Nugget nectar clone came out astringent

A few weeks ago I made a nugget nectar clone. It was the second time I have attempted altering my water chemistry, but I only added 3tsp of gypsum to the mash. I am relatively new to all grain and I BIAB, but none of my other brews have had any off flavors. This one is pretty astringent, still drinkable but a little mouth puckering.

I read a bit about what causes astringency and it's mostly from mashing out too high. I just calibrated my thermometer and know that the mash out never went higher than 168F. Is there anything else I should watch out for in future brews? Also, will the astringency fade at all over time?



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What was your grain bill? There are some grains that my pallet interpret as "astringent," but other people seem to not have a problem with.

I suggest checking out causes from How to Brew. There's numerous causes but there's two things that stand out the most to me. The first is that you're making water additions, and the second is that you're probably using a lot of hops if it's a nugget nectar clone, and you didn't post a recipe.

I've found that Nugget gives me a somewhat medicinal taste when using too much at 60 minutes. I've been trying to like it but just don't.

Heres the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
------------
3.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
11 lbs Vienna Malt
1.75 lbs Munich Malt - 10L
1.5 Pilsner
1 oz Nugget 90 min
1 oz Columbus 15 min
1 oz Palisade 10 min
2 oz Nugget @Flameout
1 oz Simcoe @Flameout
1 oz Nugget Dry Hop
1 oz Simcoe Dry Hop
1 oz Warrior Dry Hop

Also I forgot to mention I had somewhat of a rough brew day. I ran out of propane mid boil and I had to transfer my kettle to the stove over two burners and it took some time to bring it back to a boil. I did have a gentle rolling boil, but maybe it wasn't enough. I couldn't find any reason why that would lead to astringency though.

As to the comment about Nugget tasting medicinal, I have used it in the past and have been pleased with my results. I have never used Vienna as a base malt so that could possibly explain it. And as for the water additions, I have done my research, I'm not blindly throwing salts into the mash. My water is very soft and I only added a bit of gypsum to increase the hop flavor/bitterness.

How fine was your crush? I had a couple bad batches due to astringency and it turned out I was milling my grain too fine. Also is it just me or is 3 tsp of gypsum way to much? Do you mean 3 grams? 3 tsp would be upwards of 10 or so grams

edit: correction, 1 level tsp = 4 grams for gypsum. So 3 tsp = 12 grams. That could be your problem.

Lots of hops there. My experience is hoppy beers need a couple of weeks to mellow - always always! Generally for me they get good in 2, peak at 4 or 5. So my advice is to save your critique till next month.

FWIW, and YMMV etc
Steve da sleeve

I had the LHBS crush my grain and I asked for it a little finer, but maybe they crushed it too fine. I used the calculator on brewer's friend for gypsum additions. It was 12g for 8.5 gallons of mash water. The Ca levels in my water are pretty close to 0, but maybe I'll back off on the additions next time and see if that helps. Thanks for your input guys.


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I would do a 60 minute nugget addition instead of 90. I had my first Nugget Nectar beer last night (all the wasted years!!!), and I didn't detect as much of a vienna profile as you have presented in your grain bill. Are you sure plain ol' 2-row wouldn't work better?

3 tsp of gypsum is not a lot at all. If your water makes good beer besides, this gypsum addition isn't going to ruin it.

the milling doesn't matter. pH and temp are the leading causes of extracting tannins.

So it appears there was another underlying issue here. I opened a bottle yesterday to see if the off flavor had diminished at all and it turned out to be a gusher. It tasted just as bad, if not worse, than before. I opened another bottle out of curiosity and that too was a gusher so I took a gravity sample at it was at 1.010; my FG at bottling was steady at 1.016 so it looks like I had an infection. The bottles were very cloudy at room temp until a few days ago. Now I'll have to figure out where the infection came from.


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Sorry to hear about your dilemma, but at least you've narrowed it down to the problem. What do you ferment in? Buckets, glass/plastic carboys, bathtubs? It might be worth it to spend $25 on a new plastic carboy just to see if it solves the problem. If it doesn't, then at least you have a new fermentation vessel for brewing an extra 5 gallons

I ferment in glass carboys, and I just bottled a Pliny the elder clone that was dry hopping in the same carboy after a soak in oxyclean and I didn't see or taste any problems.


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