taste (well, my first batch was really like a couple days... >.> and made it through 3 weeks of sitting before being emptied into my stomach. The temperature of the storage area was around 75 degrees; and yes, it is the coldest I can get it here in Hawaii without artificial cooling. However, this taste was not apparent at all after leaving the secondary but before priming in my priming bucket.

The taste I am experiencing is kind of a tangy taste, much like the extract itself before boil. I tested temperature variances by putting some of the bottles in my upstairs room which can average about 80 degrees and noticed a difference. The higher temperature produced a distinct bitterness once the beer was cooled over time, like even more hops had been added, but the "twang" taste was only mostly masked by this...not completely. Now, in addition to this all of these beers had a somewhat high FG that was above 1.02 no matter how much yeast I added.

So...I can think of three possible causes for this "twang" and just wanted some experienced opinions on my assumptions: my temperature, the corn sugar, or the somewhat high gravity due to unfermentables. I currently have an AG brew in my primary and will transfer to a secondary soon to see whether the problem manifests there as well. The only difference in my AG batch is that I used filtered water and added the nutrients at 5 minutes left in the boil. I'm gonna try to put some of those bottles in my secondary tub so they can sit in a temperature of about 68-70 degrees and see if that makes a difference. Any words of advice?

I see some similarities with all of the brews you mentioned, and some/all of these could be contributing:

1) LME; you could try DME. DME is apparently more resilient to age, whereas LME can be affected much quicker by poor storage conditions. I imagine in Hawaii the LME hasn't always been sitting at a constant cooler temp in the dark. This might be causing a similar "extract twang" in all the batches. The LME quality is probably also contributing to the high FGs.

2) LME from the same LHBS, 2 different colors but very likely same manufacturer (I'm making an assumption that the LHBS gets the LME in bulk and packages it themselves?); you could try a different LHBS if you have another choice, or ordering online. Guess if you ordered though it'd make it a lot cheaper to go with DME (shipping). The brand of LME at your LHBS may just have that particular "twang".

3) High fermentation temp. Fermentation temp in my mind is the most important aspect of making good beer. I just don't have a lot of space for another fridge to use as a fermentation chamber, until I build a garage if that ever happens... So I use a water bath in the tub to help control my fermentation temps. It's really important to keep the temp from spiking in that first couple/few days of fermentation, when the temp inside the fermenter can be 5 or more degrees higher than the air temp around the fermenter. Water does a much better job of transferring heat away from the fermenter than air too. There is a thread on here somewhere with a cheap DIY fermentation chamber for one carboy or bucket, using a fan and ice that gets replaced - if I even had space for one of those I'd look into it. Think that's also called the swamp cooler method. All these methods require close attention, but it's better than letting the temps swing wildly and get into the mid 70s or higher.


The fermentation temp, and bottle storage temp even, sticks out to me as the most obvious issue.

Another person on my island on HBT! Woooo! I can tell you it isn't the LME from the LHBS... I can give you a definitive answer on why you have high FG as well. I had the exact same issues while using Munton's dry yeast w/ the LME from the LHBS. One batch it got stuck at 1.022 and another got stuck at 1.024. A simple solution is to go pick up a pack of US-05 (Mike has it in stock) and repitch with that. My batch that was at 1.024 dropped to 1.014 after a week of repitching the US-05 and is going to be bottled tomorrow.

In regards to the tangy taste, I'm willing to bet its because of the temps on your fermenters. One way I solved the issue of living in paradise and it constantly being 75-85 in my garage was to go buy a plastic rope handle tub, fill it with water and rotate frozen water bottles about every eight hours. Its kind of a pain in the ass, but it does the trick. My Carboys sit between 66-70 constantly just by rotating 2-3 bottles every eight hours.

In short, my advice is to quit using Munton's and invest in a couple of $7 rope handled tubs.

I got two tubs hooked up to hoses that run through a mini-fridge. They are for my primary and secondary at the moment. The fridge keeps the tubs at 70 degrees average. My problem appears to be more along the lines of the bottles themselves...if temperature is really the main cause.

As for the Munton's being the cause...I used the WL 004 on the partial mash and came away with the same off-taste. So, I don't think it's a problem with the yeast. Do you do anything with your water such as filtration, pre-boil the day before, tablets, nutrients at end of boil, etc.?

If not, and you're using LME with no aftertaste, then that leaves unfermentables or temperature. I'll try to throw in some bottles to my secondary tub for my next batch and compare taste with others outside the tub, like I said. But that won't help the FG I'm thinking.

Anyone have the same kind of off-flavors with FG above 1.02?

One of the most important things to work on is fermentation temps. If your fermenter was at 75* then the beer temp inside was likley at close to 80* wich is way to warm. Do you have central air? you can keep your fermenter next to the vent if you do. Its what I do in the summer and holds steady at 68* granted I keep the thermostat set at 70*.

On another note, my grandmother lives on the Big Island in Holualoa

I don't have central air and the pumps in the tubs keep water circulating rather well into the mini-fridge. Their temps are usually at 68-72 and I can't imagine with the buckets submerged up to the 4.5 gallon mark that they would be inclined to get much higher in temp. In order to cool the bottles I would have to place all of them in the primary or secondary tubs, which I will do in part this next time, which would also likely force me to slow down production to just one tub for primary and secondary in order to fit all the bottles.

I'm already restricted by space and money or I would have a chest freezer with about 4 kegs, and would be able to test whether the natural carbonation technique itself is where things go wrong; as I believe this to be the most likely cause of the taste. Anyone else use LME, end up with a gravity above 1.02, prime with 4oz corn sugar/ 5 gallons @ the prescribed mantra of 70 degrees for 3 weeks, and also ever experienced such a taste???

What's the ingredient that makes up the biggest percentage of your beer and is used in every batch? Not the yeast, not the hops, not the grain, its the water. If you consistently get the same taste, try some different water. Go to the next town, go buy some spring water, whatever. Some mainland cities are know for their breweries because they have some of the best water for brewing.

Good point on the water. Good idea to try bottled water, as it'd definitely help rule that out or point more in that direction. Also, I forgot another obvious constant for all batches would be your process. Maybe oxidation when you're bottling? Supposedly it'd be like wet cardboard, but it could vary some according to this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/what-does-oxygenated-beer-taste-like-100173/


Another note, when I'm using the water bath to control ferm temps, I use a "Fermometer" stick on that I push onto the side of the carboy for about 30 seconds to see what the temp is inside the carboy. Dry the side of the carboy first, as the fermometers do not like getting wet so much. No need to peel the backing off the fermometer.

I may be off base, but you say the beer is fine after secondary, yes?

I had this problem once when I didn't boil my corn sugar up first.

We have not talked about the bottle proceedure at all in this thread.

Consistantly the same taste could be anything consistant in the process, but it makes it easier to find than the 50% problems

I didn't boil the sugar per se but added it to boiled water straight out of the microwave. You boil the sugar with the water then?

After 3 and a half weeks after bottling now I have noticed the odd taste start to diminish. I can actually taste the beer now! I'll leave a few bottles alone for another week or two to see if the beer clears up so there's no more of the taste.

Aloha_Brew said:

I didn't boil the sugar per se but added it to boiled water straight out of the microwave. You boil the sugar with the water then?

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It's a little safer to get the sugar up to boiling...but as long as the water's temp is over 170, "most" bugs aren't going to be present. Another thought might be what sanitizer are you using? Make sure you're getting the right concentration if it's Iodophor.