Need help identifying bitter/charred flavor in beer

[Jayhawk79]

I recently attempted to brew the Lake Walk Pale Ale recipe (all grain) shown below. I substituted Victory malt for the Toasted Pale Malt. Otherwise the recipe is identical. There were a few issues that I encountered during the brew:

1. I use an aluminum kettle with a 1500 watt heating element and the element was dry fired for ~20 seconds before the brew. This put out a stream of smoke and gave an acrid odor similar to burnt toast. The odor lingered for a while. I thought that the element may be ruined, but was surprised to find that it still functioned so I went on with the brew.
   
2. I normally have an efficiency of 75% with my system (countertop brutus sytle). After sparging I had an efficiency of ~60%. I suspect that it may have something to do with the flaked wheat, but I can't be certain. I also experienced my first stuck sparge. As I thought something was wrong I went ahead and sparged for an additional 20 minutes. I didn't use more water, I merely recirculated the wort to try to rinse out more sugars. This only increased my efficiency slightly (~65%), so I ended up boiling off more water to hit my target OG.

I pitched rehydrated S-05 and had a healthy fermentation that hit the target FG. After 14 days in the primary I transfered to a secondary for dry hopping. I tasted my hydrometers sample and noticed a "charred" or "burnt toast" flavor that lingered on my tongue; it was quite bitter. After 14 days in secondary I transferred to a keg. I tasted a sample at this point and I noticed the exact same bitter "burnt/charred" flavor. It's impossible to quantitate, but it didn't seem like the bitter flavor had diminished in the 14 days.

That being said I'm wondering if the bitter falvor is coming from the heating element being ran dry (the smell would indicate such), or if the bitter flavor is coming from tannins due to over sparging.

1. Has anyone ever had such and experience either with heating elements or over sparging?
2. Has anyone ever tasted such a bitter/burnt flavor in their beer?
3. If so was there a way to reduce the flavor?

I know the general rule of thumb is to let the beer age as most off flavors will go away. I'm only concerned because there was no noticeable change in the off flavor after 14 days (28 total). I'm wondering if this taste is permanent, and if so can it be reduced by a treatment such as gelatine or isinglass.


Ingredients:
8.0 lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt
2.0 lbs Toasted Pale Malt (replaced with Victory)
0.5 lbs Crystal Malt 60°L
0.5 lbs Wheat Flakes
.75 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
.75 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 ea Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 ea Fermentis US-56 Safale US-56
1.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
Schedule:
Mash @ 153 60 mins (hit target temp of 153F and mashed 60 minutes)

 

[Teromous]

Tannin astringency doesn't taste like charred anything to me. It's not so much a flavor as it is a kind-of dry puckering sensation. I grow grapes in my yard and one time I tried making juice with some that weren't quite ripe. It was a massive shock of astringency, and that's how I found out that younger grapes have a large tannin content.

My bet would unfortunately be on the element. It was nice and hot, and when the wort was introduced it likely flash-scorched some of it, causing an ashy bitterness. Unfortunately I don't know of any magic recipe to reduce this bitterness. There's always the chance that you could try to mask it...but at the risk of making the beer worse.

 

[Jayhawk79]

Thank you for the input. If tannins simply contribute astringency to the beer then I suspect it is a feeling of "dryness" in the beer and not a flavor as you said. The charred/burnt flavor must be coming from the element. What puzzles me is how much presence the flavor has considering the small surface area of the element compared to the large volume of water used to mash and sparge. The incident occurred prior to heating the strike water so in total the element was subjected to 8 gallons of water after the fact.

I thought I'd post the issue just in case someone had a similar experience and had success in reducing/masking the flavor. If I knew what it was it would be easier to address. For instance if I knew it was a protein, or small ionic molecule then there may be a way to adsorb it and crash it out. If it is still present after a few more weeks I may take a stab at treating it with a fining/adsorbing agent just to see what it does. If I have any luck I'll report back for posterity's sake.

 

[Jayhawk79]

Just wanted to provide an update in case anyone references this thread later. The "burnt" or "charred" flavor that I had described in the early posts has subsided after chilling and carbonating the beer in the keg. That said I had poured a sample a week ago and it sat on the table for a while. As the beer temperature increased the burnt flavor became more pronounced. There is still a lot of toasted flavor in the beer but that could very well be my direct substitution of 2 lbs. victory malt for 2lbs. toasted 2-row. I'll definitely try this one again using less victory, or actually toasting 2-row.

Lesson learned: beers do change with aging, but temperature also plays a major role in the flavors that are present when tasting. If some flavor is too pronounced when tasting out of the fermenter, it may be subdued once chilled to serving temps.

Thanks to Teromous for the input regarding tannins.