funny after taste

Hey guys, I brew up a batch of a New Castle clone a few weeks ago everthing went well. I kegged it last Sat. but now it's starting to have a funky tiny after taste. What the hell is that! I bled the oxygen out of the keg... I wondering if I got Oxygen in the beer during the transfer to the keg. It smeels good and looks good. kinda sucks.

Can you describe the after taste? Does it taste metallic? Did you mean tinny? I've had metallic aftertastes before and I attributed it to oxidation.

sorry.... yes tinny, I think I Bought the wrong size hose for my auto syphon it seemed to suck a lot of air during the transfer.... I think I wiil give it a few days to see the out come. I don"t think it's going to be good : (

it's only mony let's make more!

If you bought a hose, then oxidation probably IS going to be a problem.

The metallic taste you are referring to is also often caused by caramelization of extract. This, in turn, is caused by over-cooking the extract. Here's the deal. . .

When extract comes to you, it's already been appropriately malted and mashed. The only thing preventing you from throwing yeast in it immediately is that it was vacuum dehydrated into either liquid or dry extract. When you boil it again, you're actually repeating a step that was done PRIOR to the extract being dehydrated. So if you boil the extract for the full sixty minutes, you're essentially giving the wort a 120 minute boil.

Most of us have stopped adding the extract at the beginning of the boil. Instead, we add it 10-5 minutes prior to flame out; just long enough to properly dissolve the extract in the water. The first 50 minutes of the boil, then is just the hops and whatever leachate has been extracted from your specialty grains.

So, long story short: try a late extract addition next time, and see if that solves your "extract tang" problem.

pericles said:

If you bought a hose, then oxidation probably IS going to be a problem.

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I think he was just referring to his tubing.

Thanks for the info Pericles. So now I have 5gals. of crap is there any saving it?
I was really hoping to have a nice cold New Castle on tap.......

This is the part where everyone will point you to the thread talking about how time heals all wounds and that you shouldn't dump your beer. They're right; I'm just too lazy to link to the thread.

If you bought a hose, then oxidation probably IS going to be a problem.

Click to expand...

Wow - in retrospect, that sentence is pretty opaque! What I MEANT to write, is that if your tubing is too large for your racking cane, then you probably did introduce a lot of air-bubbles into the wort while you were transferring it from the primary to the keg. So yes, oxidation is certainly going to be at least one problem.

As for 5 gallons of crap. . .

You had originally only complained about a "tinny aftertaste." My suggestion is that you brew up another batch, using (1) a late extract addition, and (2) properly sized tubing. Give it another three weeks to ferment and condition in primary. In that time, your original keg may have conditioned enough that you really like what's left of it. If not, feel free to dump it and add the new stuff.

I knew what you meant.... At the top of the cane during the transfer it was sucking air.
Well now I have another reason to take a trip to the brew store. (MoreBeer)

Ok, so now it's been a few weeks in the Keg and the metallic taste is gone (for the most part) but it still has a strong nutty taste, could that be from wort? If so that sucks... well I think next time I will try the late extract addition. It's still seems drinkable and has'not made me sick yet! uummmm... can it make me sick?

pericles said:

If you bought a hose, then oxidation probably IS going to be a problem.

The metallic taste you are referring to is also often caused by caramelization of extract. This, in turn, is caused by over-cooking the extract. Here's the deal. . .

When extract comes to you, it's already been appropriately malted and mashed. The only thing preventing you from throwing yeast in it immediately is that it was vacuum dehydrated into either liquid or dry extract. When you boil it again, you're actually repeating a step that was done PRIOR to the extract being dehydrated. So if you boil the extract for the full sixty minutes, you're essentially giving the wort a 120 minute boil.

Most of us have stopped adding the extract at the beginning of the boil. Instead, we add it 10-5 minutes prior to flame out; just long enough to properly dissolve the extract in the water. The first 50 minutes of the boil, then is just the hops and whatever leachate has been extracted from your specialty grains.

So, long story short: try a late extract addition next time, and see if that solves your "extract tang" problem.

Click to expand...

I don't do this. I boil my extract for the full 60 min. Sometime I boil it 90 min. The beer tastes great, no problems! But I have a big pot and do full sized 6 gallon boils.

Also, be aware that not having the extract in the boil changes your hop utilization dramatically. You will need to adjust your recipes to account for this.

hmmm..... thanks for the input, more to ponder.....

No it cannot make you sick. Nothing that can make you sick can survive in beer.

pericles said:

When extract comes to you, it's already been appropriately malted and mashed. The only thing preventing you from throwing yeast in it immediately is that it was vacuum dehydrated into either liquid or dry extract. When you boil it again, you're actually repeating a step that was done PRIOR to the extract being dehydrated. So if you boil the extract for the full sixty minutes, you're essentially giving the wort a 120 minute boil.

Most of us have stopped adding the extract at the beginning of the boil. Instead, we add it 10-5 minutes prior to flame out; just long enough to properly dissolve the extract in the water.

Click to expand...

I'm going to have to disagree with you on a couple of points here...

#1. Malt extracts are not "boiled". Your assumption that there has been any boiling prior to evaporation and canning is factually incorrect and bad information. You have been mislead or have misunderstood something along the way if you believe this to be true. You aren't repeating any process. They haven't gone through a whole 60 minute boil already before you open the can. Boiling is for hop utilization and sanitation it has nothing to do with the mashing and extracting process.

#2. "Most of us have stopped adding the extract at the beginning of the boil" is an inaccurate statement. Specific gravity effects hop utilization. Chemical composition will also effect hop utilization. I haven't seen many threads on here with people putting ALL extract in late. Just perhaps reserving half of it. Regardless you MUST adjust the amount of hops you use if you do a late extract addition.

Long story short... boiling is for hops utlization... everything you do during the boild effects hop utilization... Malt extract is never boiled until you boil it. (The exception may be pre-hopped malt extract, but I can't say that definitively one way or another).

Well... lastnight I started to drink some of it and it did tast better after a few glasses. My Nabor came over and we had a few more, So it's drinkable... Not a New Castle, but drinkable. Live and learn, and to me that's what this is all about.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Loudog said:

Hey guys, I brew up a batch of a New Castle clone a few weeks ago everthing went well. I kegged it last Sat. but now it's starting to have a funky tiny after taste. What the hell is that! I bled the oxygen out of the keg... I wondering if I got Oxygen in the beer during the transfer to the keg. It smeels good and looks good. kinda sucks.

Click to expand...

Maybe over-carbonation or the co2 source itself is not food grade?
I had a batch in a beer machine once that was good, then I put a lot of co2
pressure on it (using those little bb gun co2 containers) and it had
a metallic taste, I let out some of the gas and let it sit a day, it was ok.

Jim

It was probably just the ingredients. I don't think you did anything wrong here. I think it is a mistake to assume because you're brewing a "clone" brew that it is actually going to end up tasting anything like what you're trying to clone. There are so many factors; ingredients and water being probably the two biggest. "Nutty" flavor can be a desirable flavor in a brown ale, thus "nut brown" ales. Try a store bought nut brown ale and compare it to your own.

My co2 Came from My LHBS. I Have A question! after you steep your grains then add your Malt, is it 60min from the point you added the malt or 60min from the time it starts to Boil?

Loudog said:

My co2 Came from My LHBS. I Have A question! after you steep your grains then add your Malt, is it 60min from the point you added the malt or 60min from the time it starts to Boil?

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the 60 min should be from when it starts boiling. But you need to understand that your mainly timing the hops and not the malt. The longer the hops boil the more bittering flavor is added to the beer. There is some melanoidin production from boiling the malt but that flavor is minor compared to the effect of the hops. This is why hops are added at various stages during the boil.

Does that clear up the issue or just make things more confusing?

PS: you can pick up those small, red O2 tanks from Home Depot for cheap.

that's what I did, I add the 60min hops and the malt at the same time.