what am I doing wrong?

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Oakwood

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Every batch I have done has foamed up and I have to remove it from heat to keep it from boiling over. I mean it every one. I have tried doing 3 gal boils and full 5 gallon boils, tried less heat once it starts rolling, and even tried diffent ways of adding pre boil and hops to see if it was the ph/acid levels changing causeing the foaming.

My second issue after 3 years of brewing I am finding alot of my lighter style beers (american wheat is my current I noticed it with) all have a bitter taste and it is the same bitter taste with all different styles and the hops flavor and smells never come out as strong as I would like.

I have tried using alloy pots, stainless pots and it doesn't make a difference. I have tried using bottled drinking water, bottled distilled water, tap water, I have tried filtering the water myself. Nothing getts rid of the bitterness.

The bitterness and the dual hops flavor are my issues that I want to work out this year. So far everything has had minium differance in taste. Please help.
 
The addition of malt extract and hops will cause the foam to form. I do full boils in a 30 qt. pot and still have to do the "on the flame off the flame" dance for a few minutes after the extract and occasionally the hops are added. It's a fact of brewing.

As for the bitterness, add less hops. Also if you are getting steeping grains too hot (above 180 degrees) that will impart some astringency.
 
I don't think you are doing anything wrong as such man. I rarely get boil overs, I usually boil around 5 gallons, I boil with the lid off while the rolling boil is going pretty solid. If you are adding all your malt extract at the beginning of the boil you have to account for the extra volume in your boil pot, once the boil kicks in after you add it, you will get that foaming, but if you are loweing the heat and keeping an eye on it I can't see what you could be doing wrong.

In terms of the bitterness you are speaking of, well bitterness is going to be down to the hops right? The more hops you add at the start of the boil will have a more bittering effect on your brew, you can calculate your IBU's on homebrewing software, and there's even a couple of free ones out there. Be conciouis of your hops AA's and quantities. Some people think extract brews have a certain 'twang' about them, this may or may not be what you are describing as bitter, I don't really buy in to the whole extract twang thing because I've made some really tasty extract beers. You will get the right balance mate.
 
For the boilover problem, get some Fermcap/defoamer.

For the bitterness problem, not really sure without more info. The metal of the pots makes no difference. I would say try adding a gram or two (per 5 gallons) of Calcium Chloride to the boil, see if that helps increase the maltiness of your beer. If you want more hop flavor/aroma and less bitterness, though, the first and most obvious thing to try is to front-load your hop schedule.
 
On the rare occasions that I am able to get a boil strong enough to boil over, I simply blow on the foam and it settles right out. I guess you could use a hairdryer as well.
 
1) Have you tried fermcap?

2) Are you adjusting hops for your boil volume?

What about chilling? If you are chilling slow (long time to below 170ish), then your hops will be over utilized. The flavor wouldn't be off, just more bitter than you are expecting. Moving your hops schedule forward 10-20 minutes would give less bittering and more flavor/aroma.

From the "Exploring No Chill Brewing" Thread:

FWIW... this is the conversion tool that I have come up with (it will continue to be tweaked I am sure) to convert regular recipe hop additions to NO CHILL applications. This is based on some of my own experience and reading on continued isomerization in the hot wort after it is transferred to the no chill cube.

Yes, isomerization takes place even when hops are removed, the oils are in the wort, not the hops at this point.

No_Chill_Hop_Adjust.bmp
IOW, if you're chilling very slow you will continue to get bitterness from your hops and lose the flavor/aroma.
 
I have a wort chiller and normally can get it from 190 to 70 within 30 minutes or less, some times alot less. I then airate the wort and rack over to carboy. once it is in the location in which I will ferment it I will pitch the yeast. I have been using White labs yeast as of late with much success.

I try to follow the recipes as close as I can. But the Blond and wheat beers are made of things I have around. Would the age of the hops reflect more bitterness? I don't think this is the issue but I will have to just really scrub clean everything this week and remake the wheat beer and try it again and see if maybe the full boil vs. partial boil will knock down some of the bitterness.
 
So far as bitterness/aroma one thing you might try, instead of adding less hops, is just split your hops into a couple of different additions. Do half of it 60 minutes and the other half 15 minutes or maybe even 5 minutes boil time. That should give you significantly less overall bitterness, and a lot more hoppy aroma/flavor.
 
I try to follow the recipes as close as I can. But the Blond and wheat beers are made of things I have around. Would the age of the hops reflect more bitterness? I don't think this is the issue but I will have to just really scrub clean everything this week and remake the wheat beer and try it again and see if maybe the full boil vs. partial boil will knock down some of the bitterness.

What is a typical recipe? Or specifically, what was your last recipe that had the problem? Are you using some kind of software to calculate (even online like beercalculus.com), or just throwing in a handful of hops a couple of times during the brew?

And remember, if you have a recipe that calls for a partial boil you need to use less hops for a full boil.
 
I think that is it. I am doing full boils with the same amount of hops when it calls for 1 oz in a 3 gallon boil and I using 1 oz for a 5 gallon boil. I can't work out in my head why use less hops when you use more water? wouldn't you want more hops to more water?
 
It does seem odd, but that's they way it is.

From the wiki:
Hop utilization can also be decreased if you raise the gravity of your boil volume. Brewing a high gravity beer, or some extract brews using a partial-batch boil will get you a much lower utilization rate. This is the reason extract brewing routinely requires more hops than all-grain brewing for equivalent sized recipes. Different brewers, equipment, and techniques make it highly important to measure and know your own pre-boil volume and pre-boil specific gravity when you need to estimate the bitterness of your final beer.

Here is some free online brewing software. :mug: You can change the boil size under the hops additions. Scale the hops from your partial boil recipe for a full boil (whatever your volume) until the IBUs come out the same.
 
I think that is it. I am doing full boils with the same amount of hops when it calls for 1 oz in a 3 gallon boil and I using 1 oz for a 5 gallon boil. I can't work out in my head why use less hops when you use more water? wouldn't you want more hops to more water?

The short answer is no. With a 3 gallon boil you have a much higher gravity. The higher the gravity the lower the hops utilization. By doing a full boil the gravity is lower and thus increases your utilization.

The consistent bitterness in all beers points to astringency to me. If you under aerate or get the grain bed over 180 while steeping then you increase the possibility of astringency in the final beer. That can give you an off flavor of bitterness that is a little different than hop bittnerness.
 
The recipe I will use as an example has no grain in it. Just extract and hops. It is the American Wheat from NB (Northern Brewer). I did it last year with different water and in a full boil. This year again full boil with tap water and still bitter. Both times full boil using a recipe for a 3 gallon boil. I didn't boil any grains as there is not.

Kit Inventory

Fermentables
6 lbs. Wheat Malt Syrup

Boil Additions
1 oz. Willamette (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (15 min)
Safale US-05. Optimum temperature: 59-75° F.
Wyeast #1010 American Wheat Yeast. Optimum temperature: 58-74° F.


Last year I started the water warming and added the extract right before it got over 150this year I added it before I even turned the burner on and got the same flavors. Don't get me wrong it is drink able but doesn't taste much like a wheat beer. More like a english bitter with very little hops flavor and aroma.
 
What sort of aeration do you do with your batches. Since your issue is common with all of your brews then there is something to tweak with your process. If your bitterness is astringency then the most likely cause is under aeration.
 
Now we're getting somewhere. I plugged that recipe into a calculator and changed nothing but the boil volumes from 3 gals to 5 gals and the IBUs went from 24 to 31 when set to Tinseth calculations. 7 IBUs should be plenty to notice in a 1.043 beer.

BMW's thoughts as to astringency are also good to look into as well. How are you aerating? My beers went from so-so to phenomenal when I changed a few things in my process (one of which was aeration). I used a version of the Cheap and easy aeration gadget.
 
I kind of have something like that it is just a aquarium pump on a stone I leave in while I am racking from pot to bottle and before I put in the yeast. I typically move the bottle from the back yard (20 yards from door) to the basement and let it sit for another 10-20 minutes before pitching. For that time the pump is running in the basement. Could I possibly be over aerating?
 
I kind of have something like that it is just a aquarium pump on a stone I leave in while I am racking from pot to bottle and before I put in the yeast. I typically move the bottle from the back yard (20 yards from door) to the basement and let it sit for another 10-20 minutes before pitching. For that time the pump is running in the basement. Could I possibly be over aerating?

Pump + stone is good. I don't have direct experience, so I'll leave answering the amount of time to leave it on to either your searching or someone who has used that setup. I'm really leaning to your process just using too much hops in the bittering additions. Easy fix :mug:
 
I don't tend to stress too much about aeration, that's not to say I'm not aware of how important it is. My boiler has a tap attached, rather than feed the wort through tubing down in to my fermenter I allow the beer to run through the tap from a small height giving the fermenter a good shake while doing so, I've always had healthy fermentation. This is definitely something that the American homebrewer is more stringent with.
 
split the bittering hops 1/2 at 60 minutes, and 1/2 at 50 min. also, try adding 2/3 of extract at beginning of boil and the rest in the last 15. as far as aroma, add the late addition hops directly to the carboy/primary bucket before you aerate.
 
I'd try some brewing software to make sure you are hitting your target IBUs. Many have free trials, and some are actually free online.

Usually, when you increase the boil size from 2.5 gallons to a full boil, you reduce the bittering hops by about 25%. Try that, and see if your issue improves.

Your aeration sounds adequate.
 
thanks for all the great feedback. I headed over to the HB store and picked up some parts of the kit that I didn't have and will be brewing Thursday morning or Saturday depending on my work schedule. I will try doing a 2.5-3 gallon boil with bottled filtered water. Adding 2/3 the extract before boil and a little less hops at 60 then the rest at 50. While the aroma hops I will hold off till I start to chill it. I hate to try to solve all my issues at once but it is worth a try for as cheap as the kit is to make.
 
thanks for all the great feedback. I headed over to the HB store and picked up some parts of the kit that I didn't have and will be brewing Thursday morning or Saturday depending on my work schedule. I will try doing a 2.5-3 gallon boil with bottled filtered water. Adding 2/3 the extract before boil and a little less hops at 60 then the rest at 50. While the aroma hops I will hold off till I start to chill it. I hate to try to solve all my issues at once but it is worth a try for as cheap as the kit is to make.

Well, that's fine if that's what you want to do. Adding the hops at 50 and 60 won't decrease the bittering, though. If you buy the kit and post up the recipe, we could run it through the software for you. But if you're doing a partial boil, and adding most of the extract at the beginning, you won't have to adjust much anyway.
 

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