troglodytes
Well-Known Member
I feel like its always been hard for me to put my finger on off flavors and how they are derived within my beers. All I know is that something isn't quite right with certain batches. However, I realize now that all of my past 6 batches have one very similar problem...a strange astringency post bottle conditioning.
The batches were a quad, farmhouse ale, 2 session pale ales, and 2 IPAs. All tasted great from the hydrometer sample during brew to the sample at bottling, and when sampled to see how they were progressing at bottle carbing they were often great as well. The quad and the farmhouse (funky) ale took a long time to come into their own as they need some age, while the pale ales were ready much quicker, so a friend and I were sitting last night sampling all of them at the same time. I would say 3 batches are good (despite the fact that they started out stellar) and 3 of the batches are subpar, to be kind, and its all due to whatever is going on while bottle carbing. It's a little bit of an astringent flavor, but more so of an astringent feel. You can almost feel it in your nose while drinking and with one of the beers upon swallowing you can feel it in you throat as it goes down. To clarify, my friend (a great beer reviewer), said that the bubbles felt like little needles instead of being soft like most beer's carbonation.
But here's the thing, these are all different styles and carbed to different levels. The quad and pale ales have much less carbonation, while the farmhouse and one of IPAs has a bit higher carbonation. But upon appearance at pouring, head retention, etc. none appear to be overcarbonated. In fact, we drank a can of Stillwater's Ground Loop right after my funky farmhouse and it was much more highly carbed, but didn't come with any of the off flavor/feeling of mine.
I'm at a loss and getting a little dejected now as this becomes a normal occurrence. Especially since I know what my beers used to taste like and I know that even these 6 batches were great before I bottle carbed. What main culprits do I look at?
To add to the above information...here are all of the changes I've made that separates these batches from past ones I've done:
The batches were a quad, farmhouse ale, 2 session pale ales, and 2 IPAs. All tasted great from the hydrometer sample during brew to the sample at bottling, and when sampled to see how they were progressing at bottle carbing they were often great as well. The quad and the farmhouse (funky) ale took a long time to come into their own as they need some age, while the pale ales were ready much quicker, so a friend and I were sitting last night sampling all of them at the same time. I would say 3 batches are good (despite the fact that they started out stellar) and 3 of the batches are subpar, to be kind, and its all due to whatever is going on while bottle carbing. It's a little bit of an astringent flavor, but more so of an astringent feel. You can almost feel it in your nose while drinking and with one of the beers upon swallowing you can feel it in you throat as it goes down. To clarify, my friend (a great beer reviewer), said that the bubbles felt like little needles instead of being soft like most beer's carbonation.
But here's the thing, these are all different styles and carbed to different levels. The quad and pale ales have much less carbonation, while the farmhouse and one of IPAs has a bit higher carbonation. But upon appearance at pouring, head retention, etc. none appear to be overcarbonated. In fact, we drank a can of Stillwater's Ground Loop right after my funky farmhouse and it was much more highly carbed, but didn't come with any of the off flavor/feeling of mine.
I'm at a loss and getting a little dejected now as this becomes a normal occurrence. Especially since I know what my beers used to taste like and I know that even these 6 batches were great before I bottle carbed. What main culprits do I look at?
To add to the above information...here are all of the changes I've made that separates these batches from past ones I've done:
- New bottling bucket, raking equipment
- New home with water profile (Ward labs tested)
- Usage of B'run water for mash water adjustments
- BIAB Bag used instead of manifold in mash tun (fewer brewhouse volume losses this way and better measured mash efficiency)
- New cereal killer mill with finer crush
- O2 wand to aerate wort (Williams brewing one that hooks up to a Home Depot Oxygen canister)
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