Help how do I make beer that tastes better?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bend140174

New Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
I am trying to brew beer that doesn't taste like home brew you know that distinct flavour. The beer can be very good however you always know its home brew. I have always used canned malts (most often Coopers). I have used filtered water, usually dextrose never cane sugar and I have used finings. I guess I have been reasonably thorough in trying to get a beer of "commercial" quality but have fallen short everytime. Is making my own malt the answer? I would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks Ben
 
You don't need to make your own malt (though of course you can). Replacing dextrose with malt extract is the best thing to do first. If you aren't already, add steeping grains to your recipes to help with freshness and flavouring.

Moving to all-grain or partial mashing is an excellent way to improve the quality and control over your beers.
 
Excellent beer can be made with extracts. The process is key. If you can afford to and are not already doing a full volume boil that is where your biggest gains could be made. This will give you better hop utilization as well as less caramelization and melanoidin formation which are partially responsible for that "homebrew" off flavour. As bradsul mentioned using steeping grains and extract rather then dextrose will also help.
 
bend140174 said:
I am trying to brew beer that doesn't taste like home brew you know that distinct flavour. The beer can be very good however you always know its home brew. I have always used canned malts (most often Coopers). I have used filtered water, usually dextrose never cane sugar and I have used finings. I guess I have been reasonably thorough in trying to get a beer of "commercial" quality but have fallen short everytime. Is making my own malt the answer? I would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks Ben

That is the flavor of a fresh unfiltered beer. Besides of a process improvements give your beer a time to condition and you'll be amazed with the results. Enjoy.
 
Try DME as well as the late extract method. Gets rid of the twang. O...and try using a fresh kit out together by your LHBS or online one instead of Coopers which may or may not have been sitting a while. My thoughts only....I know good beers have been made from Coopers, too.
 
All my beers tasted 'homebrewy' until I started really controlling the fermentation temperatures and doing full boils. That makes a huge difference. Also be sure your ingredients are very fresh. Malt extract develops a nasty taste after a while of sitting on the shelf. I have lately gone all grain and the results are even better, but the difference between extract and all grain isn't as great if you start controlling other factors such as ferm temps and boil volume.
 
I agree with Trub and Kayos. Here are some things you can do to help your beer (if you're all ready doing them all the better)-
-full volume boil, this will reduce melanoidins
-steeping grains
-fresh ingredients, dry extract holds up better than liquid
-enough yeast, dry or liquid
-appropriate fermentation temps

As for malting your own grain it is an unneccessary and troublrsome step well beyond partial mash or all grain brewing.

(I see now that I'm repeating a lot of what mward has to say)
 
In addition to all the great comments above, I find one MAJOR factor in your brews flavor is TIME.

Most people cannot fight the urge to drink their brew right away. Sometimes I don't touch my brews for 3-4 months. ;)

During that time it will mellow, meld and age into a great tasting brew. ;)
 
Time. It's probably homebrewing's biggest "dirty little secret." When they hook you on it, they say you can be drinking your beer within like 2 weeks of when you bew it. That, while technically true, ignores the fact that you probably won't be drinking good beer. And, actually, I'm sure that most of us have been thrilled by that first taste of our first batch of green beer-- thrilled that it actually is beer, tastes like beer and we made it ourselves. It's only later when that forgotten last six-pack shows up after 2 or 3 months in the cellar and you drink it and find out is has turned into Nectar of the Gods that you realize how much a bit of aging can improve a homebrew.
 
bend140174 said:
I am trying to brew beer that doesn't taste like home brew you know that distinct flavour.

Go All Grain, use a liquid yeast strain or at least something like Nottingham, and let your beer age properly. Life will be good.
 
Kayos said:
Try DME as well as the late extract method. Gets rid of the twang. O...and try using a fresh kit out together by your LHBS or online one instead of Coopers which may or may not have been sitting a while. My thoughts only....I know good beers have been made from Coopers, too.

I second the need to make sure your ingredients are as fresh as possible. LME has a limited life, once it starts getting old it can contribute off flavors. If your LHBS sells bulk LME, it might be a bit fresher than the Coopers extract.
 
bend140174 said:
I am trying to brew beer that doesn't taste like home brew you know that distinct flavour. The beer can be very good however you always know its home brew. I have always used canned malts (most often Coopers). I have used filtered water, usually dextrose never cane sugar and I have used finings. I guess I have been reasonably thorough in trying to get a beer of "commercial" quality but have fallen short everytime. Is making my own malt the answer? I would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks Ben

I had that same "extracty" taste to some of my early brews, too. Annoying, to be sure, but at that time, i was just thrilled to be drinking beer that I made.

Over the past 11 months, I've brewed 35 5-gal batches, and have made steady improvements for the most part (some, not so much, but such is the process of experimentation). Here, I believe, are the main things that have helped to improve my beer the most:

  1. Partial Mash. This is #1 for a reason. The higher my grain/extract ratio got, the better my beer got. There's just something about using alot of extract that gives it a weird twang...but partial mash can be done, to a point, without any extra equipment. For several months, I did partial mash batches using nothing but my kettle and a pasta strainer. Seriously. Now, using grains and mashing doesn't ensure success, but it sure helped my beers immensely. I recommend following Papazian's directions in CJOH. After a few batches, you won't even need to look at the directions, it'll be second nature.
  2. Temperature. I started my brewing career in the month of July. I didn't have any way to cool the fermenting carboys in any meaningful way, so my initial ale fermentation temps were in the mid to high 70's. This leads to alot of esters, which contribute to the "twang". But as the seasons changed and my basement got colder and colder, my beer got better and better. If you can keep your carboy temps in the 60's for most ales, you're much better off, and you'll have a cleaner tasting brew.
  3. Aeration. My old method of aerating the wort was just to shake the carboy. Works okay, but not optimal, and a pain in the ass. I was routinely getting low yeast attenuation, and nothing I did would ferment below 1.020. So I shelled out $30 for an aeration kit from AHS. Suddenly my average attenuation shot up by about 10 points. This will help your beer from turning out too sweet.
  4. Liquid Yeast. Don't get me wrong, I've made excellent beer with dry yeast, but on the whole, I added another dimension to my brews when the weather got colder and I felt comfortable mail-ordering liquid yeast. If you have a local HBS, unlike me, then this is not a problem at all.
  5. Yeast Starters. This helped with both lag time and attenuation, and makes for better beer IMHO. I make huge starters - 7oz of DME in 2L of water - and make them the day before I brew. Even with Wyeast Activator Smack Packs, it's essential. It also helps if you have some yeast nutrient, and you add that to the starter boil.
  6. Brewing Software. I use ProMash, but I also have Beersmith, and it's just as good. This will wean you off of using kits, and help you get creative...which is half the fun of this hobby. You may also want to pruchase Ray Daniels' book, Designing Great Beers. It helps you craft beer in the traditional styles.

Good luck...you'll get there!
 
just me but,try a canned extract from defalcos,use the body builder kit ,and be very very very clean with every thing ,add 2 and 3 quarters cup of brown,sugar to the boil,at the first of the boil ,and leave it in the secondary ,for two full weeks and wait two full weeks after you bottle ,to try it out ,and you will swear it was made in the the beer wonderland , oh and you will most allways be able to tell it was home made ,,when you do it right ,,because it is ohohoohhhhhhhhhhh so good ,lmao ,bull
 
Back
Top