Anyone get upset with a streak of bad beer?

[the-adjunct-hippie]

"rock hard water" *and* you add CaCl?
I'm thinking before adding anything you should spend the $20-some-odd and find what you have.
And beware changing too many variables at a time, you'll never figure out what changed what outcome.
I also agree to go to a known NEIPA recipe, something for a baseline like this.

I was under the impression that calcium chloride softened mouth feel.

 

[North_of_60]

Campden will remove chloramines (1 tablet in 20gal water)
Only time or boiling remove chlorine
So it depends on how the municipal system is chlorinating, which, like many water parameters, can/will change during the year/years.

Time and boiling will remove chlorine but not chloramine.

Campdon tablets will remove both chlorine and chloramine. See linked below or google for more:

https://lifefermented.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/brew-tips-chlorine-removal-with-campden-tablets/

 

[balrog]

Time and boiling will remove chlorine but not chloramine.

Campdon tablets will remove both chlorine and chloramine. See linked below or google for more:

https://lifefermented.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/brew-tips-chlorine-removal-with-campden-tablets/

Thanks for fixing that for me. Dunno why I never knew that.

 

[Iseneye]

Dry hopping during active fermentation is critical, lactose and flour.

Lactose and flour are critical? It is unlikely the big boys are using flour and lactose.

 

[duffy5018]

1. Cut the lactose. That's your sweetness. Yeast can't do anything with lactose, so it'll taste sweet because it IS sweet.
2. Cut the boil hops out almost altogether. Shoot for 30-40 IBU, max. For 5gal, I do about .25 oz at 15min, 3oz of a variety of hops for 15min whirlpool at 180F, 3-4oz whirlpool at 120F for 30min, cool, transfer to fermenter. Dry hop with about 3oz at 48hrs, a other 3oz 2 days before kegging.
3. Keg or bottle early. Like 8 days after pitching yeast. And, one of the most important things for a NEIPA, limit oxygen contact with the beer when kegging/bottling.
4. Find out what kind of water you're using. Or make your own (my preferred method). I shoot for 75/150/75 Ca/Cl/SO4 ratios with a mash ph of 5.20-5.35. I've found this gives me the best mouthfeel and reduces the bitter to a rounded level, but not overly present.

Also, drop the flour. It's a gimmick and not needed for haze. On that note, neither is wheat or oats, but those aren't wrong nor your issue.

This is my latest using about 75% 2 row, 20% golden promise, and a little carafoam and aromatic to round it out, 8oz dextrose to dry it out and about a lb of citra, mosaic, and galaxy. Was better than anything I can get here locally.

 

[stosh]

I've had positive feedback from others, but I can't say I enjoy the results so far.

I've had this situation recently. People rave about my latest batch while I'm thinking it kinda sucks as I nod and smile and try to get them to drink more so I can free up my keg (you know you're a home brewer when...)

It's getting to the point where i'm trying to reach this goal but I'm just getting tired of brewing it. Getting a little burned out even though I gotta just keep trying.

Anyone repeatedly try to nail a style to no avail? Just try try again?

This is where I drew the line. I have a type A personality that's hardcore driven and when I get my sights on something it's hard for me to stop myself. In my professional life it got so bad it was causing health problems. One of the reasons I brew is to decouple from my business as a stress reliever. Well...I realized brewing was stressing me out b/c I wouldn't give up trying the same recipe/type and I got burned out.

I took a step back and looked over my brew notes at the batches I have made in the past that I really liked. I decided to brew some of those and of course they came out great. That got me back to no stress brew days and delicious beer. It also gave me time to read up a little more on the other beers I was struggling with. I hit the reset button and now things are brewing out better.

That's what works for me maybe it can work for you.

 

[GPP33]

Lactose and flour are critical? It is unlikely the big boys are using flour and lactose.

Good catch. Didn’t really finish my thought there. I was talking about things wrong with the recipe. Lactose in an IPA and flour in any beer seem like a great way to screw it up and I highly doubt any good NEIPA has either. I’d drop them both.

 

[GPP33]

1. Cut the lactose. That's your sweetness. Yeast can't do anything with lactose, so it'll taste sweet because it IS sweet.
2. Cut the boil hops out almost altogether. Shoot for 30-40 IBU, max. For 5gal, I do about .25 oz at 15min, 3oz of a variety of hops for 15min whirlpool at 180F, 3-4oz whirlpool at 120F for 30min, cool, transfer to fermenter. Dry hop with about 3oz at 48hrs, a other 3oz 2 days before kegging.
3. Keg or bottle early. Like 8 days after pitching yeast. And, one of the most important things for a NEIPA, limit oxygen contact with the beer when kegging/bottling.
4. Find out what kind of water you're using. Or make your own (my preferred method). I shoot for 75/150/75 Ca/Cl/SO4 ratios with a mash ph of 5.20-5.35. I've found this gives me the best mouthfeel and reduces the bitter to a rounded level, but not overly present.

Also, drop the flour. It's a gimmick and not needed for haze. On that note, neither is wheat or oats, but those aren't wrong or your issue.

This is my latest using about 75% 2 row, 20% golden promise, and a little carafoam and aromatic to round it out, 8oz dextrose to dry it out and about a lb of citra, mosaic, and galaxy. Was better than anything I can get here locally. View attachment 591357

See that’s a great looking beer. Most people making NEIPAs are somehow under the impression that it should be a completely opaque muddy looking beverage that honestly look completely unappealing to me.

 

[Chris Grubb]

Haven’t made a NEIPA, yet, but from my reading on here, it seems very few if any hops are added to the boil, mostly whirlpool if not all dry hop, and typically add much more hops than your recipe. I would eliminate the “bittering” or boil hops to see if that helps the bitterness and add much more dry hopping

 

[Ironman]

I’ve been brewing for over twenty years off and on and many of those gaps were due to bad batches; probably most of them. The last one was after trying to brew my first sour beer. I didn’t brew again for three years! It was an unholy mess. I was the president of my homebrew club and we did a megabrew of seven barrels of my recipe. Hundreds of gallons of wort went into the sewer the day we brewed and it only got worse. Brew a few batches of your favorite trusted recipe as soon as possible and tell yourself “I brew great beer”. Otherwise you can quickly get overwhelmed and stop and that is the worst thing of all. I’ve lost years between bad batches and some of my friends now brew commercially. On a side note I’ve seen commercial brewers dump barrels of bad beer. Never let it stop you from brewing but sometimes you need to step back and brew something to help your brewer’s esteem.

 

[b_oh_bee]

I've been trying to nail down the NE IPA for the last 3 months and it's just proving difficult. All ten (small) batches have been really not great. My other regular IPA's have been dynamite, but as soon as I started actually "focusing" on making a NE IPA, they come out both too sweet and too bitter at the same time - a literal mess. Every batch is just something I would never drink on the regular. I've had positive feedback from others, but I can't say I enjoy the results so far. I've messed with pH, water chemistry, and different hop varietals. The most recent batch is the most enjoyable but it's rather empty.

Some of the batches use all late hopping techniques...say a boil volume of 10 quarts with a 1.5 oz volume of hops altogether for 20 minutes...then about another 2 oz of dry hop. Comes out palate-scrubbing, like a triple IPA! Yet it's cloyingly sweet despite no added fruit or anything.

Does base malt have a lot to do with it? Using basic Great Northwestern Pale Ale malt. Probably thinking about switching to Maris or Pearl.

It's getting to the point where i'm trying to reach this goal but I'm just getting tired of brewing it. Getting a little burned out even though I gotta just keep trying.

Anyone repeatedly try to nail a style to no avail? Just try try again?

I'm thinking about going back to traditional IPA techniques without the goofy junk and just supplement with fruit or lactose or whatever.

Cheers fellow HB'ers.

been in the same spot. tried brewing 4 straight hazy pale ales/ipas, none have come out how I would have liked. Ive tried different yeast, then different hops, then different grain bill.

I even went to a ss brewbucket and keg, and pressure transferred after fermenting thinking oxygen may have been the issue.

my big problem is I'm fairly new and don't have a great feel for actually tasting beer and distinguishing or describing what I am tasking, making it hard for me to know what to tweak. Have been looking into the flavor spikes and volunteering as a steward at some local comps to try and become better.

The one thing that's stayed the same though is my water profile, which I built up from distilled using BeerSmith. After the last batch I compared with suggestions from Brun water, and they came out much different. so I then started dosing water with the brewing salts to taste the difference of them. Based on that my next batch I'm going with less salts and see how that goes.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I extract brewed for a few years but shelved it due to unsatisfactory results. I got back in with small batch BIAB (stove top paint strainer mashing). I can't say that the extract was the issue as I've since made some good ones with extract, but I think just restarting and rethinking my procedures helped a lot. Buying a few crucial items helped with sanitation, and switching to kegging were huge.
I still do smaller 3 gallon batches but have a cooler mash tun, a temp controlled fermentation, and a kegging setup and things are going good now.

 

[specharka]

been in the same spot. tried brewing 4 straight hazy pale ales/ipas, none have come out how I would have liked. Ive tried different yeast, then different hops, then different grain bill.

I even went to a ss brewbucket and keg, and pressure transferred after fermenting thinking oxygen may have been the issue.

my big problem is I'm fairly new and don't have a great feel for actually tasting beer and distinguishing or describing what I am tasking, making it hard for me to know what to tweak. Have been looking into the flavor spikes and volunteering as a steward at some local comps to try and become better.

The one thing that's stayed the same though is my water profile, which I built up from distilled using BeerSmith. After the last batch I compared with suggestions from Brun water, and they came out much different. so I then started dosing water with the brewing salts to taste the difference of them. Based on that my next batch I'm going with less salts and see how that goes.

Join a homebrew club. It’s fantastic for getting insight into the same flavor discrepancies you’re describing. At the very least you’ll get more honest feedback than sharing with friends and family. Also really good because some people are more sensitive to certain flavor thresholds than others, so they can pick up on something you might not be detecting.

Comps are good too but the judges rarely offer constructive suggestions for fixing beer problems. They will, however, put a name on them.

 

[c673986]

Last year I ruined summer by making three different saisons, which I hated them all. Turns out I really don’t like saisons and they give me hangovers.

 

[dmtaylor]

Last year I ruined summer by making three different saisons, which I hated them all. Turns out I really don’t like saisons and they give me hangovers.

Try fermenting them in the 60s. All the best saison brewers do.

 

[El Nino]

I've honestly only brewed bad batches when I've tried to make a 'crowd pleaser' beer which is honestly the kinds of beer I don't generally drink anyway. Since then I've only stuck with making IPA's and Pale ale's since that's what I like. Though trying a hefe atm since I do like those kinds of beer as well, just the wheat and pils malt / hefe yeast are expensive here ($3/lb, around 9 bucks for the yeast). I suppose that's cheaper than buying a decent hefe from the liquor store for $8 for a 16oz bottle tho lol.

 

[b_oh_bee]

Join a homebrew club. It’s fantastic for getting insight into the same flavor discrepancies you’re describing. At the very least you’ll get more honest feedback than sharing with friends and family. Also really good because some people are more sensitive to certain flavor thresholds than others, so they can pick up on something you might not be detecting.

Comps are good too but the judges rarely offer constructive suggestions for fixing beer problems. They will, however, put a name on them.

thanks for the feedback. I have been looking into getting into a local club, the meeting nights just aren't great with my schedule. Does seem like that would be very helpful though.

 

[supermallard]

I'm in a bit of a funk right now. I've been troubleshooting an astringency / solvent flavor that has plagued me for months.

I took a break for most of the summer, but just reevaluated my system and did some water tests. I also realized I was doing at least three things incorrectly:

Adding cacl and gypsum when I didn't need to
Using my water softener with my RO system
Not giving my yeast enough oxygen

I just brewed a pale ale last weekend, and I'm hoping this one tastes right.

I definitely get discouraged but find answers here often, and regain the urge to brew.

 

[brewbama]

I'm in a bit of a funk right now. I've been troubleshooting an astringency / solvent flavor that has plagued me for months.

I took a break for most of the summer, but just reevaluated my system and did some water tests. I also realized I was doing at least three things incorrectly:

Adding cacl and gypsum when I didn't need to
Using my water softener with my RO system
Not giving my yeast enough oxygen

I just brewed a pale ale last weekend, and I'm hoping this one tastes right.

I definitely get discouraged but find answers here often, and regain the urge to brew.

I hope it’s the best beer you ever brewed.

I went thru a two nasty beer issue myself and determined it was equipment related. Eliminated the offending equipment and problem solved.

 

[bracconiere]

Just as a word of praise, for the hard luck brewers....I haven't seen one of these posts yet that said "Damn it, it didn't have any alcohol!",

as far as i can tell, being most of the 'bad brewers' say other people like it...i think it might be a lack of self-confidence....which any homebrewer should have in abundance!

I think the big boys are just worried about losing your money! whispering in your ears...

and for a finish, i don't really like rap but this seems fitting...For people that don't like their OWN beer!

 

[supermallard]

I hope it’s the best beer you ever brewed.

I went thru a two nasty beer issue myself and determined it was equipment related. Eliminated the offending equipment and problem solved.

Thanks! I appreciate that. Fingers crossed.

 

[cooper]

One thing that I have started doing a few years ago is making sure I clean my pumps and valves after brewing session. I have always been very diligent in my cleaning and sanitation but early on I wasn’t taking the valves apart and cleaning them so I got a lot of gunk built up in them. I figured they were good since I run pbw and hot water through everything followed by a hot water rinse. Once I started taking things apart and scrubbing them my brews actually improved.

 

[supermallard]

One thing that I have started doing a few years ago is making sure I clean my pumps and valves after brewing session.

This. I know I need to disassemble some valves for sure. I should probably remove my element from my boild kettle and deep clean all of it.

 

[GPP33]

This has come up before. Disassemble valves after EVERY brew day. It’s amazing and nasty how much stuff gets stuck in there.

 

[supermallard]

This has come up before. Disassemble valves after EVERY brew day. It’s amazing and nasty how much stuff gets stuck in there.

Alright I'll add that to the standard cleaning procedure. I'm thinking a deep clean is imminent.

 

[00Seven]

One thing I do to keep from getting frustrated is I always keep one beer that I know I like and is good on tap. I have a double tap setup in my garage and keep a blonde ale or some type of everyone beer or one of my favorites there, then use the other tap for experimentation type stuff. Keeps me from getting frustrated, and always ensures I have beer around, plus it keeps me brewing. I brew almost every 2-3 weeks like clockwork

 

[supermallard]

One thing I do to keep from getting frustrated is I always keep one beer that I know I like and is good on tap. I have a double tap setup in my garage and keep a blonde ale or some type of everyone beer or one of my favorites there, then use the other tap for experimentation type stuff. Keeps me from getting frustrated, and always ensures I have beer around, plus it keeps me brewing. I brew almost every 2-3 weeks like clockwork

Oh I'd love to do this but I have not had a good batch in some time. My AG success rate is quite dismal so far, unfortunately. Hopefully Ive identified my issues.

 

[00Seven]

Oh I'd love to do this but I have not had a good batch in some time. My AG success rate is quite dismal so far, unfortunately. Hopefully Ive identified my issues.

Is it your process or your recipes or what?

Also no shame in doing an extract batch.

 

[supermallard]

Is it your process or your recipes or what?

Also no shame in doing an extract batch.

I'm pretty sure it's mainly my water. I did over 40 extract batches with the same water supply (pre-RO though) and the majority of those batches were really good beer.

I know AG is a different beast, but I've been troubleshooting and attempting to monitor sparge and mash pH, sanitation etc.

I actually did an extract batch about a year ago and it was okay. It was a free stout kit though. My main beers I attempt to make are pales, IPAs, and an occasional hefe.

 

[00Seven]

I'm pretty sure it's mainly my water. I did over 40 extract batches with the same water supply (pre-RO though) and the majority of those batches were really good beer.

I know AG is a different beast, but I've been troubleshooting and attempting to monitor sparge and mash pH, sanitation etc.

I actually did an extract batch about a year ago and it was okay. It was a free stout kit though. My main beers I attempt to make are pales, IPAs, and an occasional hefe.

If you want another set of eyes looking over your process feel free to message me. I'm far from an expert but wouldn't mind helping out if I can.