Getting Rid of Astringency in Brewed Beer

[Hopper5000]

So I have a RIS that I made and I think the pH was a bit high and caused the beer to be pretty astringent. It's in a keg right now at room temp and I was wondering if there was anything I could throw into it to get rid of the astringency? Thanks for the help.

 

[erikpete18]

I suppose you could add a boiled lactose solution to give it a little more body and a touch of sweetness to balance out the bite, but with a RIS you'd want to be careful about ending up with way too high of an FG. If you haven't cooled and carbed it yet, I'd try that first. I had a stout a while back that my final gravity measurement sure tasted a bit more astringent than I was hoping for, but once I got it carbed up and served it turned out as a really nice dry stout. I've heard of some people trying gelatin to precipitate some of the astringent phenols, which might be worth a shot if you can find a little more info on whether or not it actually works. You may also be able to age it and help to dampen down the astringency, although I'm not sure how well dark malt astringency ages away, maybe someone else can help you there!

 

[Hopper5000]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was reading a bit about gelatin and I think it can help some with astringency. I haven't cooled and carbed it yet and I was reading that chilling it can help out too. I guess I could just let it sit in the keg for like 6 months and see how it is after that too...

 

[mabrungard]

How high did you take the various ion concentrations? If there is still room for more chloride, I suggest adding a dose of calcium chloride to the beer. I find that calcium has the effect of complexing with tannins and may help remove them from solution. A half gram per gallon will boost Ca by about 40 ppm and Cl by about 60 ppm. Its worth a try.

 

[Hopper5000]

This is what I did as far as additions. Thanks for the suggestion, do you think it's still a good idea based on what you see?

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

You may be able to get some of the tannins to drop out with Polyclar, but you probably should filter the beer afterward.

 

[Hopper5000]

ah ok, i don't have a filter so I can't try that method...

 

[MoeIPA]

my last 2 IPA's have had a BAD astringent taste to them where I had to dump the batch.. I'm a believer of NEVER dumping a bad batch of beer but this was just too much.. I added gelatin and let it sit and pumped about 2 1/2 gallons of beer out and it was still cloudy and astringent tasting..

I've brewed a bunch of great beers but lately when I went to all grain, my first few batches came out alright but suddenly my last 2 were horrible. Any ideas that I could be doing wrong? I mash in at 148 - 152, sparge with 170 water, using tap water just like how I have been doing for years without issue.. Now that I all grain brew, I have to brew outside as opposed to in the kitchen. Could the " brewing outdoors " be the issue? getting foreign yeast/bacteria in the mash?

I'm stumped. My tap water is good, not sure how to test the PH of mash water..

 

[mabrungard]

Repeat after me: Good tasting water can still make bad beer.

There are things in water that don't affect its taste, but can really screw up a beer. Number one of those things is alkalinity. I would not be surprised that this is a factor in your troubles. Another factor could be that your tap water has changed, but you can't taste that change.

Getting your water tested or getting the ion content from the water supplier is the first step to understanding and managing your water for brewing.