So far I've brewed 5 batches of Homebrew, and every one I've tasted so far has a persistent strange and unwanted taste. Some are more obvious and worse than others, and I'm really trying to figure out the source. I would describe this problem as astringent and tannin like, and it's very present in both aroma and flavor. Here is some info on my brews so far that I've noticed this in:
- Double IPA, extract. I can maybe attribute these tannin flavors to steeping the grains at too high a temperature, and because my stovetop couldn't get a vigorous boil going. I used regular Calgary tapwater, cooled in icebath.
- Weizenbock, partial mash. Again, this was done on stovetop so the same issues could have arised. For this beer I used 100% distilled water as I was using large amounts of noble hops and wanted to preserve the aroma. The hops were hardly noticable at all on the nose, totally overwhelmed by the astringent smell. Cooled in icebath.
- Belgian Dubbel, all grain. I used Deathbrewer's stovetop method and achieved good efficiency (Again with regular tapwater). I made my own belgian candy sugar on the stovetop and added it directly to the boil, which was done outside on propane and was quite violent. I used an immersion chiller and cooled the wort in < 15 minutes.
I always add hops in a nylon bag straight into the boil.
I sanitize everything by soaking it in a StarSan solution then rinsing with tapwater. Could this rinsing be the source of the funkiness? For bottling, I soak in StarSan solution then use hot tapwater and the inverted bottle rinser just prior to filling. My apartment is a little warm, generally 75Fish.
Any help is appreciated, this problem is driving me insane! The Weizenbock had the most obvious presence of this issue, it was undrinkable.
- Double IPA, extract. I can maybe attribute these tannin flavors to steeping the grains at too high a temperature, and because my stovetop couldn't get a vigorous boil going. I used regular Calgary tapwater, cooled in icebath.
- Weizenbock, partial mash. Again, this was done on stovetop so the same issues could have arised. For this beer I used 100% distilled water as I was using large amounts of noble hops and wanted to preserve the aroma. The hops were hardly noticable at all on the nose, totally overwhelmed by the astringent smell. Cooled in icebath.
- Belgian Dubbel, all grain. I used Deathbrewer's stovetop method and achieved good efficiency (Again with regular tapwater). I made my own belgian candy sugar on the stovetop and added it directly to the boil, which was done outside on propane and was quite violent. I used an immersion chiller and cooled the wort in < 15 minutes.
I always add hops in a nylon bag straight into the boil.
I sanitize everything by soaking it in a StarSan solution then rinsing with tapwater. Could this rinsing be the source of the funkiness? For bottling, I soak in StarSan solution then use hot tapwater and the inverted bottle rinser just prior to filling. My apartment is a little warm, generally 75Fish.
Any help is appreciated, this problem is driving me insane! The Weizenbock had the most obvious presence of this issue, it was undrinkable.