figurefive
Member
I'll start with the TL,DR then provide more detail for those willing, patient, and interested below.
I received a Northern Brewer One-Gallon kit for Christmas. I have completed four batches: Caribou Slobber Brown, Dead Ringer IPA, Sierra Madre, and Black IPA, and I have a Cream Ale in a secondary fermenter right now. Each one has smelled great at the end of the boil, but has ended up with a kind of tangy or pungent, for lack of a better description, flavor. I'm able to taste glimpses of good flavor underneath this but it definitely overwhelms the overall taste.
Is this just a characteristic of unfiltered, home-brewed beer, am I making a mistake somewhere along the line, or am I just not patient enough in conditioning my brews? I've read so many threads from people who's first batches have turned out awesome, but here I am four batches in and feeling discouraged with my results. Am I at least on the right track?
Details (sorry for the novel, I'm just hoping to preemptively answer most of the questions I see asked in other "what went wrong" threads):
I use water from our refrigerator that uses an activated charcoal cartridge filter. A home test showed no chlorine. I did a further unscientific test. I had made a batch of StarSan with one gallon of tap water in an empty, plastic distilled water jug to have on hand. When I opened it a few days later I got a distinct whiff of chlorine, so I made a separate batch of StarSan using one gallon of water from the refrigerator dispenser. After a week I have found no chlorine smell in that batch. I'm confident our refrigerator filter is taking care of our chlorine, however, would using Campden tablets anyway cause any problems? Since I'm doing one gallon batches (well, I'm now starting with 1.5 gallons filtered water), would a quarter Campden tablet be sufficient? Is it OK to continue making my sanitizer solution with tap water or should I use filtered or add Campden to it?
I brewed the Caribou Slobber basically straight by the instructions that came with the kit. Steeped grains for 10 minutes in 1.25 gallons of water straight from the refrigerator filter dispenser while it was heating up. When the water reached a boil I added all the LME while stirring pretty vigorously, but I didn't take the water off the burner. Hop additions as prescribed in the recipe. Ice bath in the sink to bring down to pitching temp. Sanitized the fermenter, siphon and other equipment while the wort cooled. Siphoned the wort into the fermenter leaving behind the break and trub from the boil. Dry pitched half the packet of yeast and gave it all a vigorous shake for a couple minutes to aerate. Fermented for 2 weeks in a closet that stays around or just under 65F then bottled with Fermenter's Favorites Fizz Drops. Conditioned in the same closet and sampled one at one week, blech. Read about being patient, so I left the rest to condition for another week. At this point I found it drinkable, barely. I chalked it up to perhaps not being much of a fan of brown ale. Newcastle is the only brown ale I've ever had. I find it's OK, but I'm a certified hop-head and much prefer IPA. I held out hope for the Dead Ringer that was already fermenting at this point.
I made some slight modifications to my process with the Dead Ringer. I gathered my water the night before and let it sit to get to room temp naturally. I started the the steep at room temp and applied heat, then followed the recipe. I acquired a hydrometer and took original and final gravity readings (1.056 and 1.012). I hydrated the yeast per what I read in How to Brew before pitching I racked it to a secondary fermenter after one week. Five days later I added a couple drops of Biofine Clear to help floculate the yeast and clarify. I bottled two days later after two weeks total fermentation. I made a priming solution with brown sugar calculated from NB's site (we actually didn't have any granulated in the house). I let it condition for three weeks in the same fermenting closet again. It came out noticeably better than the Caribou Slobber, but there was still that slight pungent flavor on top of the more hoppy IPA. It just didn't taste clean.
For both the Sierra Madre and Black IPA I added another couple wrinkles. Having acquired a decent digital thermometer I brought the water up to 150F before beginning the 10 minute steep. I used 1.5 gallons of water because I found I boiled off more than .25 in the prior batches and had to top off to reach a full gallon in the fermenter each time. Once the water reached a boil I took it off the heat to add the LME. I also used some of the hot wort to rinse out the plastic jar and get all of the LME into the pot. Once it returned to a boil I started the 45 minute clock. I added about 1/3 cup of brown sugar to the Sierra Madre at the end of the boil to boost the gravity a little (brewed this the same day I bottled the Dead Ringer). I tried to whirlpool the wort with a stirring spoon after it cooled, but the trub didn't seem any different in the bottom than the prior batches where I didn't whirlpool. I acquired a refractometer so I could take readings while fermenting - not feasible with a hydrometer on a one gallon batch. With the Sierra Madre I made the mistake of not fully understanding how a refractometer works and that the alcohol will skew the reading. After three weeks fermenting and the refractometer showing a ~1.020 (1.060 O.G.), I thought my fermentation had stalled. Winter had hit hard, and we had some unusually cold weather. I guessed our closet had gotten too cold. I had added liquid crystal fermometers to the fermenters and they were reading about 62F which seemed low to me. I brought the fermenters out into a corner of the dining room wrapped in a towel to block the light. I pitched a little more yeast (~1/4 packet) into the Sierra Madre hoping to restart what I mistakenly thought was a stalled fermentation and left it for another week - 4 weeks total fermentation. I did not make the same mistake with the Black IPA. I used NB's refractometer calculator to determine that based on my original brix and O.G. readings, the ~1.020 actually meant about a 1.012. I fermented it a total of three weeks. Both of these saw primary only - I didn't rack them to secondary. I added some Biofine clear and cold crashed them in our refrigerator for 2 days (not ideal, but it's all I have). I used corn sugar to create the priming solution for them and was more careful in bottling, ensuring a more consistent fill level across all the bottles. They've been conditioning for 18 days in closed boxes sitting on top of our kitchen cupboards. Our home stays a pretty consistent 65-68F though the kitchen will get a few degrees warmer when we cook. I chilled one of each in the freezer for about an hour last night to sample them (do they need to chill longer as part of the conditioning?). The Sierra Madre was OK but had the same pungent flavor on top. It may be milder than the prior batches. My wife, who doesn't like beer, said it didn't taste much different from any other beer she's had. The Black IPA is similar. I can taste the roasted maltiness from the darker steeping grains (my wife said it had a Guinness-like taste) and more hop, but there is still that pungent top flavor there.
With the Cream Ale that is currently fermenting I started the same as the Sierra Madre and Black IPA. However, I started the boil with just 1/3 of the DME the kit came with and added the rest after 30 mins. hoping to keep the color on the lighter side as a Cream Ale should be. I can already tell it's not going to be anywhere near as light as depicted on the NB site, but at the end of the day I'm not as concerned about color as I am about flavor. I don't know if it's a difference between DME and LME or in the late addition I did with the DME, but I had a harder time getting the break to settle out when cooling this wort. I ended up getting most of the trub in to the fermeter. As a result I racked it to secondary after one week. Otherwise, I've left this one alone in our coat closet (warmer than the bedroom closet I used previously, but not as warm as the rest of the house). It has settled down to about 62F now after hovering in the upper 60s during primary fermentation. I haven't been sampling it with the refractometer like I did with the SM and Black IPA. At the start of fermentation it bubbled over a bit into the three piece airlock, but not all the way out. I swapped to a clean airlock with some fresh diluted StarSan solution. If some of the original StarSan solution made it into the fermeting beer is that going to kill it? At this point it looks really clear, so I'm hopeful yet again. It has been fermenting 16 days now. I'm going to wait until at least 21 days total if not more this time around.
I received a Northern Brewer One-Gallon kit for Christmas. I have completed four batches: Caribou Slobber Brown, Dead Ringer IPA, Sierra Madre, and Black IPA, and I have a Cream Ale in a secondary fermenter right now. Each one has smelled great at the end of the boil, but has ended up with a kind of tangy or pungent, for lack of a better description, flavor. I'm able to taste glimpses of good flavor underneath this but it definitely overwhelms the overall taste.
Is this just a characteristic of unfiltered, home-brewed beer, am I making a mistake somewhere along the line, or am I just not patient enough in conditioning my brews? I've read so many threads from people who's first batches have turned out awesome, but here I am four batches in and feeling discouraged with my results. Am I at least on the right track?
Details (sorry for the novel, I'm just hoping to preemptively answer most of the questions I see asked in other "what went wrong" threads):
I use water from our refrigerator that uses an activated charcoal cartridge filter. A home test showed no chlorine. I did a further unscientific test. I had made a batch of StarSan with one gallon of tap water in an empty, plastic distilled water jug to have on hand. When I opened it a few days later I got a distinct whiff of chlorine, so I made a separate batch of StarSan using one gallon of water from the refrigerator dispenser. After a week I have found no chlorine smell in that batch. I'm confident our refrigerator filter is taking care of our chlorine, however, would using Campden tablets anyway cause any problems? Since I'm doing one gallon batches (well, I'm now starting with 1.5 gallons filtered water), would a quarter Campden tablet be sufficient? Is it OK to continue making my sanitizer solution with tap water or should I use filtered or add Campden to it?
I brewed the Caribou Slobber basically straight by the instructions that came with the kit. Steeped grains for 10 minutes in 1.25 gallons of water straight from the refrigerator filter dispenser while it was heating up. When the water reached a boil I added all the LME while stirring pretty vigorously, but I didn't take the water off the burner. Hop additions as prescribed in the recipe. Ice bath in the sink to bring down to pitching temp. Sanitized the fermenter, siphon and other equipment while the wort cooled. Siphoned the wort into the fermenter leaving behind the break and trub from the boil. Dry pitched half the packet of yeast and gave it all a vigorous shake for a couple minutes to aerate. Fermented for 2 weeks in a closet that stays around or just under 65F then bottled with Fermenter's Favorites Fizz Drops. Conditioned in the same closet and sampled one at one week, blech. Read about being patient, so I left the rest to condition for another week. At this point I found it drinkable, barely. I chalked it up to perhaps not being much of a fan of brown ale. Newcastle is the only brown ale I've ever had. I find it's OK, but I'm a certified hop-head and much prefer IPA. I held out hope for the Dead Ringer that was already fermenting at this point.
I made some slight modifications to my process with the Dead Ringer. I gathered my water the night before and let it sit to get to room temp naturally. I started the the steep at room temp and applied heat, then followed the recipe. I acquired a hydrometer and took original and final gravity readings (1.056 and 1.012). I hydrated the yeast per what I read in How to Brew before pitching I racked it to a secondary fermenter after one week. Five days later I added a couple drops of Biofine Clear to help floculate the yeast and clarify. I bottled two days later after two weeks total fermentation. I made a priming solution with brown sugar calculated from NB's site (we actually didn't have any granulated in the house). I let it condition for three weeks in the same fermenting closet again. It came out noticeably better than the Caribou Slobber, but there was still that slight pungent flavor on top of the more hoppy IPA. It just didn't taste clean.
For both the Sierra Madre and Black IPA I added another couple wrinkles. Having acquired a decent digital thermometer I brought the water up to 150F before beginning the 10 minute steep. I used 1.5 gallons of water because I found I boiled off more than .25 in the prior batches and had to top off to reach a full gallon in the fermenter each time. Once the water reached a boil I took it off the heat to add the LME. I also used some of the hot wort to rinse out the plastic jar and get all of the LME into the pot. Once it returned to a boil I started the 45 minute clock. I added about 1/3 cup of brown sugar to the Sierra Madre at the end of the boil to boost the gravity a little (brewed this the same day I bottled the Dead Ringer). I tried to whirlpool the wort with a stirring spoon after it cooled, but the trub didn't seem any different in the bottom than the prior batches where I didn't whirlpool. I acquired a refractometer so I could take readings while fermenting - not feasible with a hydrometer on a one gallon batch. With the Sierra Madre I made the mistake of not fully understanding how a refractometer works and that the alcohol will skew the reading. After three weeks fermenting and the refractometer showing a ~1.020 (1.060 O.G.), I thought my fermentation had stalled. Winter had hit hard, and we had some unusually cold weather. I guessed our closet had gotten too cold. I had added liquid crystal fermometers to the fermenters and they were reading about 62F which seemed low to me. I brought the fermenters out into a corner of the dining room wrapped in a towel to block the light. I pitched a little more yeast (~1/4 packet) into the Sierra Madre hoping to restart what I mistakenly thought was a stalled fermentation and left it for another week - 4 weeks total fermentation. I did not make the same mistake with the Black IPA. I used NB's refractometer calculator to determine that based on my original brix and O.G. readings, the ~1.020 actually meant about a 1.012. I fermented it a total of three weeks. Both of these saw primary only - I didn't rack them to secondary. I added some Biofine clear and cold crashed them in our refrigerator for 2 days (not ideal, but it's all I have). I used corn sugar to create the priming solution for them and was more careful in bottling, ensuring a more consistent fill level across all the bottles. They've been conditioning for 18 days in closed boxes sitting on top of our kitchen cupboards. Our home stays a pretty consistent 65-68F though the kitchen will get a few degrees warmer when we cook. I chilled one of each in the freezer for about an hour last night to sample them (do they need to chill longer as part of the conditioning?). The Sierra Madre was OK but had the same pungent flavor on top. It may be milder than the prior batches. My wife, who doesn't like beer, said it didn't taste much different from any other beer she's had. The Black IPA is similar. I can taste the roasted maltiness from the darker steeping grains (my wife said it had a Guinness-like taste) and more hop, but there is still that pungent top flavor there.
With the Cream Ale that is currently fermenting I started the same as the Sierra Madre and Black IPA. However, I started the boil with just 1/3 of the DME the kit came with and added the rest after 30 mins. hoping to keep the color on the lighter side as a Cream Ale should be. I can already tell it's not going to be anywhere near as light as depicted on the NB site, but at the end of the day I'm not as concerned about color as I am about flavor. I don't know if it's a difference between DME and LME or in the late addition I did with the DME, but I had a harder time getting the break to settle out when cooling this wort. I ended up getting most of the trub in to the fermeter. As a result I racked it to secondary after one week. Otherwise, I've left this one alone in our coat closet (warmer than the bedroom closet I used previously, but not as warm as the rest of the house). It has settled down to about 62F now after hovering in the upper 60s during primary fermentation. I haven't been sampling it with the refractometer like I did with the SM and Black IPA. At the start of fermentation it bubbled over a bit into the three piece airlock, but not all the way out. I swapped to a clean airlock with some fresh diluted StarSan solution. If some of the original StarSan solution made it into the fermeting beer is that going to kill it? At this point it looks really clear, so I'm hopeful yet again. It has been fermenting 16 days now. I'm going to wait until at least 21 days total if not more this time around.
