yeqmaster
Well-Known Member
The title says it all ... I think its up to the last 5 batches that have all gone bad. I started brewing about a year ago. My first 5-7 batches were amazing!!! My first 2 were actually the best. But now, I have seemed to come to a dead end and am about ready to jump out my window. I CANNOT get a good turnout.
All the batches have gone bad in the same way... The beer turns out very clear (so clear it could have been filtered). When I serve into a glass, it comes out all foam. It smells somewhat chemical like. It tastes somewhat chemical like and it just tastes bad. I'm not to good at identifying the smell and taste yet. I went to the local brew shop and they said it has a chemical kind of taste in it. However, they said it did not seem like the band aid smell that occurs a lot.
My process of brewing is as fallows;
I am brewing partial mash kits. Usually the kits contain around 2-5 pounds grain and the rest extract. I use PBW clearner first on everything (Scrub all the carboys, kettle and everything with it). I then use Star San to sanitize and am very thorough with it. I never rinse after. I brew and then transfer to carboy by pouring into sanitized funnel. I then pitch the yeast and plug it up and either use an airlock or blow off tube. After about 2-3 weeks, I transfer to secondary. Next batch that I do, I am going to try the beer at this point. I let it sit another week or so and then bottle.
Previously when I bottled I would cook up the sugar solution, put it in a bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top of it. I would then fill all the bottles with the spigot attachment. After I went to the brew shop, they told me to try eliminating the bottling bucket and try racking the beer onto the sugar in another carboy. I did this and then used the auto-siphon and a bottling attachment to bottle. I have another couple weeks to see how that batch turns out. The first batches that I brewed that were bad I kegged. They were both TERRIBLE so I thought it might have something to do with the kegs since I bought them from somebody on cragislist. But the bottled beer has come out bad too. I have let a friend barrow my auto-siphon a few times during the midst of all the bad batches and his batches came out fine. So i want to say that I can eliminate the transfer hose. However it could not have been cleaned well enough when I did it. Basically... I am frustrated and stumped. I want some good home brew again!!! ahhhh!!! Any help, comments, and suggestions are much appreciated. I am in San Luis Obispo, CA so if any one is located near by it would be awesome if you could try it out. Thanks,
All the batches have gone bad in the same way... The beer turns out very clear (so clear it could have been filtered). When I serve into a glass, it comes out all foam. It smells somewhat chemical like. It tastes somewhat chemical like and it just tastes bad. I'm not to good at identifying the smell and taste yet. I went to the local brew shop and they said it has a chemical kind of taste in it. However, they said it did not seem like the band aid smell that occurs a lot.
My process of brewing is as fallows;
I am brewing partial mash kits. Usually the kits contain around 2-5 pounds grain and the rest extract. I use PBW clearner first on everything (Scrub all the carboys, kettle and everything with it). I then use Star San to sanitize and am very thorough with it. I never rinse after. I brew and then transfer to carboy by pouring into sanitized funnel. I then pitch the yeast and plug it up and either use an airlock or blow off tube. After about 2-3 weeks, I transfer to secondary. Next batch that I do, I am going to try the beer at this point. I let it sit another week or so and then bottle.
Previously when I bottled I would cook up the sugar solution, put it in a bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top of it. I would then fill all the bottles with the spigot attachment. After I went to the brew shop, they told me to try eliminating the bottling bucket and try racking the beer onto the sugar in another carboy. I did this and then used the auto-siphon and a bottling attachment to bottle. I have another couple weeks to see how that batch turns out. The first batches that I brewed that were bad I kegged. They were both TERRIBLE so I thought it might have something to do with the kegs since I bought them from somebody on cragislist. But the bottled beer has come out bad too. I have let a friend barrow my auto-siphon a few times during the midst of all the bad batches and his batches came out fine. So i want to say that I can eliminate the transfer hose. However it could not have been cleaned well enough when I did it. Basically... I am frustrated and stumped. I want some good home brew again!!! ahhhh!!! Any help, comments, and suggestions are much appreciated. I am in San Luis Obispo, CA so if any one is located near by it would be awesome if you could try it out. Thanks,