4 Batchs - Same "off" taste - Help!

I have been doing extract (w/ specialty grains) for a about 2 years...I have probably done about 4 batches. I have not been completely happy with my results so far. The end product is decent, and I will happily drink it all up, but all of my brews have a bit of an "off" taste to them. I have made 2 cream ale batches, 1 breakfast stout, and 1 IPA. The last batch was the 2nd cream ale, and for this one I was very careful with my fermentation temps. Up until this last batch, I had always fermented in an empty cabinet in my kitchen, which would get very hot at times (especially when cooking). This last batch I bought a stick on thermometer and put the fermentation bucket in a water tub with the temperature controlled by an aquarium heater - set for 68 degrees. The fermentation bucket temp always ready between 68-70.

I thought this last batch was going to be great, I tasted a bottle after 1 week of conditioning and was happy. Now its been bottle conditioned for 3 weeks now, and that same taste is back. Its not awful, but its present. I have tasted other extract home brews and they didn't have this taste.

Could it be the water I am using? I am using regular tap water (NYC - Queens), and when I fill the bucket to the 5 gallon mark after pouring wort in - Its straight from the tap.

Help!

It would be very easy to find out if it is your water. Just do a batch with bottled spring water.

Also try fermenting in the low to mid sixties. If you start at 70 degrees your temperature might rise to near 80 degrees at the height of fermentation. When I use my swamp cooler I often rotated 2 bottles of ice for the first few days to keep the temperature down then, after fermentation slows it only takes one bottle.

Look at the yeasts optimum temperature range and go for the colder end.

I have always had an "off" taste for most of my extract brews, once I switched over to all grain the taste never came back.

Other things that helped was oxygenating using an oxygen tank and williams oxygenation wand.
Another thing could be that you would want to atleast filter the water from tap (NYC chloronates their water form what I can tell, so the chlorine may be killing off your yeast or throwing off flavors). MoreBeer.com has a nice carbon filter kit for pretty cheap (I used it on my last batch and I am close to you waterwise, I will let you know how it comes out)

Check this site out with the beer flavor wheel, and try to identify this "off" flavor. This will help with the trouble shooting process.

Tasting Beer

What is the rest of your process? Boil size? Late extract addition? Yeast starter? Yeast type (sounds like it got hot)? Fermentation schedule?

If you don't want to deal with buying spring water, just boil your tap water for 10-15 min and the chlorine will evaporate out, then, pour into a sterilized bucket. As it cools the minerals should precipitate out - you can make the call whether you want them in there or not. If you don't, cool it before you add to the wort. If you do, add it to your wort then cool it. Some people say these minerals are what give unique flavor to certain breweries' beers.

If I had to place a bet, it would be on your water. How are you carbing your beer?

cm02WS6 said:

What is the rest of your process? Boil size? Late extract addition? Yeast starter? Yeast type (sounds like it got hot)? Fermentation schedule?

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True, 68 to 70 degrees is pretty high even for an ale. I tend to keep ales between 62 and 65

Thanks All - I am carbing using corn sugar from NB.

is it a band-aid taste? de-chlorinate.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/of...now-chlorine-but-help-me-solve-puzzle-129992/

is it the 'twang'? are you boiling LME for too long? happens a lot with all extract beers. try adding the bulk of the LME late, better yet at flameout and steep for ten mins before cooling.

+1 on bottled water (Drinking or Spring). Its usually like $.69 - $1.00 per gallon (cheaper if you have your sanitized 5 gallon jug and one of those water stations at the grocery store (like $.30 per gallon). Good water gives you the opportunity to make good beer.

Okay - So I brewed my Sweet Stout from NB last week and made a bunch of changes. After tasting some of my older beers I think the "off taste" is astringency...I read some good descriptions and it seems that my beer tastes either astringent or twangy.

I am curious if I am steeping too long or hot...I always follow the instructions and steep for 20 minutes of 170 degrees. Does anyone have any suggestions on a better method? Should I steep for a shorter time at a lower temp? Also, I have read alot on adding all or 1/2 of the extract late. The SS recipe called for 1/2 of the extract to go in at boil and the 2nd 1/2 with 15 minutes left. I wonder what the result would be if I steeped the grains, and removed bag, and boiled for 60 minutes with the hop additions, and then added the full bottle of extract w/ 15 minutes left?

Sorry - I didn't see the 2nd page of responses before I wrote mine...NordeastBrewer77, you nailed my previous post. I think the issue really is the length and or temp of my boils. I am going to test my thermometer and perhaps get a new one...I am also going to test adding 75% or even more of my syrup at flameout.

Question - Why do all the recipes call for the syrup to go in for the full 60 if it's not really needed?

Astringency is not really a flavor, it is more of a mouth feel component, If you want to see what astringency is, drink some ice tea. There is a sensation of drying the coats your entire mouth, that is what astringency from tanins tastes like. Tanins are mainly extracted because the pH of the water you are sparging has become too high, the temperature of the water will not enhance your tanin extraction by much.

I did not realize you where parcial mashing. are you squeezing your bag to drain it?

barkscruff said:

Sorry - I didn't see the 2nd page of responses before I wrote mine...NordeastBrewer77, you nailed my previous post. I think the issue really is the length and or temp of my boils. I am going to test my thermometer and perhaps get a new one...I am also going to test adding 75% or even more of my syrup at flameout.

Question - Why do all the recipes call for the syrup to go in for the full 60 if it's not really needed?

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the length of time you boil LME can really affect the flavor (and fermentability) of the beer. the late or flameout LME addition will really help with this, it made a vast improvement in my extract and PM brews when i started doing it.
i also noticed in your first post today that you're doing your steep at 170, that could be a touch warm, i always do my steep at 150-155, almost like it's a mini mash. 168-170 is the temp i shoot for to sparge an AG or PM batch because it's warm enough to stop conversion, but not quite warm enough to extract tannins (astringency), over 170 and some tannins may be extracted from the steep.

to answer your question, even if a recipe calls for all the LME at the beginning, i'd go half at the beginning, half at flameout. i personally don't like using LME in the boil at all, and use DME for the early addition and LME at flameout. you can adjust any recipe to suit your process. if it calls for some or all the LME early, replace that early add with DME, and use LME at flameout. generally speaking, 1 lb of base malt=.75 lb LME=.65 lb DME, that simple 'equation' can really help when deciding to brew someone else's recipe on your system. it's also great for converting AG recipes to extract, or like i've done with my last two beers, converting an extract recipe to AG.