All Grain - Off flavors

I have been brewing for like 3 or 4 years. I quickly made the move from partial and extract to all grain as I am (or was) a culinary professional and felt that using extracts was kind of cheating. My last three or four batches have come out with these off flavors that really do not appeal to me. I've brewed many batches prior to that that were absolutely great beers. The flavor I'm talking about is the same in all of the last three beers. It's indescribable (and I realize that is not going to be helpful).
I guess my question is, what can one do to prevent these off flavors. I always take care to cool my wort as quickly as possible, not leave my primary sitting on the trub too long, etc... Any suggestions?

proper sanitation, temperature control, and leaving the beer on the yeast longer.

Do any of the off flavors here sound similar?

Actually, now that I read this (thanks Clonefarmer), I realize that it all started when I began getting lazy and batch sparging.

Here is what clued me in. I will try going back to my old method. Maybe I'll even get a grain crusher and start crushing myself to ensure it's done correctly. I always wondered why people would do that.

Husky / Grainy
These flavors are akin to the astringent flavors produced from the grain husks. These flavors are more evident in all-grain beers due to poor grain crushing or sparging practices. If the grain husks are shredded during crushing by the use of a Corona grain mill for instance, these husk flavors are more likely to be extracted during the sparge. Follow the same procedures recommended to prevent astringency to correct the problem.

The other thing is, my wife is a little obsessed with turning the heat up and down and I rarely have a well maintained temp in the house, but I don't think the range is enough to do what I'm experiencing.

When is the last time you replaced any plastic buckets or rubber hoses? I had a weird off flavor pop up about a year or two into brewing. Replacing the buckets and hoses cleared it up.

The only things that release tanins from grain are sparging temps too high, or pH too low. Are you keeping your mash temp below 170 when sparging?

songstre said:

Actually, now that I read this (thanks Clonefarmer), I realize that it all started when I began getting lazy and batch sparging.

Click to expand...

what does that mean? did you use to fly sparge? i have always batch sparged and never had that issue...and I don't see anything about batch sparging as being lazy???

Beats me. I batch sparge and my AG beer tastes great. Must be something in your process.