"Crisp" Beer.

[ChandlerBrewery]

So I've been brewing for a few years now. I'm an all grain brewer with a gravity tiered system that I built myself (including converting kegs and coolers). One thing has me puzzled and I've decided to consult my HBT peers before I consult Papazian and Palmer's writings. What is the contributing factor to a "crisp" beer? This is the biggest difference between my beer and the "pro's" beer. I hope everyone knows what I'm talking about, but the only additional description that I can offer is that most of my beers have a "softer" taste than the "pro's".

I am sure it's probably not one ingredient (it may even be a technique) - but if I had to guess, I would say it's the water? I am not confident to this answer because I've used different water in my brewing experience and have gotten some "crisp" beers and some "soft" beers using the same recipe.

I also have experimented with the bittering hops and this is also inconsistent for me.

I feel stupid asking this question, as I'm expecting Revvy to come and provide me with a "really simple" answer.

Nonetheless, I appreciate whatever advice and wisdom comes my way.

 

[daksin]

Crisp comes from a lot of places. Often this can be dryness- control over the process can give you a good handle on where your beers finish. Homebrewers often neglect some small part of the process which can cause beer to not attenuate as well as they'd like, and have to compensate by adjusting recipes, which changes the balance of the beer.

Crisp also comes from the yeast- certain yeast just don't produce crisp beers as part of their nature. Obviously a good lager yeast will be crisp, but a clean fermenting ale yeast like US-05 or nottingham will ferment extremely clean and crisp when cold. Even brewers with fancy systems often neglect fermentation temperatures, mistaking the suggested range of the yeast as "anything around there will do" when cooler will be better, or even mistaking the range for ambient temperatures.

Finally, off flavors even in tiny amounts can ruin a crisp beer. Even the tiniest bit of diacetyl can make a crisp beer taste ever so slightly "slick" and small amounts of esters can affect how you perceive the beer. Tannins can dry out the back of your tongue and phenols will turn crisp into sharp and not quite right.

Water is a good place to look if you're an all grain brewer and haven't explored it yet- ratios of minerals can affect how malts and hops come out in the finished product, but if inconsistency is your problem, look to your process.

Maybe take us through a brewday (in painful detail) and somebody will spot something that jumps out.

 

[ChandlerBrewery]

Thanks, Daksin. I think I will provide the walk through. This will be a good exercise, since I probably do a lot of things in my routine as second nature. Perhaps I'll even catch myself doing something wrong.

I'll be brewing here in a couple of days. I'll update you.

 

[BigEd]

Some of the possibilities are mashing too high, too much crystal malt and underpitching of yeast. All of these things can contribute to what might be described as a "flabby" profile in a homebrew compared to a commercially brewed beer. A number of homebrews I've run across tend to have that "flabbiness" for want of a better description and for the most part those beers tend to have one or more of those three problems. As was posted above careful attention to things like fermentation temperature control and water profile can also improve your beer if you are not doing them already.

 

[tgmartin000]

Get a ward labs water report and download ez water ..ymmv.