Help with Recipe Suggestions

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CoreyG

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
106
Reaction score
4
Location
Montreal
Hey Everyone,

I'm new to brewing, just finished a 2nd batch of beer. Neither of the batches have been very good, weird aftertastes and things like that. I was hoping someone could help suggest a recipe for me, something not too complicated but with a good taste. I like brown ales and tripels and Belgian style beers so if anyone has a good recipe like that it would be awesome.

I've been doing partial batches I guess.... steeping specialty grains and using malt extract. I would like to stay with that level of brewing since I think all grain is too much right now.

So that you guys know what I've been up to, the last batch was the following:

500g special B, 500 g pilsmat --- steeped for 1 hour in 5L of water, the n sparged with 5L of water.

3.1kg of LME ( 2kg of which was added at the beginning of boil, 1 kg at end)
30g kent hops at 60 for bittering
30g kent hops at 15 for aroma
500g of brown sugar mixed in at the end of the boil with the last kg of LME

1 packet of safale S04, rehydrated and pitched.

I have no idea if this recipe is any good, I got it from a home brew shop near where I live.

Any help?
Thanks in advance!
 
"Weird" flavors are hard to diagnose, but two things come right away to my mind. One is water. If you have chlorine or chloramines in your water, the beer can taste medicinal, or even like band-aids. Another is fermentation temperature- temperatures over 68 degrees ( 20C) can make a beer taste odd- sometimes esters, sometimes other weird tastes. If the room is warm, the fermenting beer inside is even warmer.

I'm not a fan of sugar in the wort- it ferments out, but sometimes can cause some strange flavors also.

You're doing extract with specialty grains or partial mash (if the pils malt is pilsner malt, that's unclear) and I have a good solid recipe under my avatar for a extract English brown that is similar to Newcastle. You could try that, and see if you get rid of the weird flavor. I'd suggest using bottled water, if you've been using tap water, to make sure the water isn't the problem.
 
"Weird" flavors are hard to diagnose, but two things come right away to my mind. One is water. If you have chlorine or chloramines in your water, the beer can taste medicinal, or even like band-aids. Another is fermentation temperature- temperatures over 68 degrees ( 20C) can make a beer taste odd- sometimes esters, sometimes other weird tastes. If the room is warm, the fermenting beer inside is even warmer.

I'm not a fan of sugar in the wort- it ferments out, but sometimes can cause some strange flavors also.

You're doing extract with specialty grains or partial mash (if the pils malt is pilsner malt, that's unclear) and I have a good solid recipe under my avatar for a extract English brown that is similar to Newcastle. You could try that, and see if you get rid of the weird flavor. I'd suggest using bottled water, if you've been using tap water, to make sure the water isn't the problem.

Incredibly solid advice. My first thoughts was the sugar and the temperature. I completely agree with Yoop.
 
Hey Yooper, Thanks for the advice

sorry I can't be more clear about weird flavors. I'm not very xperienced and I don't have a very strong pallet for picking out flavors so I don't really don't know how to describe the flavors.

I think your probably right. I think my temperature was a little high, but i'm gonna buy a large bin to fill with water and use that to control the temp. And yes, I was using unboiled water (oops!) so I'll try the next two batches, one with boiled water and one with bottled.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!
 
Back
Top