All my beers are terrible.

[bigbeergeek]

That doesn't make sense. You can't smell something sweet...it's a taste. Wort doesn't smell sweet...if you have tasted wort before and know that it tastes sweet, you'll associate the smell of wort with sweetness...but it can't smell sweet.

I refuse to argue with you about this.

 

[mikeysab]

I'll take your kegging set up.

Damn ya beat me to it.

Seriously though, dont give up. Its gonna take time and youll have to take a bunch of things into consideration, but your beer will get better. Ive made a couple stinkers in the past and wanted to give up. But all the help I got here improved my beers a ton. One piece of advice i'll give you is to listen to the advice you get here. Well, except that 4 week primary is too long, ignore that.

And if all else fails, ill take your kegging setup.

 

[SHOOK]

i call dibs on his cornys










heh




Really though: Keep at it! we're all rootin' for ya!

 

[j1laskey]

If you make a starter,don't ever shake it,swirl it gently. We're not Neanderthals here. No oxidation,no off flavors in starter,no problems.

???

I have have been shaken the sheiite out of my starters for years...they work great

O2 is needed for the replication phase.

 

[Jsamp]

Damn I hope my stout turns out good. I didnt really think about the chlorine causing an issue but thanks to this thread I know to use camden tablets now if I use tap H2O.

 

[mrduna01]

I love the "I'm no expert...BUT" disclaimer before you give the wrong advice to someone who really needs anything but. It does not really matter what a month in the primary "SOUNDS" like to you, because anyone that I know who makes awesome beer (including me, not blowing my own horn but my beer is often as good as many craft beer offerings) leave their beers on primaries for more than a month at least. Often, I will brew up 5-6 beers in a 2 week span and just leave them... bottling them slowly as I need the beer, over a 3-4 month period.

To OP, looks like you are getting some good advice from some other posters though, and I would suspect that this is most likely a water issue. Personally, I had serious problems with Rubbery/Bandaid before and it happened to be from my starters - I was shaking my starters during fermentation and then pitching the entire, oxidized starter liquid on my batch. As soon as I started decanting the liquid the problem went away. Are you doing this?

I shake the crap out of my starters and don't have any issues and I know others don't as well. So what works for you might not someone else. Which is why we shouldn't jump down someone's throat for just trying to help. Your attitude quite frankly sucks and may be a sign that your Homebrew is not as good as you probably think.

 

[bigbeergeek]

If you make a starter,don't ever shake it,swirl it gently. We're not Neanderthals here. No oxidation,no off flavors in starter,no problems.

I'm no Neanderthal, but my stir plate stirs the living crap out of all my starters for 24 straight hours. Starter wort does not taste good, and it doesn't have too. If you're worried about off flavors in your starter, don't neglect the importance of dissolved oxygen being available for your yeast, just decant the starter "beer" like so many of us do. You're already at a disadvantage if your only method for supplying the starter with oxygen is shaking -- gentle stirring is not going to saturate your yeast with oxygen.

OP: stick with it. You'll be brewing the best beer you've ever had in a very, very short while. Listen to the advice on this page and you'll go far.

 

[IXVolt]

Have a local home brew club? I'm certain one of them would love to brew with you a day. At times it's nice to have another set of hands & eyes around. Might even have some good tips throughout the brew day.

I know if you were in the Southern Oregon area, I'd certainly sit in and give you a hand.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm no Neanderthal, but my stir plate stirs the living crap out of all my starters for 24 straight hours. Starter wort does not taste good, and it doesn't have too. If you're worried about off flavors in your starter, don't neglect the importance of dissolved oxygen being available for your yeast, just decant the starter "beer" like so many of us do. You're already at a disadvantage if your only method for supplying the starter with oxygen is shaking -- gentle stirring is not going to saturate your yeast with oxygen.

OP: stick with it. You'll be brewing the best beer you've ever had in a very, very short while. Listen to the advice on this page and you'll go far.

One of the replies mentioned this. I oxygenate it before it starts fermenting. It's the same as a beer fermenting,so why not treat it the same? & the neolithic comment was a general descriptor. Not intended to be pointed at any one person. I just prefer not to leave anything to chance if I can help it. And since I only need small starters for anything up to 1.050 or so,I just stir up the whole thing & pour it in. But a large starter,yeah,I agree,decant most of the liquid part.

 

[onthekeg]

Actually a starter is NOT the same as a beer fermenting. You want to have yeast production in a starter, which is an aerobic phase. In beer, you want just enough oxy at the beginning to bud enough for fermentation. If you over oxy wort, which is very hard to do, it will cause oxidation. This would happen in beer which is bad.
In a starter, oxygen throughout the process is good as it keeps the yeast in the aerobic budding phase longer.

 

[Homercidal]

So, can we summarize, so the OP can start working on fixing the problem?

1. Water. Easiest check is to buy SPRING WATER from the store for brewing. See what happens. Or use campden tablets to eliminate chloramine.

2. If making a starter, feel free to shake it up as much as you want, but I always chill the starter and pour off the oxygenated wort and only pitch the yeast sediment.

3. Ferment at proper temp range 65-70 for most ale yeast.

4. Don't use bleach. Chlorine in any form is bad for brewing. There are alternatives that are very inexpensive, don't require rinsing, and won't negatively impact your beer.

5. Clean and sanitize ALL equipment, including the spigot assembly in your bottling bucket.

I think the water is the most likely culprit, based on your description. I'd probably get spring water from the store and see what happens. After that, decide if that fixed the problem and decide if campden tablets are the answer (I hate the thought of adding any chemical that I didn't' have to, but wine makers us this stuff ALL the time!)

 

[unionrdr]

The same thing is happening after you pitch on your wort. They're reproducing mostly at 1st. Then start fermenting out the rest of the sugars. So it is essentially the same. It must reproduce in sufficient numbers to tackle all those sugars in the wort. The starter doesn't accomplish all of this. It just reduces the lag time by getting closer to the amount of yeast cells needed.

 

[Lucky137]

I love the "I'm no expert...BUT" disclaimer before you give the wrong advice to someone who really needs anything but. It does not really matter what a month in the primary "SOUNDS" like to you, because anyone that I know who makes awesome beer (including me, not blowing my own horn but my beer is often as good as many craft beer offerings) leave their beers on primaries for more than a month at least. Often, I will brew up 5-6 beers in a 2 week span and just leave them... bottling them slowly as I need the beer, over a 3-4 month period.

To OP, looks like you are getting some good advice from some other posters though, and I would suspect that this is most likely a water issue. Personally, I had serious problems with Rubbery/Bandaid before and it happened to be from my starters - I was shaking my starters during fermentation and then pitching the entire, oxidized starter liquid on my batch. As soon as I started decanting the liquid the problem went away. Are you doing this?

Point taken, my apologies. I'll keep my opinions to myself until I'm at the level where I know I'm right haha.