Beer tastes earthy

[balrog]

It’s independent of volume. So, headspace vs. entire keg take the same number of purges to get to the same O2 ppm/ppb. Just takes a whole lot more CO2 to purge an empty keg. That’s why liquid purging is so efficient.

Good to know it is independent of volume.

 

[Horseflesh]

If you could say it is “musty” or like damp earth, it might be 2,4,6-tricholoroanisole (TCA) from mold contamination.

With it being described as “mineral” I doubt this is the case, but...

 

[2005STi]

So yesterday I rebrewed the recipe from my original post. I changed the hop varieties completely FWIW.

I used distilled water and per Bru'n water I treated my strike water with 1g Gypsum, 1g CaCl, and 1.4g MgSO4. Sparge water with 1.4/1.4/1.9 respectively.
I added 6oz of acidulated malt to the grain bill to give me an estimated Mash PH of 5.27
I am currently fermenting in a pin lock corny with 2" cut off of the dip tube. I removed the gas out and zip tie secured a piece of 1/2" ID tubing to the threads for my blow off.
I made a 1.75L starter of 1318 the day before w/pure o2. Pitched at 68F with pure o2 and the fermentation is being controlled with a mini fridge/heat blanket with an Inkbird controller.

I'll utilize the star san purge of the serving keg before doing a closed c02 transfer in about 12 days. Will try to be good about posting results.

 

[2005STi]

Hello all,

So when I am ready to perform the closed transfer, should I be worried about picking up hop particles and clogging the dip tube? I cut a solid 2" off of the dip tube.

I plan on dry hopping with 3 oz in the keg (primary fermentor). Should I cold crash before transferring to the serving keg? If so, should I close up the primary keg and pressurize it with say 15psi before crashing? I'd rather avoid cold crashing as I am worried about the pressure dropping as the primary gets cold, weakening the seal on the lid, and somehow pulling in air.

Maybe overkill but I'm trying to be EXTRA EXTRA careful here to isolate my problem which is likely oxidation.

 

[Jag75]

If your fermenting in a keg I would drop the temp to keg serving temp . Mine is set at 37. You can put your dry hops in , purge a handful of times then. 5 psi should be fine. Then wait 3 -5 days fill up your receiving keg with star san , push out with co2 , hook up a jumper from fermenter keg ( black to black ) to serving keg then transfer by re attaching the gas to the fermenter keg

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Hello all,

So when I am ready to perform the closed transfer, should I be worried about picking up hop particles and clogging the dip tube? I cut a solid 2" off of the dip tube.

I plan on dry hopping with 3 oz in the keg (primary fermentor). Should I cold crash before transferring to the serving keg? If so, should I close up the primary keg and pressurize it with say 15psi before crashing? I'd rather avoid cold crashing as I am worried about the pressure dropping as the primary gets cold, weakening the seal on the lid, and somehow pulling in air.

Maybe overkill but I'm trying to be EXTRA EXTRA careful here to isolate my problem which is likely oxidation.

Yeah, you should be worried about the hop particles clogging your dip tube even with it shortened. Hops drop but can still be sucked back up. The best ways to mitigate that would be a pretty long cold crash, bagging your hops, or putting some kind of filter around the dip tube like one of those metal hop canisters.

 

[doug293cz]

Hello all,

So when I am ready to perform the closed transfer, should I be worried about picking up hop particles and clogging the dip tube? I cut a solid 2" off of the dip tube.

I plan on dry hopping with 3 oz in the keg (primary fermentor). Should I cold crash before transferring to the serving keg? If so, should I close up the primary keg and pressurize it with say 15psi before crashing? I'd rather avoid cold crashing as I am worried about the pressure dropping as the primary gets cold, weakening the seal on the lid, and somehow pulling in air.

Maybe overkill but I'm trying to be EXTRA EXTRA careful here to isolate my problem which is likely oxidation.

If cold crashing in a keg, leave the CO2 pressure once you start crashing. If you disconnect the pressure, then the pressure will drop significantly as CO2 is absorbed into the colder beer. You can easily end up with a partial vacuum in the keg, if you don't leave the CO2 on.

Brew on

 

[2005STi]

UPDATE - I actually decided to serve in the primary after reading about the success people have had. I like the impossibility of any o2 pick up at all.

I've closed up the fermenter at 1.020 and dry hopped. I'm purging every few hours and a lot of gas/pressure is coming out. I expect the gravity to be near terminal but I'd rather not open the keg to pull a sample. I don't want to pull a sample from the post because I haven't crashed yet and want to give myself the best chance of not clogging the dip tube.

How do you guys know when to begin crashing when gas is being released and fermentation activity is still clearly happening? I'm sure in my previous beers in carboys with airlocks there was still gas escaping when i went to keg. I just want to be sure that I'm not crashing too soon OR venting all of the good DH aroma out unnecessarily.

 

[2005STi]

UPDATE -

I dry hopped at 1.020 on day 4 (3.5 ounces 2.5 Simcoe, 1 Summit).
On day 7 I dropped the temp on my fridge from a d-rest of 72 down to fridge temp of 40deg. I also hooked up the co2 and set it to 10psi. It probably took 36 hours to get down as it's just a dorm fridge with the freezer cooling element. The dip tube did get clogged after a few pints. I modified an extra beer QD to let me blow c02 down the dip tube to dislodge the clog, it worked! (I use pin lock kegs).

The beer has been conditioning for 4 days now and I'll say it's probably the best tasting/aromatic IPA I've made in 7 years of brewing. The hop character is finally resembling prof. examples of IPAs. The malt character too is now tasting properly now that I am not mixing it up with the beginnings of oxidation.

I am 100% converted to fermenting/serving in the same keg, at least for hoppy beers. And I have a top draw dip tube arriving tomorrow. You guys have seriously reinvigorated my passion for brewing. I had gotten so discouraged by not being able to successfully brew my favorite style of beer to drink! Thank you all so much!!

 

[mattdee1]

UPDATE -

I dry hopped at 1.020 on day 4 (3.5 ounces 2.5 Simcoe, 1 Summit).
On day 7 I dropped the temp on my fridge from a d-rest of 72 down to fridge temp of 40deg. I also hooked up the co2 and set it to 10psi. It probably took 36 hours to get down as it's just a dorm fridge with the freezer cooling element. The dip tube did get clogged after a few pints. I modified an extra beer QD to let me blow c02 down the dip tube to dislodge the clog, it worked! (I use pin lock kegs).

The beer has been conditioning for 4 days now and I'll say it's probably the best tasting/aromatic IPA I've made in 7 years of brewing. The hop character is finally resembling prof. examples of IPAs. The malt character too is now tasting properly now that I am not mixing it up with the beginnings of oxidation.

I am 100% converted to fermenting/serving in the same keg, at least for hoppy beers. And I have a top draw dip tube arriving tomorrow. You guys have seriously reinvigorated my passion for brewing. I had gotten so discouraged by not being able to successfully brew my favorite style of beer to drink! Thank you all so much!!

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing a play-by-play.

And I know exactly what you mean by "reinvigorated passion." Having semi-recently seen the benefits of oxygen avoidance on hoppy beers myself, I too went through a major spike in enthusiasm for the last few months. So many things I want to try now.