Wierd Aftertaste

Hey guys,
The last 4 batches of beer have had the same aftertaste. I thought leaving it alone would mellow it out. This, however, is not the case. I don't know how to describe it. Its almost a bad kind of starchy to me, but you can smell it from a room away. My wife says to me when i opened one "that smells horrible." The only factor in these last beers was that I had switched to using a electric turkey fryer with a homemade heat wand, I'm sure you all know what i am talking about. When I brew a batch it hits about 216 degrees, which is just over boiling. Could this be a factor. Another thing I can add to help you help me figure this out is that the wart chiller that I made from copper pipe i got from the hardware store has been mildly clean, as I rinse it with the one steep and then put it in the boil 15 mins before it ends. I noticed that there are green corrosion on the copper pipe that i try to scrub off, but give up on half of it because its soo hard to get off. Please tell me if any one of these factors may contribute to this aftertaste and why. Thanks soo much guys I always look up answers to my brewing problems on your forms you have already helped me soo much.

It sounds like you could possibly be scorching the grains with your heatstick. If you're not getting enough circulation that's a likely cause. Give us more info about your brewing procedure, like are you doing all grain or extract, do you mash with the heat stick, etc.

And scrub that patina off your wort chiller before you use it again! The green part is toxic at high levels, and more importantly, can give a harsh metallic taste to your beer.

Whether you're doing all grain or extract I'd bet on the heat stick also. Be careful with that.

I do mostly all grain. However, the last batch I did was a dry extract to see if that was the problem. But even this batch has the same taste. And yes it is metalic I belive. Like I said I dont scrub the wort chiller, I just stick it in the last 15 mins of the boil. I think I will clean the crap out of it this time. I made the wort chiller from copper pipe from the hardware store, does this not have the same coating as one I would get in a brewery store. Or do premade ones have a coating of some kind to prevent against this?

Hi guys, not to hijack the thread, but I have a strange aftertaste question too. My last couple brews have had a flavor of bitter wood or sticks on the finish/aftertaste. Any ideas what may cause this and, more importantly, how I can avoid it? I brew with DME, but I typically steep some grain beforehand as well (usually 30 to 60 minutes at 160 - 168 degrees).

psi3000 said:

I do mostly all grain. However, the last batch I did was a dry extract to see if that was the problem. But even this batch has the same taste. And yes it is metalic I belive. Like I said I dont scrub the wort chiller, I just stick it in the last 15 mins of the boil. I think I will clean the crap out of it this time. I made the wort chiller from copper pipe from the hardware store, does this not have the same coating as one I would get in a brewery store. Or do premade ones have a coating of some kind to prevent against this?

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How do you store you chiller? If you're storing it inside an aluminum brew pot, this could be accelerating the corrosion. Make sure to scrub all that off, as stated before, it can be toxic.

ttokar said:

Hi guys, not to hijack the thread, but I have a strange aftertaste question too. My last couple brews have had a flavor of bitter wood or sticks on the finish/aftertaste. Any ideas what may cause this and, more importantly, how I can avoid it? I brew with DME, but I typically steep some grain beforehand as well (usually 30 to 60 minutes at 160 - 168 degrees).

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Does it taste like wet cardboard? if so, do a search with those terms and you will turn up a bunch of info.

ttokar said:

Hi guys, not to hijack the thread, but I have a strange aftertaste question too. My last couple brews have had a flavor of bitter wood or sticks on the finish/aftertaste. Any ideas what may cause this and, more importantly, how I can avoid it? I brew with DME, but I typically steep some grain beforehand as well (usually 30 to 60 minutes at 160 - 168 degrees).

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That bitter wood taste might be tannins from steeping at too high a temperature. Thermometers are notorious for being way off at higher temps, so you may actually be steeping at 175+ by mistake. I normally try to keep my temps between 150-155, so 168 may also be a bit too high. Then again it could be something else, off tastes are often hard to determine over the internet, but we do the best we can .

WillPall said:

That bitter wood taste might be tannins from steeping at too high a temperature. Thermometers are notorious for being way off at higher temps, so you may actually be steeping at 175+ by mistake. I normally try to keep my temps between 150-155, so 168 may also be a bit too high. Then again it could be something else, off tastes are often hard to determine over the internet, but we do the best we can .

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Thanks. I've been using my wife's candy thermometer thinking it was pretty accurate, but maybe that’s the problem. I’ll try keeping the temperature at a lower reading next time and hope the stick flavor does not appear.

Any hope that the flavor will subside as the beer ages or is the batch pretty much ruiened?

ttokar said:

Any hope that the flavor will subside as the beer ages or is the batch pretty much ruiened?

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As you will find, it's pretty hard to ruin a batch. Most of the time those flavors will start to go away, but there's no way to know if they'll go away completely until it's done aging. I'd let it condition for at least several weeks and then see how it is.