Bad Batch After Bad Batch After Bad Batch!!!

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What's frustrating is that the issues seem to have come after making several upgrades to equipment such as: going full-boil, getting a wort chiller, kegging, "mix-stirrer" aeration thingy, etc.. I did better when things were simpler!

Another thing I noticed is that this has really only happened with lighter beers. They say with lighter beers it's harder to hide off-flavors. My next batch will be a middle of the road, amber ale kinda thing so we'll see how that one turns out.

Will campden tablets take care of the chlorine? I'm going to order a water report soon. It should be noted that I'm not doing AG, mostly extracts and a couple partial mashes.
 
I had a similar issue. My beer went sour after my second batch. I struggled to find out what was going on. I even had issues with the primary doing what it should and the airlock liquids being sucked in the bucket. Nothing made sense. Even my local brew shop could not figure it out.

I did three things. First replaced the primary and lid - a cheap fix. Second I worked real hard to rinse out my cleaners with a soft cloth. Last I started using bottled water. Somewhere in the three actions my beer drastically improved.

I have one batch of a simple British Mild bottled that is just super. I made a second batch right on top of the trub and it is in bottles right now conditioning. In fact, its so good I am off to enjoy one while the sun sets.
 
Yegmaster, thanks very much for this thread. I'm having a similar problem here. My first 10 batches were all great. My last 3 have had this overly bitter/astringent taste.

I feel your pain... Like I said before, my problem ended up being sanitation issues. Now that this whole ordeal is over I have realized that you really can never be too careful with your cleaning and sanitizing. I was very very thorough with it and was still getting bad batches. It came down to one element of my setup not being cleaned properly do to minuscule scratches that bacteria was trapped in . I also recommend doing a bleach rinse on all your equipment. As long as you are very thorough with the rinse, this seems to work pretty well. I think that your worry about the water quality is valid as well. Since you are only doing extract and partial mash, I would say try doing a batch with DI water. Find a kit with plenty of extract, this will guarantee your fermentable sugars as well as mineral content which will make up for the lack of minerals in the water.

All thats left to say is stick with it no matter what... I was at that point not all that long ago and I was honestly on the border line of giving up... It was very discouraging... but with the help of all these posts and patience it all worked out... Now im doing all grain batches and they are turning out AMAZING! ull be there soon my friend.
 
Sometimes it seems as though the equipment is tougher to use and take care of, but there are literally only a few things that could carry bacteria around after all of that sanitizing. It's almost always plastic, and generally is not worth keeping around when the price of a new bucket or hose is so small.

Heck, I even picked up a couple of Ale Pails off the curb and they seem fine. Better than the bucket I was using.
 
Just somthing to throw out there. When I lived in southern california, many people had swamp coolers instead of central a/c. Swamp coolers are open air units that work by evaporating water from a cloth screen and blowing air through. These units can get mildew and other molds into the system and circulate it all throughout the household. When I lived in the desert it was very common to walk into a nice cool house and still feel humidity and smell mildew. Just putting it out there as a consideration. As an Ohioan I really noticed the smell. Some Californians that grew up with a swamp cooler their whole life were used to the smell and thought I was crazy.
 
I went back to bottled water after some little off-tasting stuff in my beers, and so far my Kolsch taste like a Kolsch after 7 weeks fermenting/lagering and 2 weeks in bottle.

I NEVER use anything abrasive on my bottling bucket! Only a soft cloth to clean it and HOT water. I might use easy clean and hot water to soak it well every so often (easy clean works as a sanitizer) but then I rinse well and star-san it anyway.

I think you would have to use at least 2x the recommended amount of Star San to get off flavors from it. After I sanitize carboys, I spray the neck with star san solution and place a sanitized solid stopper in it till I am ready to fill it. Before removing stopper, I again spray around neck with star san solution! You CAN'T overdo sanitizing steps!

Glad to hear it worked better for you. Bottling buckets are cheaper than wasted beer :)
 
This was a really useful thread to read through. It's good to have an actual example of a simple scratch in a bucket ruining batches of beer. I'll never mess with any of them in the future.

@AustinHomeBrew People like you make me happy. It's so awesome to know that there are still good business practices out there.

At the same time, I'm gonna have to say that StarSan is never a problem. Ever. If it seems like it is, then it's something you did wrong. GO STARSAN! :fro:
 
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