Just racked a schneiderweisse clone whic tasted a little bit astringent. Smelled great. Fermented at 62 to 64 degrees in my basement for 7 days. Wound up racking it for fermenter space and wound up regretting it since my final gravity was still high 1.020 down from original 1.050. So it's only gonna be 3.9% abc. But what's done is done in that regard however besides adding to much carafe 3 to the recipe, I definitely get an astringent after bite. Is that from to much carafa? I never had this happen with any of my brews before. I know I screwed up the first ten minutes of my mash by direct by having flucctuations between170 and 180. Which I got down to 152. First time using my insulated keggle so I had some complications with direct fire mash tun. Will this taste dictate with time etc? Or is there anything I could do? Thanks
Any cure for astringency?
- Thread starter LMGK
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At this point all you can do is wait and let it mellow some with age. It reads like it is just a really green beer. You didn't mention how much carafe 3 you added so I can't say as to whether it was the cause or not. It really needed a longer fermentation. Did you rack it to secondary or bottle/keg it?
I recently started brewing all-grain. For years I've brewed with extract and made some really good beers. Now, I've made half a dozen batches all-grain and every single batch has had a real astringent aftertaste, not related to hops. I'm using a large rectangular cooler with a bazooka screen, Brewsmith software, and usually a single infusion, no-sparge mashing technique. Every batch has gone very smoothly, hitting all my target temps and gravities spot on. I read and studied all-grain method a long time before actually attempting it, laying it out clearly in my mind what I was going to do, so I felt very comfortable when doing it. The bad aftertaste must be coming from the mashing process, but I really don't know where or what I could do to avoid this. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.
Well, how bad is it. I kinda freaked a little and wound up pitch some gelatin into my mud colored schneiderweisse clone that smelled like it but didn't,t taste like it at all. Anyway I checked today and it super-clear. Tastes a lot better. Now I am going to do what's should have done in the first place and let it age. I screwed up racking before bottoming out on final gravity. But I am at least happy now that it has potential to be a drinkable beer in a few weeks. The astringent taste calmed down a lot more also.
Check your water. While usually not really an issue with extracts water profile plays a big role in ag brewing and is most likely your issue. Get your local water report or if your on a well send a sample to ward labs ($25.00).
Sounds like water chemistry issues.
"Astringent" often means high alkalinity and/or bicarbonates in the water. But it could definitely be mash pH.
Don't these go hand-in-hand? High alkalinity/bicarbonate water will have higher buffering ability, so will keep the mash pH up. I think it is the actual pH that causes the astringency. More tannins get extracted at higher pHs.
Yes, and no. I can lower my pH with my tap water by adding calcium chloride and calcium sulfate, but if I don't reduce the bicarb, I get a pretty harsh astringentness to the final beer. I usually have to dilute my tap water to reduce that.
Lorena in the case of your water, the alkalinity is very high. Although adding calcium to mash water increases the production of malt acids (reduces RA), adding calcium salts to the already high calcium content may not provide the same effect. One effect could be that the mineralization gets so high that an alka seltzer beer flavor is produced. The other possibility is that the alkalinity is just so high that adding a bunch of calcium salts is nixed by the brewer as being excessive and they just live with a high RA. High RA may result in higher than desired mash and wort pH and its 'bad' effects on beer flavor.
I agree that reducing the alkalinity is a better way to go than trying to reduce RA with a big dose of calcium salts.
I agree that reducing the alkalinity is a better way to go than trying to reduce RA with a big dose of calcium salts.
