Tangy Taste

How do you get rid of that tangy taste that you get with extract beers? I have noticed that the darker the beer the taste isnt as tangy. Do lighter beers need to age longer? MY freind gave me an american bock that had only aged for two week and it was wounderfull.

Are you using LME? Try switching to DME and that should go away. Do a search for 'extract twang' to get some more information.

I have started using dme but nothing is ready to try yet. Will corn suger add to the tang? I will prime with dme this time also.

Corn sugar is fine for priming, don't worry about it there. It's what most people use (myself included). DME will certainly work just fine of course, just remember to use a little bit more of it. If you use a lot of corn sugar in a batch it can lead to cidery flavours though.

gravity man said:

I have started using dme but nothing is ready to try yet. Will corn suger add to the tang? I will prime with dme this time also.

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Personally, I primed w/ DME one time and I will never do it again. It took forever to carb and the carbonation was very uneven and not where it needed to be in the most carbed bottles. The little bit of corn sugar you use for bottling is not going to alter the taste of your brew.

Regards,
Al

I have had good luck with the darker beers, it was when I tryed to make a lighter beer for the wife, It came out tangy. She told me to keep making the ocktoberfest because it was better, Hell this may have worked out better for me anyway

I haven't really experienced this. I generally let my beer sit in the secondary for 3-4 weeks at a minimum. I have no idea if that has anything to do with it or not though - but you might want to try letting it sit longer.

GIusedtoBe said:

Personally, I primed w/ DME one time and I will never do it again. It took forever to carb and the carbonation was very uneven and not where it needed to be in the most carbed bottles.

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I primed with DME many, many times and never had either problem. Proper carbonation tended to take about 3 weeks (although I rarely checked that quickly after my first batch) with even carbonation.


TL

I used to use LME only, but once a HBS employee suggested using DME instead. I've gone to using that unless I HAVE to use LME. It keeps nicely, weighs less, and I think my beers taste better.

My friend uses LME in his IPA recipes, and they turn out great, but I wonder if that's because the hops helps covers the tangy flavor better?? Or it meshes with the hops flavor better?

Anyway, try the DME and see how you like it. And, no corn sugar for priming will not give tangy flavor, but if you add a pound or two at ferment, it most likely will.

Im not sure - I hear alot of people on here talking about a tangy taste from LME but I have not experienced it. Also corn sugar for priming is ok. In my opinion if you keep it under 20% of total fermentables you will be fine - for some styles I use up to a pound of corn sugar in the primary fermentation and it turns out fine.

Cheers

TexLaw said:

I primed with DME many, many times and never had either problem. Proper carbonation tended to take about 3 weeks (although I rarely checked that quickly after my first batch) with even carbonation.


TL

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Tex, my opinion of using DM to bottle condition is probably colored by the fact that the one that I used it on was the worst beer I've made. That said, it did not carbonate evenly and it took a Loooooong time to carb at all. IMO corn sugar does a better job of carbing beer quicker and I think no one could tell what you carbonated the beer with anyway.

Regards,
Al

GIusedtoBe said:

Tex, my opinion of using DM to bottle condition is probably colored by the fact that the one that I used it on was the worst beer I've made. That said, it did not carbonate evenly and it took a Loooooong time to carb at all. IMO corn sugar does a better job of carbing beer quicker and I think no one could tell what you carbonated the beer with anyway.

Regards,
Al

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I have used both but for me corn sugar seems to work better/faster. Some people might want to prime with Malt simply to avoid using anything other than the 4 basic food groups.

Full boils and patience seem to have gotten rid of my "extract twang." I noticed a twang in the first 4-6 weeks of my early partial wort boils, but after about 2 months of aging the twang seems minimized. The "twang" seems less since I went full boils, but it also may be my progression as a better brewer - improving all techniques.

My batch last week was back to LME extract after going AG last month, because: 1) didn't have time for AG (per SWMBO) 2) my earlier batch of this IPA was fantastic. All of my extract batches have been IPA like and I do think the hops help cover some off flavors.

Homercidal said:

Some people might want to prime with Malt simply to avoid using anything other than the 4 basic food groups.

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That is one of the reasons I did it. The other was that it gave me more room to screw up. It makes no difference to me which one someone uses, and I may even go with dextrose for priming nowadays. I just wanted to toss in my own anecdotes.


TL