csdunham
Active Member
I have been all-grain brewing/BIAB brewing 1 gallon batches for a year now. Each batch I improve my process and each batch has been better than the last. However there is one off-flavor that has been in all of my beers that I can't get rid of. The best way I can describe it is a grainy after taste.
I use a corona mill to crush my grain and I have read that excessive shredding of the husks can lead to this flavor. However I do not know if my crush has 'excessive' shredding in it. I have attached a picture of several crushes from my mill. The crush on the left is what I have been using. The crushes on the right are my fiddling with the mill trying to reduce the shredding. But I think there is too many whole grains remaining in those crushes.
I have also read that sparging with water that is too hot can lead to extracting tannins from the husks. I wouldn't describe the off-flavor as 'astringent' but perhaps I don't have a good idea of what that tastes like.
My current process is to pull the bag out of my mash pot, let it drain, then dunk it into a second pot of water that has been brought to a boil and then cooled for 10 minutes. The volume of water is equal to what I need to add to my mash pot to reach my boil volume. While in the sparge pot I stir the hell out of the grain for several minutes and lift the bag and it let it drain again. Could the off-flavor come from sparging too hot or from stirring the grains?
I use a corona mill to crush my grain and I have read that excessive shredding of the husks can lead to this flavor. However I do not know if my crush has 'excessive' shredding in it. I have attached a picture of several crushes from my mill. The crush on the left is what I have been using. The crushes on the right are my fiddling with the mill trying to reduce the shredding. But I think there is too many whole grains remaining in those crushes.
I have also read that sparging with water that is too hot can lead to extracting tannins from the husks. I wouldn't describe the off-flavor as 'astringent' but perhaps I don't have a good idea of what that tastes like.
My current process is to pull the bag out of my mash pot, let it drain, then dunk it into a second pot of water that has been brought to a boil and then cooled for 10 minutes. The volume of water is equal to what I need to add to my mash pot to reach my boil volume. While in the sparge pot I stir the hell out of the grain for several minutes and lift the bag and it let it drain again. Could the off-flavor come from sparging too hot or from stirring the grains?