Grrrrr!!!! Bad streak.

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liebertron

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Ive made about 12 batches now. My first one was DISGUSTING (tasted like strong yeasty tap water) and all after that have been really good until batches 11 and 12. Batch 11 was a raging ***** clone. Half the bottles were awesomely hoppy. The other half of bottles foamed a TON and again tasted like strong yeasty tap water... it was grossssssss. Then my latest batch, a brown nut ale, was watery! It was my first batch kegging, but I really doubt that was the reason... What the hell!!!

raging ***** clone was fermented for 2 weeks, secondary 2 weeks, bottled and aged 4 weeks...

brown nut ale was in primary for 4 weeks, secondary for 4 weeks, and cold crashed into a keg...

any ideas?

...hopefully not all is lost - i have a porter and a irish red ale fermenting...

Mike
 
So much depends on recipe, execution, aging, etc. that it's hard to say what the problem could be. I can tell right off the bat that 2 weeks on a OG heavy clone like Raging ***** deserves way more time in primary, but I think you've reached that point where your brew method just needs some refining, so some questions:

-What's your water quality like where you live? Do you use filtered water to top off or tap water?

-Do you make your own recipes or pull them from online/friend sources?

-How's your ingredient quality? i.e. do you buy from LHBS per recipe or do you have back-stock of malts, hops, etc. at home?

-Do you monitor boil & fermentation temps? (Note: you should. :p)

-Do you use yeast starters?

-How's your bottling process? Do you sanitize religiously? Mix the proper amount of priming sugar & blend it evenly into the brew?
 
-What's your water quality like where you live? Do you use filtered water to top off or tap water?

I live in Alexandria VA and the tap water quality is pretty good. I do 7 gallon full boils and never need to top off,, there is usually a very small amount of liquid and trub left that I leave in the brew pot and then dump.

-Do you make your own recipes or pull them from online/friend sources?

I usually go to the brew store and develop something with the guy there.

-How's your ingredient quality? i.e. do you buy from LHBS per recipe or do you have back-stock of malts, hops, etc. at home?

I usually buy per recipe as the brew store measures the ingredients for me and charges as i use.

-Do you monitor boil & fermentation temps? (Note: you should. )

yup, monitor boil temps. ferm temps are a bit harder. i probably ferment a little on the low side since its winter now and its in my basement. I would say my basement is probably around 60 degrees.

-Do you use yeast starters?

no yeast starters, usually use liquid yeast and let the package balloon for at least 3 hours.

-How's your bottling process? Do you sanitize religiously? Mix the proper amount of priming sugar & blend it evenly into the brew?

I do sanitize religiously and measure out priming sugars and what not.

---------------

the only thing i can think of is maybe my ferm temp is too low? also i remembered that the raging ***** clone was in the primary for 3 weeks and secondary for 1 week, if that makes a difference. it was strange because BEFORE i put the ***** in the bottle the uncarbonated beer tasted GREAT and then some bottles ended up being terrible and some really good
 
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