Bad flavors from a All Grain batch

[oly884]

Hey guys, just joined (first post).

I've been home brewing for around 5 years now, started with meads and ciders, worked into extract kits for beers, then to partial mash, then on to all grain. I've got a mashing tun, and a decent amount of gear to go with it, so equipment wise I'm somewhat set.

I made a brown ale (sorry, it was 6 months ago and the recipe is at home) and when I went to taste one, it wasn't great to say the least. My friend said it had a bad 'burnt' taste to it, I taste a bitter, sour, generally "bad" taste predominately in the after taste.

As I remember, my mash started somewhat high (around 170) but I got that cooled fairly quickly to around 155-160. So, is it possible some tannins got out and screwed up the flavor?

The other possibility is that I scorched the wort. I've got a big ol' propane burner that has a setting that is "on" or "off" with little in between. (I'm getting set up for an electric kettle shortly to get rid of this problem). So, is it common to scorch the wort with these propane burners? The last all grain kit I did was on a stove top (electric) and it came out fantastic, I was blown away at how awful the beer came out this time and I'm curious what caused it, or some pointers.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BargainFittings]

So this beer is 6 month old?

Could be a number of issues cropping up. Tannin extraction can be one. Dark malts with the wrong water profile can also cause some taste issues.

 

[oly884]

So this beer is 6 month old?

Could be a number of issues cropping up. Tannin extraction can be one. Dark malts with the wrong water profile can also cause some taste issues.

Yes, the beer is about 6 months old, I wanted to give it time before I made to quick of a judgment but the flavor is still there.

I'll look into the water profile more because I'm not familiar with that at all, and I felt that I didn't get the mash temp too high to cause any problems. I was thinking that it was the burner and scorching problems, but that water profile could be the culprit, thanks!

 

[Bsquared]

Before I figured out that the word Vorlof, meant to recirculate, I did not recirculate my first few quarts of running from the sparge back in to the mash till it ran clear. I would get a fair amount of grain in the boil. This would lead to a Grainy astringent flavor in the beer, but it would go away with aging.

But It could be anything from your grain bill, to your sparge water temps.

 

[oly884]

I did make sure to recirculate, but it is still possible that I missed some grain that made it in the boil. If there was any, it was probably a quite small amount.

 

[Bsquared]

I did make sure to recirculate, but it is still possible that I missed some grain that made it in the boil. If there was any, it was probably a quite small amount.

Than thats probably not it, I remember my first few AG boils before I figured out to recirculate, looked like I was doing a decoction

 

[oly884]

Than thats probably not it, I remember my first few AG boils before I figured out to recirculate, looked like I was doing a decoction

Haha, nice. I managed to do a somewhat decent amount of reading before I started with all grain batches, but I'm just perplexed about why it came out so.... bleh.

Oh well, live and learn, I've yet to bottle my apple hefeweizen (3 gallons of fresh squeezed cider in a partial boil hef kit) that I started on the same day so I'll see if it was a technique I used that day, or maybe it was something like the water profile. I'll see how things turn out and report back if it has the same problem.