Drackean
Active Member
Well, I thought I might be able to sort that out myself, but it seems I need help
(slowly taking another sip of a disgusting Irish Red)
I brewed several batches of beer now (over 180 gallons) and have stumbled upon an issue I just cant understand, which seems to happen to all my brown beers lately (Irish Red, Brown Porter, English Brown). The beers usually tastes fantastic 2 weeks after fermentation or so, after which I keg and carbonate at fridge temperature. Sampling is usually fine until about week 2 or 3. Gradually after that time, the overall flavor seems to shift from nice nutty and caramel flavors, low hop aroma, clean or subtle yeast character to some kind of flatness and harshness, and eventually (several months later) to something like acetaldehyde as though the beer had been fermented at 85F.
Strangely enough, I brew consistently great stouts and APA/IPA, although I guess they have the same issue, which is probably only hidden by the heavy roasts or hop character. My fermentation temps are always closely kept in check at 65-68F with an expensive Fluke thermometer and 2 of those crystal-sticker things.
I suppose it is a contamination issue on the cold side by some kind of bug that is able to screw my beers below 4 degree C, but I clean and sanitize everything that comes in contact with my product. My kegs are always disassembled, filled with oxiclean, rinsed with hot water 2 times, then cold water one time, then sanitized before being filled. My lines are cleaned the same way at each keg change. Heres a summary of my process :
-I put my cleaned immersion chiller 15-20 minutes before the end of the boil, then I carry my kettle in the kitchen, start the chiller and put the lid on (leaving a gap to let steam escape).
-Meanwhile, I rehydrate my dry yeast with boiled water in a sanitized container, with an aluminium foil on it.
-My oxycleaned autosiphon gets sanitized in Starsan and the beer is racked, splashing at the bottom of the carboy to oxygenate.
-The fermented beer goes from primary straight to the keg with the same reoxycleaned and resanitized autosiphon, without splashing this time, of course.
Im out of solutions. Any thought ?
I brewed several batches of beer now (over 180 gallons) and have stumbled upon an issue I just cant understand, which seems to happen to all my brown beers lately (Irish Red, Brown Porter, English Brown). The beers usually tastes fantastic 2 weeks after fermentation or so, after which I keg and carbonate at fridge temperature. Sampling is usually fine until about week 2 or 3. Gradually after that time, the overall flavor seems to shift from nice nutty and caramel flavors, low hop aroma, clean or subtle yeast character to some kind of flatness and harshness, and eventually (several months later) to something like acetaldehyde as though the beer had been fermented at 85F.
Strangely enough, I brew consistently great stouts and APA/IPA, although I guess they have the same issue, which is probably only hidden by the heavy roasts or hop character. My fermentation temps are always closely kept in check at 65-68F with an expensive Fluke thermometer and 2 of those crystal-sticker things.
I suppose it is a contamination issue on the cold side by some kind of bug that is able to screw my beers below 4 degree C, but I clean and sanitize everything that comes in contact with my product. My kegs are always disassembled, filled with oxiclean, rinsed with hot water 2 times, then cold water one time, then sanitized before being filled. My lines are cleaned the same way at each keg change. Heres a summary of my process :
-I put my cleaned immersion chiller 15-20 minutes before the end of the boil, then I carry my kettle in the kitchen, start the chiller and put the lid on (leaving a gap to let steam escape).
-Meanwhile, I rehydrate my dry yeast with boiled water in a sanitized container, with an aluminium foil on it.
-My oxycleaned autosiphon gets sanitized in Starsan and the beer is racked, splashing at the bottom of the carboy to oxygenate.
-The fermented beer goes from primary straight to the keg with the same reoxycleaned and resanitized autosiphon, without splashing this time, of course.
Im out of solutions. Any thought ?