Avoiding splashing, batch sparge & recirculation

[joenearboston]

Hi all,

I did my first all grain brew for a pale ale and it came up musty and oxidized (according to my brew competition judges, it has a wet cardboard taste, not so much a sherry taste).

When I was batch sparging and recirculating, I drained the wort into a pot and dumped it back in over the top of my mash/lauter tun (an insulated plastic cooler with a false bottom that I got from northernbrewer).

Racking from my primary (carboy) to secondary (keg), I purged the keg with C02 and used an auto-siphon. I was careful to avoid splashing and I didn't see any bubbles in the tube. The beer was not exposed to air at any other time.

After about a month, the beer had the cardboard after taste.

Could the oxidation have been caused by splashing during my mash recirculation and batch sparge? What techniques/equipment to folks recommend to avoid splashing when doing all grain gravity driven batch sparging?

 

[MalFet]

Probably not. People debate about hot-side aeration, but if it does exist it's a subtle effect. If you're getting dinged for major cardboard flavors, something else is going on. Stale grain?

 

[Denny]

Hi all,
Could the oxidation have been caused by splashing during my mash recirculation and batch sparge? What techniques/equipment to folks recommend to avoid splashing when doing all grain gravity driven batch sparging?

I've done the same thing for 428 batches and never had a problem. I doubt that had anything to do with it.

 

[joenearboston]

Could be stale grain, didn't realize that could cause cardboard /musty flavors, but I'm open to anything. I got the kit from northernbrewer and had it for a week before brewing.

I used a plate chiller to go from kettle to primary and the fermentation was heathy, gravity readings on track.

The bottles I submitted to the competition were purged with C02. I can also can taste the cardboard from my keg, so it is not a bottling specific issue.

Oxidation is driving me nuts. I can't relax and have a homebrew just yet.

 

[harrymanback92]

I had this happen on my first beer on my new system. I was figuring out my system, and boiled to hard, so I had about 4.3 gallons in my Carboy. Fermented it with no problem. Life got in the way, and it ended up sitting in a 6.5 gallon Carboy for 4-5 months, that was not purged with c02. Totally oxidized after it was carbonated. Tasted like sherry. It was terrible. So maybe to much headspace in your carboys?

Also, maybe you're adding water during bottling/kegging? I may be wrong, but that'd add oxygen.

 

[Bulls Beers]

When I Vorlauf, I gently add back to the grain bed. When I add sparge water, I just pour it in.. Never a problem.

 

[duboman]

Since you are boiling the wort after sparge you then boil out any O2 that may have been introduced so it is not coming from your sparge.

Hot side aeration is more about introducing O2 right after the boil in my understanding. It's also up for debate on how possible it is on a home brew scale to even have an effect.

IMO the oxidation is coming post fermentation somewhere.

 

[diS]

As for splashing, I brewed stout last year and I had stuck sparge (due to big amount of oatmeal) so I had to filter it with colander which causes wort splashing. I noticed that beer had poor head formation (no retention at all), taste was great with no strange off flavors. In my case splashing caused only appearance issue.