Astringent after taste and possible casues

[Diablotastic]

So I'm trying to narrow down what may have casued my astringent after taste in my 2nd AG.

The BJCP has a pretty cool off flavor tool

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/OffFlavorFlash.pdf

Now my 1st AG didn't seem to have that twangy after taste but it was Store Crush....now the major difference for my 2nd was the use of my Corona Mill. It seems a potential contributer to astringent tastes is over crushing which definately seem like it could be the case with my Corona. My mill seems to really tear em up....the wheels spin inconsistently so I've had to dial it in fairly close to acheive about a 65 to 70 % effeiciency....unfortunately this may have casued the off flavor.

Now I've only tried one batch that I've brewed using the Corona but I have 3 others in the pipeline (2 in vessels and one conditioning in the bottle)

I'm planning on holding off any more breweing until I can indentify this issue for sure.

Couple question :

1) has anybody had any issues with over crushing causing Astringent tastes

2) If this is the case...at what point should I be able to pick up the astringent taste....Usually after bottle condintioning or can i sample some in the fermenting vessels to get an idea ahead of time?

 

[Saccharomyces]

If you water is high in bicarbonates you can get astringency from a high pH during sparge. I adjust my brewing water to get around 100ppm total hardness and watch the pH during sparge to keep the grainbed below 6. You also may have gotten the grainbed too hot during sparging. I keep a thermometer in the bed and check it to stay around 165*F which is a good tradeoff for efficiency versus extracting tannins.

Good luck nailing this one. Finding causes of off flavors can be tough.

 

[zoebisch01]

How long is your typical sparge? Batch? Fly? Going too long on the sparge can cause tannin extraction (I think). I know that pH and temperature are crucial for this as well. Dark brews can become astringent if you add too much without enough pH buffer. The shredded husks can be suspect as well because it is easier for extraction of the tannins with increased free surface area, at least I think I recall reading that.

 

[Diablotastic]

Yeah i'm using Bottled water at the moment so i'm thinking I can rule that out.

As far as sparging I now use Bobby M's AG primer for Batch sparging (although my current suspect batch I did not....rinsed with the Beersmith default of like 167F so I doubt I leeched tanins due to over temp) No mash out 2 batch sparges @ 185ish

All of my batches have mashed for 1 hr to date

 

[ol' rummie]

Do you use bleach for sanitizing?

 

[Diablotastic]

No...Use B brite and Idophor for cleaning....but I am starting to get into an Oxyclean kick

Reason I'm leaning towards Corona overcrushing is for two reasons really.

1) My 1st AG had no astringent taste which was Store Crush

2) I can recall a similar taste back when I was extract brewing and I would steep my grains at to high of a temp which also causes an astringent taste.

I think I'll have to kinda wait and see as my other 3 batches near completion to see how much if any off flavor I can pick up

I have Haus Pale in the bottle (about a week away)

DFH IPA in the secondary

Nut Brown in the primary

Anybody know if I should be able to pick up an astrignet taste now in or is it more of finished beer off flavor?

 

[rasherb]

I just corona'd the heck out of my last batch with no astringency. It took about 2.5 gallons to finally vourloff clear, but it came out fine.

If you over-crush with the corona the astringency would show up in the wort before the boil if tannins were extracted during the mash or after/during the boil if you are getting bits of husk in your wort and extracting the tannins during the boil.

Maybe you could brew a small batch and taste-test each step?

 

[Diablotastic]

not a bad idea....I did just transfer my last batch of brown form the primary to the secondary...i couldn't pick up any astringent taste...at least not on a young, flat, warm beer :cross:

I wonder if some of what i'm picking up in astringent batch is the fact that I messed up and inadvertantley topped off too much post boil bringing my OG too low. I actaully finished at 1.0002. I knew that the beer was going to have issues and beer really light and lack flavor but maybe this is contributing