Any way to fix an astringent brew?

I brewed my first AG last week. I took a hydro test today, and then tasted it.
It is very astringent. I see in Papazian's book that it can be caused by a long mash, or sparging with too hot of water. I do believe my water was too hot.

My question is, Is there any way to fix this batch?

That flavor will mellow with some time, but it will always be there. Chalk it up to experience and try a lower sparge temp. and/or pH.

Uncarbed samples can fool you. How long has it been fermenting, and give us some info as to the mash temps(although unless you were over 170 for a while that is probably not it)

Plan9 said:

I brewed my first AG last week. I took a hydro test today, and then tasted it.
It is very astringent. I see in Papazian's book that it can be caused by a long mash, or sparging with too hot of water. I do believe my water was too hot.

My question is, Is there any way to fix this batch?

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Uncarbed hydrometer samples can be a little deceiving until you get the hang of them. I've had samples that I thought were incredibly bitter, tannic and nasty only to have the beer turn out spectacularly well. In one instance I'd gotten a bit slurp of krauesen/yeast detritus, which is remarkably bitter and harsh, in my tester jar. In another, the beer was just too young to make any real judgments about.

Give it some time. If it is still harsh and astringent when it should be ready to bottle or keg, blend it with something similar or just give it another couple of weeks in secondary. It'll calm down considerably with time.

Chad

Beer is amazing. It can go through different stages. I had one that was very drinkable at about 2-6 months. 6-9 months it was terrible and 9-12 it was awsome. You never know. I also brewed a high alchol belgian diablo that tasted better years later. If it is bad, then age it some. Check a bottle every few weeks.

You can remove excess tannins with gelatine, followed by Kiesolsol to remove excess gelatine. You have to be careful with the stuff, as it can bind other desirable flavors.

But wait for the batch to age a bit first. If it is still too astringent at 8 weeks, then try 'fixing' part of the batch.

If it truly is hard to drink then mix it with another batch of finished beer. I had one batch that was very astringent...tasted like I was drinking husks. It was a pale ale.
I also had a half of a keg of a standard porter that was fairly ordinary (kind of boring actually). When I mixed the two, I had a great beer. I'm serious. That mixed beer tasted great.

People often confuse astringent flavor with the hoppy bite that a young beer has.

As a default, I would suggest simply letting the beer age for 3-4 weeks and re-tasting before doing anything.

I agree that you should let it age first. If that doesn't work...blend.

I've blended beers early on and was quite surprised with the effect.

It was a bad thing to have 2 bad (off) 5 gal batches (one too sweet, one too bitter) only to be blended to make a good tasting beer.

My first AG was a porter that I brewed in mid December. It was a bit harsh for a while. It had the same problems that you had, because my thermometer was crap.

I tried it after 12 weeks. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.

I decided to wait and I'm glad that I did, because now it is a wonderful beer and I have about 2 cases of the stuff.

Time is your friend. It will age out. Try getting some 5.2 PH stabalizer and brewing a blond Ale in the time being. Something lighter will usually be drinkable in less time.

I just did the same thing with my first AG. After 6 weeks, it is mellowing (and tolerable in small doses) but still very astringent. A post-mortem with my LHBS may have shed some light. After I mashed and drained, I put a wedge under the cooler to make up for the equipment loss. Same thing after sparging. Apparently that yields some very tannic wort.

Also, the recipe was for both PM and AG. I mis-read and mashed in at 158° which was the temp for PM of the specialty grains, not 152° which was the recommended temp.

And to add insult to injury, I didn't check my sparge temp that closely figuring that of 170° would stop the enzymes, ~178° would be just as good.

Oh well, I'm re-learning to brew again...

david_42 said:

You can remove excess tannins with gelatine, followed by Kiesolsol to remove excess gelatine. You have to be careful with the stuff, as it can bind other desirable flavors.

But wait for the batch to age a bit first. If it is still too astringent at 8 weeks, then try 'fixing' part of the batch.

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+1

I don't know what Kiesolsol is, but Polyclar is negatively changed and will remove husk tannins. I would try gelatine to pull down the yeast first, then use Polyclar and rack over to a clean keg. If that doesn't work borrow someone's filter set up. Lot of work to "save" a beer.

Brickhouse said:

+1
I would try gelatine to pull down the yeast first, then use Polyclar and rack over to a clean keg. If that doesn't work borrow someone's filter set up. Lot of work to "save" a beer.

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I'm confused. At 8 weeks, there should be practically no yeast to pull down. And how does a filter work for dissolved tannins/tannic acids?

njnear76 said:

My first AG was a porter that I brewed in mid December. It was a bit harsh for a while. It had the same problems that you had, because my thermometer was crap.

I tried it after 12 weeks. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.

I decided to wait and I'm glad that I did, because now it is a wonderful beer and I have about 2 cases of the stuff.

Time is your friend. It will age out. Try getting some 5.2 PH stabalizer and brewing a blond Ale in the time being. Something lighter will usually be drinkable in less time.

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Hi. Sorry to intrude... But I have the same problem now with an ale that is already bottled. So, when you say let it age out you mean in the bottle right not in the secondary fermenter?
Thanks...

Moezart said:

Hi. Sorry to intrude... But I have the same problem now with an ale that is already bottled. So, when you say let it age out you mean in the bottle right not in the secondary fermenter?
Thanks...

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Some experience a subtle difference between aging in secondary/bulk aging and bottle aging. But for the purposes being discussed here, whether you're aging in secondary or in bottles shouldn't matter.

jack13 said:

Some experience a subtle difference between aging in secondary/bulk aging and bottle aging. But for the purposes being discussed here, whether you're aging in secondary or in bottles shouldn't matter.

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Thanks