Burnt/bitter taste

[karch]

Hi all,

I've been doing single-gallon extract batches for about a year. I recently made the jump up to 5 gallon extract brews, and brewed my first one about 3 weeks ago.

I made the Brewer's Best IPA extract kit and everything went well for my first time working with a larger volume. I recently took a sample out to test FG and decided to taste the flat beer. It had a very sharp, burnt/bitter taste. More of an after taste than anything. It also didn't smell that way. Any ideas on what the flavors could be from and will it settle out?

OG: 1.059
FG: 1.012
Pitch Temp: 73F
Ferment Temp: 62-65F

 

[bransona]

My guess is burnt extract. Did you fully dissolve before boiling?

 

[unionrdr]

Or pour the extract in while the kettle was on the heat? LME's will go straight to the bottom & burn in that scenario.

 

[karch]

Or pour the extract in while the kettle was on the heat? LME's will go straight to the bottom & burn in that scenario.

It was on heat. Even if I'm stirring while adding, it'll still go straight down?

 

[bransona]

Can and will happen, even to the luckiest of us. Try removing from heat and stirring in until fully dissolved. I even return to heat and keep stirring, but I like to overdo

 

[RM-MN]

It was on heat. Even if I'm stirring while adding, it'll still go straight down?

Yes, malt extract is way more dense that you would expect. For an experiment, fill a glass with water. Pour in some honey while you stir with a toothpick. That will be similar density and the stirrer will comparable to your spoon in a 5 gallon container.

 

[karch]

Did it not help that I was doing a 3 gallon boil and then topped up with 2 gallons in carboy?

 

[RM-MN]

Did it not help that I was doing a 3 gallon boil and then topped up with 2 gallons in carboy?

No, it is still very difficult to get the malt extract to mix. You really need to turn off the heat, stir in the liquid extract until it is all mixed, then turn the heat back on.

 

[TheMilkMan]

Mix your malt extract with half a gallon to a whole gallon of cold water in a sanitized bucket, remove kettle from heat, or turn off heat, wait a few minutes, add malt, stir. bring back to boil. If you add most of it at the end technically you don't even need to bring it back to a boil. Twang will go away.