Chill Haze, Tannic/Borderline Metallic Taste

[krisagon]

I made a "get rid of some old ingredients" brew that I configured into Jamil's Amber Ale two months ago.

I noticed some unpleasantries with this batch:
1. Serious chill haze.
2. Harsh, tannic, almost metallic aftertaste. (The beer tasted like black tea at bottling, which had me kind of worried.)

I did a few things different this time, just for the heck of it.
1. My grains were like 3 weeks old. (Had to leave town, and didn't want to toss ingredients)
2. I dry hopped in the primary with 2oz of cascade.
3. I used Five Star's 5.2 Stabilizer to control mash pH.
4. It got cold in my basement at times during fermentation, like to 54F or so, but never went above 64F. I bought a Johnson controller as a result for next time.


It's not undrinkable, but I would really love to eliminate this nasty tannin taste from future brews. Any ideas what causes this? Will it age out?

Here's the Beersmith recipe:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Jamil's American Amber
Brewer: Mike
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.72 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 10.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 47.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.09 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 22.09 %
6.35 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 67.02 %
0.68 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 7.18 %
0.35 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 3.71 %
0.66 oz Horizon [12.00 %] (60 min) Hops 27.0 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (30 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -

Yeast: WLP004 Irish Ale, 1000 mL starter

 

[Nateo]

Were your hops old? I dry hopped with some old whole leaf hops. The hops were oxidized and that lent a kind of metallic/rusty flavor to the beer.

I would never use 5.2. It's not really a buffer. It's a pH limiter that reacts with calcium so the pH doesn't exceed 5.8. I've had really poor results using it, so I did some digging on it and found this:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=1125.0

Be sure to minimize the amount of draff (little grain bits) that get into the boil kettle. Boiling bits of grain flour will cause astringent flavors. If the pH is out of whack, it will extract even more astringency from the grain.

The good news is, as the beer ages, it will taste better than it does now. Extended cold aging would help the most, once it's been carbed. Some of those nasty compounds will precipitate out, but it will probably never be an award-winner.

 

[krisagon]

Cool, thanks for the ideas. I think I'll leave the 5.2 out next time.