My first two brews were kits + kilo and... they had that (what I considered) standard home brew 'twang', slightly solvent, slightly apple, slightly sweet, but sharp fruity tang that was rather unpleasant, but drinkable.
I tried adding DME to the next one, but for some reason also added 700g of sugar, giving it quite a high OG. That beer was fine until about 2 weeks in bottles when the young'ness went away it .... yep... left an ugly "twang" that just got stronger as it aged.
Finally on brew 4 I added no sugar and it was lovely. I only have 2 of them left I couldn't stop drinking them.
Brew 5 - Full extract, no sugar, a few off flavours till it reached 3 weeks, then it was lovely and again I now only have 2 of them left, couldn't stop drinking them.
But... as I'd had the ferments stutter a few times and I read someone saying that adding a small amount of sugar to extract brews should help this I went back to adding sugar.
I have tasted one of these brews a basic extract blonde ale and .... it has a sharp twang.
I have another brew aging to which I added 200g sugar to 5 gallons and my lager which got 100g in 2 gallons.
So, I'm expecting them to have that twang also.
So NOT MORE SUGAR!
PS: The other (aiding?) factor for the twang is of course, high fermentation temps, hitting 22C or even 24C during the initial high activity phase.
The two things that all you guys tried valiantly to advise me of; don't add sugar and keep the temps in check, which I apparently ignored, has probably ruined 4 or so brews.
The good news is, I've learnt me lesson and the english bitter kit I put in the bucket on Friday had only 1kg of DME added for gravity and body, I cooled the wort to 18C and left by an open window (with a heavy curtain stopping sunlight) and kept the temp to 18/19C for the first 7 days. I have hopes that this one will be nicer.
Shame about my lager though, read my other post this morning to find out what happened when I took it out of the fridge for a "rest". It went balistic!
EDIT: One final thing. What I didn't expect was how much I love drinking my own brews. This has led to me drinking more and more of it. So, I'm drinking it for reasons other than to get drunk, in fact I'd prefer it low ABV so I can enjoy drinking 2 litres or even 3 litres on a "school night" and not get plastered drunk. Thus, adding sugar for ABV is silly anyway. I'm going to go to DME only and aim for high 30s, low 40s for OG from now on.
I tried adding DME to the next one, but for some reason also added 700g of sugar, giving it quite a high OG. That beer was fine until about 2 weeks in bottles when the young'ness went away it .... yep... left an ugly "twang" that just got stronger as it aged.
Finally on brew 4 I added no sugar and it was lovely. I only have 2 of them left I couldn't stop drinking them.
Brew 5 - Full extract, no sugar, a few off flavours till it reached 3 weeks, then it was lovely and again I now only have 2 of them left, couldn't stop drinking them.
But... as I'd had the ferments stutter a few times and I read someone saying that adding a small amount of sugar to extract brews should help this I went back to adding sugar.
I have tasted one of these brews a basic extract blonde ale and .... it has a sharp twang.
I have another brew aging to which I added 200g sugar to 5 gallons and my lager which got 100g in 2 gallons.
So, I'm expecting them to have that twang also.
So NOT MORE SUGAR!
PS: The other (aiding?) factor for the twang is of course, high fermentation temps, hitting 22C or even 24C during the initial high activity phase.
The two things that all you guys tried valiantly to advise me of; don't add sugar and keep the temps in check, which I apparently ignored, has probably ruined 4 or so brews.
The good news is, I've learnt me lesson and the english bitter kit I put in the bucket on Friday had only 1kg of DME added for gravity and body, I cooled the wort to 18C and left by an open window (with a heavy curtain stopping sunlight) and kept the temp to 18/19C for the first 7 days. I have hopes that this one will be nicer.
Shame about my lager though, read my other post this morning to find out what happened when I took it out of the fridge for a "rest". It went balistic!
EDIT: One final thing. What I didn't expect was how much I love drinking my own brews. This has led to me drinking more and more of it. So, I'm drinking it for reasons other than to get drunk, in fact I'd prefer it low ABV so I can enjoy drinking 2 litres or even 3 litres on a "school night" and not get plastered drunk. Thus, adding sugar for ABV is silly anyway. I'm going to go to DME only and aim for high 30s, low 40s for OG from now on.
