why do all my beers seem tangy in the after taste?

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BoostedF150

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I've been all grain brewing for almost 2 years now. I have all hand me down equipment which is in good shape and always cleaned. I have about 15 to 20 batches under my belt both my own creations and recipes I have found on this forum.
I feel that every batch tastes tangy. Others have noticed but not all the time. And its not terrible tasting But I always taste it. My beers also seem to loose flavor after sitting in the keg for 2 weeks. What could I possibly be doing wrong? I hit my numbers and always have fermentation within 12 hours.
I also seem to play out my recipes and others as this is going to be a great beer but when it comes time to try it it just seems ok and not much different than the last because I keep tasting this same tangy flavor. Is it time to invest in some new equipment? I mash and boil in 15 gal kegs and ferment in glass carboys. Star san is my goto sanitizer and I leave bleach water in my fermenters while they are empty. Any advice would be greatly apprieciated.
 
Any plastic tubing touch the beer? Get rid of it. Auto-siphon?
Do you have fermentation control? Are you pitching enough yeast? Tough to say, but if you are not happy with it I would start to systematically go through these types of things.

I don't know enough about the bleach because I never use it, but perhaps it is some residue from that. No real need to keep it in there like that IMO. Wash and rinse before each batch. Good luck.
 
+1 to above.
Lots of factors could be causing the off taste.
IMO, I agree with the above bleach comment. No need to leave it sitting in carboy. If you do, then rinsing it thoroughly is ESSENTIAL.

Ferment temps, water profile, overall process also all come to mind.
What kind of beers do you generally make?
 
Only plastic that touches the beer is from auto siphons which are stored in starsan and rinsed befor each use. I have no fermentaion control. I always ferment in the attched garage sitting on a concrete floor with a blanket covering live in western washington so temps are about right for the beers i like to make, american ales cream ales and ipa.. I pretty much stick to dry yeast and havent messed around with making a starter except for when I use liquid yeast. Next batch will use a starter and I think im going to try using bottle water because the wife has been complaning lately about our water tssting funny- I dont notice it. The bleach is always rinsed out thoroughly and star san used in fermenter before pooring wort in.
 
Tangy doesn't strike me as a yeast of flavor, so I don't think your fermentation is the problem.

My guess would be water, try going to the store and picking up like 15 gallons of packaged water. If that fixes the brew, you know you need to invest in a water filter.

My next guess would be a chemical that shouldn't be there. Since it's all glass, I would assume there's no copper touching the beer during fermentation. Any galvanized fittings/washers in the system? What about pvc? All tubing should be SS or high temp silicon.

The bleach concerns me, but not that much,I think bleach would carry a pretty distinctive flavor. (I just wash my carboys with pbw after I'm done, then cover the hole with aluminum foil, when I'm ready to use them again I mix up 5 gallons of star San in them, then use that through my whole brew day.)

About the kegs losing flavor over time, hop flavor/aroma degrades over time, but of the problem is with other flavors than hops I would guess oxygenation. Do you purge the oxygen after you keg? (Put like 12psi of co2 in, close the co2, release the pressure, repeat 5 times.) Or fill the keg with co2 before you rack into it. Does the keg hold pressure when not on gas for 2 weeks? Sometimes kegs leak at serving pressure, but then people test them with 10 or 15psi and they don't leak so they assume they're fine. Keg lube is your friend.
 
I also don't like storing things in star San, it's acidic so it eats through things over time, and it leaves a nasty film on plastic in my opinion, and if you have a high mineral content in your water it will break down and lose it's sanitizing ability fairly quickly (or if it's exposed to air).

If that's works for you though my only suggestion is test the ph of the star San every so often to make sure it's still good.
 
Water in that area of Western WA can be very soft and have very low alkalinity. If you are then dosing the water with gypsum and/or calcium chloride, the resulting residual alkalinity of the water can be quite low, possibly negative. If the mash grist has much crystal or roast malts, then the mash pH and subsequent wort pH can be lower than desirable. This MIGHT be a source of the tangyness.

If this is the source of the tang, then employing pickling lime or baking soda in the mashing water might be a way to avoid the excessive pH drop. Using baking soda is not really a big problem in brewing as long as your tap water doesn't have much sodium to start with. The elevated sodium content produced from dosing the mash with baking soda will be diluted by the sparging water. The supporters version of Bru'n Water does include a feature that calculates the overall concentrations of flavor ions (Na, SO4, Cl) in the kettle wort. The free version doesn't have that feature. Low sodium (<40 ppm) in the kettle is not really a detriment to beer flavor. Many waters from historic brewing cities have modest sodium content in that range.
 
Do you know what your ferment temps are (as measured on the bucket/carboy)? That's the first area to take a good look at before delving off into water chemistry and such.

That and to start using StarSan instead of bleach.
 
I had the same problem years ago. Mabrungard could be right. For me it was simply buying a pH meter and adjusting the pH of the mash
to 5.3 and the sparge to 5.5 and all is good.
 
I agree with others that it could be your water. I had a similar problem with all my all grains having a funny aftertaste. I installed an RO water system and added salts per the water primer. Made a world of difference. Try keeping everything the same, but switch to bottled water next batch.
 
Sorry if this is a repeated message just have a few seconds and wanted to make sure you got this info.
Leaving bleach in a glass container is a bad idea. Bleach can slowly dissolve glass. Not sure if this could contribute to the off flavor or not but is absolutely a bad idea.
 
Echoing what a few others have said, I'd look into the water you are using. Might be some iron or manganese, which would give a sharp taste to your beer. If you use tap water, check with your community's water dept. and get a water report.
 
My 2 cents -- it's your waters. I use a carbon block filter and dose 10g water with half a campden tablet. I also sent my water to ward labs for a brewing water report and adjust my water, generally with varying amounts of gypsum, calcium carbonate & less often baking soda to counteract dark grain acidity. I have done these steps piece-wise over the last two years as my brewing knowledge has increased and each step improved my beer. I also use bru'n water to figure out adjustments.
 
Sorry if this is a repeated message just have a few seconds and wanted to make sure you got this info.
Leaving bleach in a glass container is a bad idea. Bleach can slowly dissolve glass. Not sure if this could contribute to the off flavor or not but is absolutely a bad idea.

x2 on this. I etched a 5 gal secondary glass carboy by accidentally leaving a bleach solution in it. It was etched so bad that that it had a gray tint and felt rough on the carboy brush. I pitched it in fear that I would have a hard time sanitizing it.
I don't think this is cause of your taste but it still is a bad practice.

If I were in your shoes, I would look at the one constant, your water, and go from there..
 
Water in that area of Western WA can be very soft and have very low alkalinity. If you are then dosing the water with gypsum and/or calcium chloride, the resulting residual alkalinity of the water can be quite low, possibly negative. If the mash grist has much crystal or roast malts, then the mash pH and subsequent wort pH can be lower than desirable. This MIGHT be a source of the tangyness.

If this is the source of the tang, then employing pickling lime or baking soda in the mashing water might be a way to avoid the excessive pH drop. Using baking soda is not really a big problem in brewing as long as your tap water doesn't have much sodium to start with. The elevated sodium content produced from dosing the mash with baking soda will be diluted by the sparging water. The supporters version of Bru'n Water does include a feature that calculates the overall concentrations of flavor ions (Na, SO4, Cl) in the kettle wort. The free version doesn't have that feature. Low sodium (<40 ppm) in the kettle is not really a detriment to beer flavor. Many waters from historic brewing cities have modest sodium content in that range.

Listen to this man. I was having almost the exact problem you described. I focused on all of my processes but it turned out water chemistry was the answer. Now that I understand mash Ph and how to hit it, and how to adjust water for the beer I am trying to brew, my beers have drastically improved. My water is very alkaline so for light beers I use RO water and adjust it. For dark beers I use around 50/50 RO and tap water and adjust from there. You will not regret making the effort to learn water chemistry.
 
Thanks everyone for all your great advice. This forum is awesome. I am strongly looking at my water situation now. As for some of the other stuff fermentation temps are usually high 60's on the sticker placed on the fermenter. I have been having an overcarbonation problem which I have been fighting for a while now but I think its due to a cheapo regulator so that will get fixed soon. I have been storing my fermenters with bleach solution because thats what I was taught but I guess I need to stop doing that. The glass carboys still look crystal clear.
 
fermentation temps are usually high 60's on the sticker placed on the fermenter.

Keep us posted.

YMMV, but I generally try to keep that surface temp reading on my fermenter mid-60s (65-66 at most) as the internal temperature due to yeast activity can be as much as 5 degrees higher. So if you read say 68, you are looking at 72-73 which is going to give you a cider/tangy off-flavor.

Sounds like dialing in on your water is going to be a big help. Just wanted to throw the temp out there ;-). Good Luck :mug:
 
Another suggestion to check water. My beers all had a tangy finish when I was using our tap water. I switched to RO (I grab what I need from those RO water machines at the supermarket and add brewing salts) and the aftertaste is gone. I may do some more investigating, but I really don't have much motivation when the RO stuff costs $1.75 for five gallons and my beers are tasting great.
 
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