Fifth batch... last two both taste like crap!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so freaking irritated. I cant figure this out. My first batch was a great tasting pale ale. The second was a great tasting easy wheat. The third was a decent dunkle. The fourth was a crappy tasting IPA, the fifth is a brand new blackhole IPA that tastes the same as the crappy IPA. I think I have a couple different problems adding up. First, I have a draft system for my homebrew and a keg of AB. I do not have any problems with my AB keg at all. However, I do have massive amounts of gas build up in my home brew line. It seems to be building up in the middle of the line, and at the fitting to the keg. And I still think the beer itself takes like crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please help. I need guidance. If I make one more bad beer I am going to quit!

Please help us help you.
Whats the recipes? Procedures? Temperatures? Ages?

Never quit, it may be as simple as letting it age for another coupe weeks. If you quit beer, you will never be good at anything ever!!!!!!!!!!


ok maybe that's a lie, but I hope you get my point.

Literally like crap? That would suggest an enterobacter infection (vomity-diarrhea-y), but that is very unusual, since enterobacter is very sensitive to alcohol and gets killed off very early during fermentation.

If you wouldn't mind describing the off-flavor in some more detail, and post a detailed recipe and your process (i.e. where you got your ingredients from, what water you used, how you treated the water, what size yeast starter you made (if any), etc.), we may be able to help you. However, without tasting the beer, it's difficult to truly pin down your issue. So I would suggest taking a sample to a local homebrew store or homebrew club and ask for their opinion.

How much time are you giving these beers? Whatand how are you brewing extract partial all grain? Your own recipies,kits???????? There are so many things possible without knowing procedures we know nothing.

I'm not sure I follow the AB gas in the line keg thing but FWIW here is my reactions to your plea for help!

For your IPAs you might want to look at your water, perhaps try the same recipe with filtered water. I have found personally that changes in local water from season to season result in quite a different hops flavor. I now filter my water to even it up. Also check your hop schedule i.e try something different. I had one experience of one hop variety tasting awful as a FWH addition but fine boiled for the same amount of time. Same hop same bag... go figure! Also I have had experiences where a single hop tastes like sh!te to me but blended with one other hop it blows my mind. Hops are finicky beasts so experimentation is the game. You also need to balance bitterness with taste and aroma. I have found that I prefer hops added at 30 and 20 mins as well as the early bitterness addition and late hopburst additions. Without the middle I find the flavor a litle too one dimensional even when compensating for overall IBUs. It is more complicated than it would seem. Try again and see if you can make it work.

Steve da sleeve

Thx for the quick motivational speech guys.

Lets break this down into a step by step list of problems. First things first, I have bubbles forming in the beer line causing way too much foam in my glass. I force carbonated the keg for two days (beer was ferminting for 4 weeks, Its a kit called Blackhole IPA). I have already replace my beer line (in cause there was a pin hole in th line I couldnt see. I have also replaced the beer side coupler with a brand new one. I think the old one was as old as me, so I didnt mind getting a new one reguardless. And last, I have removed and cleaned the beer out (for lack of a better word) nipple. It still has a small bead of bubbles coming from the coupler. The only thing I havent done is replace the seals in that nipple. But I did replace them about 6 months ago.

So what am I missing?

Thanks for the help friends!

so you force carb'd for only 2 days...so really the CO2 isn't well dissolved in solution and will easily bubble back out. THis is why I carb at 12psi for 10 days, so my carbonation is stable.

2nd, if your lines get warmer towards the tap, that pushes CO2 out of solution.

3rd you mention bubbles coming up the liquid line as you dispense? something is restricting beer flow and forcing CO2 out. My guess is the poppet.


Now, what kind of 'crap' does the beer taste like because none of the above CO2 solution issues is going to make the beer taste like crap.

Is it medicinal? Vinegar? Sour apples? soapy? wet cardboard/newspaper?

the O-ring on the liquid out tube may be leaking letting top gas get in the beer line.

It sounds like 2 different problems. The bubbles in the line and the foaming could be caused by the lines getting warmer or a leak in the system somewhere. The crappy taste could come from dirty beer lines and faucets or you could have an infection. If the latter, once you finish the keg you'll need to really clean everything that touches your cooled wort: the fermenter, hoses, tubing, fittings, valves, etc. I ruined 3 batches, each tasting successively worst than the last, due to infection, before I traced it back to fermenter.

Malkore, my beer lines are forming bubble right at the exit of the keg, that is still in the fridge and I there is no temp change at that point. I just replaced the poppet and it is still happening. Like I said before, my Bud Light keg does not have any problem. So my beer is not getting any warmer as it is despensed from the faucet.

I understand that I did something wrong with the brew and I will try and narrow that down later. Right now I am trying to figure out how to get my perfect pours back. My pour is all foam with a quarter of an inch of beer at the bottum and I cant take it, I am wasting my crappy tasting beer. I am so frustrated with the pours right now.

Is it possible to over carbinate during the forced carbination. Do I just need to let it settle. Even still, it shouldnt be leaking co2 into the beer line should it? The only thing left that I can think of is the o-ring, but like I said, I replaced those about 6 months ago.

For the foaming, have you balanced your beer line length?
See http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/ for details.

For the IPA's tasting the way they do, have you tasted any commercial IPA's? They aren't going to taste anything like Bud.
I apologize if you think I'm being rude, but many people don't like IPA.

-a.

I think there's a difference between "tastes like crap" and "the carbonation sucks ass".

The "tastes like crap" could be infection, chloramines in the water, too high fermentation temps, not enough time to age, something gone wrong in wort preparation.

"Carbonation sucks ass" is probably easier to overcome with some of the suggestions of folks here.

Have you tasted the finished product ? Is it just the mouthfeel is syrupy/gummy, does it taste like bandaids/plastic?

I'm fairly noobish, but I would suggest if you're concerned about taste try bottling a few next time and set them aside to age. Just to compare the drinkability of what you get bottled vs. kegged.

i had this problem (not the crappy beer taste but the foam and bad pours...) try disconnecting the co2 from the keg and very slowly VERY SLOWLY bleed out the pressure inside the keg. it might just be over pressurized and that builds up and causes a phenomenon called extreme beer foaming... not really but it does increase the head pressure in your lines...I.E. friction within the lines. hook it all back up and try again...what is your pressure into your keg set at?
don't quit i had a friend who quit once and he died.

ajf said:

For the foaming, have you balanced your beer line length?
See http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/ for details.

For the IPA's tasting the way they do, have you tasted any commercial IPA's? They aren't going to taste anything like Bud.
I apologize if you think I'm being rude, but many people don't like IPA.

-a.

Click to expand...

my beer is foaming up in the line, not as it is poured. It is literally forming large gaps of gas in the line.

Yes, I am a huge hophead. I love IPA's and IIPA's. DFH 60 & 90 min IPA, Bells hopslam, Stone IPA and Ruination... just to name a few. I love IPAs, I am very dissappointed that after the few first brews that worked ok, and my favorite type has turned out crappy twice.

Mermaid said:

I think there's a difference between "tastes like crap" and "the carbonation sucks ass".

The "tastes like crap" could be infection, chloramines in the water, too high fermentation temps, not enough time to age, something gone wrong in wort preparation.

"Carbonation sucks ass" is probably easier to overcome with some of the suggestions of folks here.

Have you tasted the finished product ? Is it just the mouthfeel is syrupy/gummy, does it taste like bandaids/plastic?

I'm fairly noobish, but I would suggest if you're concerned about taste try bottling a few next time and set them aside to age. Just to compare the drinkability of what you get bottled vs. kegged.

Click to expand...

I am just concerned about the gas problem right now. I liked the way the finished product tasted before it was carbonated, now I dont like it.

langer said:

i had this problem (not the crappy beer taste but the foam and bad pours...) try disconnecting the co2 from the keg and very slowly VERY SLOWLY bleed out the pressure inside the keg. it might just be over pressurized and that builds up and causes a phenomenon called extreme beer foaming... not really but it does increase the head pressure in your lines...I.E. friction within the lines. hook it all back up and try again...what is your pressure into your keg set at?
don't quit i had a friend who quit once and he died.

Click to expand...

I have disconnected and bled the keg about seven times, trying to swap peices out and correct the problem, it has not changed a bit with all the different parts that I have changed.

Does anyone know if over carbonated beer will transfer into the the line and slowly bleed out into the tube?

Sorry they turned crappy for you maybe try making a starter with Bell's yeast from a bottle next time?