Help Choosing next brew...

Hey guys,
I'm thinking about starting my next brew (4th one). I haven't had amazing success yet so I thought I'd ask the experts.

My first brew was a Baron's Brown Ale Kit, 2nd was Cooper's IPA and most recent was Coopers English Bitter. All three fermented and progressed very well, no infection, as far as I know but all three had an off flavor that I was not particularly fond of. Might describe it as a bit of chemically taste but I'm not sure.

So I guess I have a couple of questions:
- Could city (chlorinated) water have caused the off flavor?
- Any other ideas that may have caused the off flavor?
- And lastly, any suggestions for a "fool proof" kit that I could do for my next brew that tends to turn out well easily and where could I get it to make sure it is a fresh kit? (someone told me kits that sit around for awhile sometimes get off flavors)
- I like pretty much all beers but tend to lean towards darker
beers most of the time.

Any other suggestions or tips that might help me get a nice clean tasting beer would be great as I'm hoping to get a really good brew under my belt as I haven't yet and am getting frustrated...

I think the water could be the main issue. My other guess is maybe your temperatures are high during fermentation. Could also be oxygenation from your process.
Read this link and see if you can find the taste you are referring to: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21.html

I used tap water my first batch and it had a strong coppery taste. The tap water in my area (Los Angeles) is downright horrible. Since then, I just buy 7 gallons worth of purified water from a grocery store, which is only about $8.

As far as a kit goes, I would try looking up a local home brew store in your area. In my experience, their ingredients are by far fresher than an online vendor.

Hope this helps!

For Extract kits with Steeping grains a forgiving brew would be a porter. try using campden tablets for taking care of clorine flavor. you could use the search feature on this site if you can describe the flavor that you need to get rid of. A porter or a IPA will hide a small amount of off flavors.

A nice porter would be good. Any suggestions for good kit to try?

Ski12568 said:

I think the water could be the main issue. My other guess is maybe your temperatures are high during fermentation. Could also be oxygenation from your process.
Read this link and see if you can find the taste you are referring to: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21.html

Click to expand...

Yep. All of this. Check the website of the company that produces your yeast. They'll have lots of great info about proper fermentation temps. A little time spent on youtube will net you some great DIY ideas for pretty simple Macguyver style temperature control systems.

Good luck!

Hoppah said:

A nice porter would be good. Any suggestions for good kit to try?

Click to expand...

Check out the kits at Northern Brewer. They have some pretty tasty looking stuff.

When I am looking for a new recipe to try, I go to Midwest Supplies' website, pick out a recipe, and then go buy the ingredients from my LHBS. That way I know it should be a decent recipe (not just some random person's recipe that is posted online) and my ingredients are fresh.

It sounds like your city water could definitely be the issue. I would try doing your next brew with the filtered water you can get form the grocery store. If that doesn't fix your issue, then it could be something else going wrong with your process.

I have said it before , but! I was having the same issues you are and brewed the same kit around six times and got my "system down"
Fermentation temps were the biggest improvement.
All the best,
D

Check out MoreBeer too. If you typically spend $59 they offer free shipping which made them my choice for several years now.

So a quick question regarding fermenting temps. I brew in an upstairs bedroom with baseboard electric heating. I felt like my last brew's temp stayed right around or just under 70 but could have had slight variation. What methods should I use to help ensure temp is good? Any tips or ideas??

Depends on what your brewing. You always want to refer to the temperature recommendations of the company that sold you the yeast. One of the best ways I know of is a chest freezer with a temperature regulator on it, but there are some very simple MacGuyver level fixes for keeping your temps where you want them. You can source YouTube videos for lots of great ideas as well.

Check out the brewers best kits, there whiskey barrel stout is excellent!! I'm just about to keg my 6th batch and all were fairly good except for the third. 2 things I noted from that batch that might be relevant to your situation was using tap water that hadn't sat 24 hrs to top up rather then bottled water as I did on my previous batches, also I used a different spot in the house to ferment as the previous 2 and I noticed the temps jumped to 72-73 in the beginning which was about 6 degrees above what the yeast manufacturer recommended. My 2 batches since then have been good, my boil has since improved and I ended up without needing to top up those 2 batches and went back to my original fermentation spot which kept things around 66-68.

Ok, I'm thinking of brewing a batch of St.Paul porter from Northern brewer. The yeast is Safale US -05 Ale Yeast and it's optimum temperature is from 59 -75. Will slight fluctuations of a few degrees within this range be a problem as long as it stays right around 68ish? Or would this cause off flavors too?