Nasty taste in two back to back brews? do you have an explanation

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ekjohns

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I have brewed to all grains that have had a nasty taste that almost tastes like drinking the junk at the bottom of the ferm. (i think its called turb). It kinda tastes like nasty yeast as well. One beer was brewed with the california yeast at 65F and the other with american wheat yeast at 68F. The first one was bottled and the second was kegged. For the kegged beer it was ferm for 6 weeks, crash cooled for 1 week at 38F then kegged for 3 weeks. I dont understand what that taste is. I dont think it is bacteria as everything looked fine during fermintation but i cannot rule it out. I have also run about 4 pints of beer through the keg to get the junk at the bottom out. Should i draw another couple of pints? Finally after drinking about half a glass I have had alot of gas! I have been using the grain bag in a brew pot for the mash and will be moving to a cooler on next batch. Could this be the cause? The yeast took off by 12 hrs and the hydrometer read the beer was done!
 
I'm not a huge fan of the california yeasts, but that's just me. I've never tried American wheat though. I'm thinking your problem is yeast related though since you talked about gas. Anytime you drink the yeast, that's what'll happen. With wheat yeasts, a lot of that yeast stays suspended in the beer.

You say you fermented for 6 weeeks...was that six weeks in primary, or split up? If you left it in primary for that long, you may be showing some early signs of autolysis. Some additional aging may help.

On your next few beers, try a neutral yeast strain like s-04. Also, only use primary for 3-4 weeks. This will determine whether it's the yeast causing bad flavors or whether you have deeper issues like water chemistry.
 
it was not split up. i wanted to keg after 4 weeks but didnt have the co2 tank so choose to wait. water chemistry wise i am using columbus oh water and we have he columbus brew company plus i looked at a local water report and everything seemed to be in a good range. would you recommend doing a secondard after a week to get it out of the turb asap?
 
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