Help! My Beer Tastes Awful

[cbarriere19283]

Hi all,

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with my beer results and could really use some tips to help!

I've brewed 4 batches so far and I have yet to have a drinkable beer.

Despite a few changes here and there, these are the three main problems I am experiencing in my finished product:

1. Consistency
Picture a brown sugary watered down syrup. Hardly even looks like a beer.

2. Head Retention
While they seemed to carbonate OK from Fizz Drops (using DME to carb from now on) the head immediately dies off after I fill the glass. All commercial beers keep head retention in my glasses so I don't think its my glass wear. It's almost like a soda. seems "fizzy" but has no real yeasty body or head retention to it, more just like sugary carbonated water

3. (The Big One) Taste!
I'm getting these god awful plastic-like off flavors that smell almost more than they taste. I'm a little nervous with this one because I've read online that it could be the tap water I'm using? I'm not sure how to get water tested to see if it's good or not. It tastes fine to drink. I live in Stamford, CT and I'm not sure what the water quality is like here.

So, as a frustrated want-to-be-good homebrewer, please help! Not sure if there is something I can try and treat my water with for cheep or if I have to resort to using bottled water (I've heard that can be a nightmare with all-grain however).

Thanks for any advice and help!

 

[Hernando]

Cbarriere, I know this will be a big PITA but for us to be able to help, explain in as much detail as you can, your brewing process and typical brew day.

 

[beersk]

I presume you're brewing extract? First of all, get some campden tablets for your water OR use distilled or RO water, which is best to use for extract brewing as the minerals are already present in the extract.
Make sure you're aerating well and pitching plenty of yeast. Use mrmalty.com to figure your yeast amount.
The head retention could be a combination of the water and that you're maybe drinking them too young? Are you waiting at least 3 weeks to really drink them after bottling?

 

[Burrito]

Firstly, knowing nothing about the water in your area I would suggest maybe running it through a carbon filter and then treat with a Campden tablet. Or just buy water. You can fill a 5 gallon jug really cheap at a water store.

Secondly, with out knowing anything about your recipe or brewing process its impossible to try and pin point where u could be going wrong.

 

[Tomcat0304]

Where and at what temperature are you fermenting? How long are you leaving them in primary?


Magical creature
Eats sugars, poops alcohol
So I may drink beer

 

[pdietert]

I agree with the above, Chlorophenols from tap water. Use bottled water to see if that helps.

 

[cbarriere19283]

Here is the process:

1-Gallon Extract kit from Northern Brewer
- Steep grains during warm up
- Boil full volume with extract and hops
- chill to 75
- pitch dry yeast (will begin using Smack packs from now on)
- previously sanitizing with EasyClean but will start using Star San
- ferment in 1 Gallon glass carboy for 3 weeks at 68-72
- bottled directly from primary (NOT doing that anymore, will go secondary then bottling bucket)
- used Fizz Drops to carbonate in bottle for 2 weeks at room temp
- chilled for 24 hours
- drank and was disgusted
- drank other commercial beer to drain sorrows

 

[cbarriere19283]

I posted the process below. As for the the Carbon Filter, is that an expensive process? Maybe I would be better off to just buy bottled. But I plan on eventually doing all grain, that's a LOT of water to buy no? And what about the sanitizing bucket, can I still sanitize with tap?

 

[govner1]

75 is too high for pitching. 64-68 would be more ideal. Also, yes you can use tap water for cleaning & sanitizing.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[eric19312]

I dont have a lot of experience with 1 gal batches but a few thoughts...

Since all 4 batches were bad I am less inclined to blame sanitation.

2 weeks is on short side to get good carbonation bottle conditioning. Your description of the head sounds like drinking too early..The CO2 has been made but hasn't properly disolved into the beer yet. Needs more time.

All four tasting bad -- really do check the water.

I'd stick with dry yeast using one of the reliable brands for now. Will keep your costs down while you work on rest of process and are reliable for making good beer. Maybe not gold medal BOS but we aren't shooting for last 10% here point is to get you making beer that doesn't make you sad. To me the reliable brands are Fermentis US-05, Fermentis S04, and Llamand Nottingham with US-05 being the yeast version of the Easy Button.

Get a couple gallons of drinking water. I really bet it is issue with your water.

Temperature control. You may be fermenting a bit hot if you are at 72 ambient. Your small batch size makes me think it probably wont generate too much heat to really spike your temperature up, but on other hand the small wort volume may also be more subject to temperature swings with yeast are reputed to hate. See what the other one gallon brewers are doing here I am curious but not really sure what to advise.

Good luck it is worth a little perserverence

 

[Yooper]

Beer is mostly water, so your water is crucial. It sounds like you are using city/municipal water with chlorine or chloramines, from the "plastic" description.

If that is the case, and you're making 1 gallon batches, it's probably easiest to buy a couple of gallons of distilled water for brewing and mixing up your sanitizer (star-san). Once you mix up a little star-san, you can save it in a squirt bottle and reuse it over and over, so maybe buy 3-4 gallons of distilled water the first time to mix up the sanitizer as well as to have enough to make a batch of beer.

Brewing with distilled or RO water is actually preferable than most tap water, so don't worry about that!

Even a tiny bit of chlorine can cause those off flavors, so make sure you're not using things with chlorine in the cleaners or things like bleach in the brewing gear you have.

As far as the carbonation, instead of carb tabs and/or DME, try using corn sugar. Or even table sugar. .75 ounce, by weight, will work great for a 1 gallon batch. You can boil that in 1/2 cup of water, and rack your beer into a bottling bucket to bottle and it is much better than those carb drops. DME is ok, but you'd need more of it and may end up diluting your beer too much if you use more water to boil it up since it's such a small batch.

 

[cbarriere19283]

Even after cracking open the first bottle at two weeks, I have waited and then cracked a bottle at 3 and 4 weeks and it actually tastes worse than it did at 2 weeks. I've also been using the Safeale US-05 yeasts strain for most of the batches.

While I pitch at 72ish I am fermenting at 68ish for the most part.

Even so, I feel like all these slight details might be enough to alter taste a bit here and there but mine is simply undrinkable which I feel must be a larger problem then just pitched a few degrees higher or not aerating quite enough or stuff like that... am I correct in assuming that?

 

[Brews]

A cheap alternative for water is to use one of the CAMCO RV filters from Wally World
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/01/47/17/40/0001471740045_180X180.jpg
They seam to work well for me and the only thing I really need to do is to adjust my ph.

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

Water. Chlorine and Chloromines. Go bottled on next batch and let us know

 

[Yooper]

Even so, I feel like all these slight details might be enough to alter taste a bit here and there but mine is simply undrinkable which I feel must be a larger problem then just pitched a few degrees higher or not aerating quite enough or stuff like that... am I correct in assuming that?

Yes.

The water is 90% of the beer. If you are using tap water with chlorine or chloramines, the beer will always suck.

 

[troy2000]

I'm betting on the water, too. Use some sort of bottled water next time, and see how it does. You might be better off with water specifically labeled drinking water instead of distilled or straight reverse-osmosis water; it generally has minerals in it for flavor.

Meanwhile, try writing whoever supplies your tap water and asking them for a profile. That should tell you a lot....If they use chlorine, you should be able to boil it out. If they use choramine, you're out of luck. Or so I've read; I'm no expert.

 

[pdxal]

Beer worse at 3 and 4 weeks than at 2 weeks makes me wonder if infection is an issue. Band aid smell and flavor would too. Are your beers sour?

 

[Braufessor]

Here is the process:

1-Gallon Extract kit from Northern Brewer
- Steep grains during warm up
- Boil full volume with extract and hops
- chill to 75
- pitch dry yeast (will begin using Smack packs from now on)
- previously sanitizing with EasyClean but will start using Star San
- ferment in 1 Gallon glass carboy for 3 weeks at 68-72
- bottled directly from primary (NOT doing that anymore, will go secondary then bottling bucket)
- used Fizz Drops to carbonate in bottle for 2 weeks at room temp
- chilled for 24 hours
- drank and was disgusted
- drank other commercial beer to drain sorrows

As mentioned - don't use your tap water. Just buy RO water. Ideally, get a 3 gallon refillable jug, and just use refill RO machine at someplace like Walmart. Your water is very likely causing the plastic flavor. Since you are doing 1 gallon batches, this is a very simple fix. (I have 6x3 gallon jugs I fill on a regular basis as I brew 6 gallon batches).

Chill more - again, you are only brewing a gallon - easy to chill that down into the low to mid 60's. Ferment in mid 60's to upper 60's if you can. With a batch that small, you might be surprised how much the yeast could do in a short time at 75 degrees. Also, make sure your BEER is in the 60's - not the air temperature. Your room might be 68, but your fermenting beer might be 74...... Use one of those "stick on" thermometers or something like that.

Sanitation. Yes - quit using easy clean to sanitize. Clean very well with easy clean, pbw or oxy clean and RINSE. Then, use starsan to sanitize, and DON'T RINSE. Mix up your star san with RO water - that will keep chlorine out of you sanitizer from your tap water. Bottles and bottling equipment to - star san/don't rinse.

Nothing wrong with US 05 for yeast. Today's dry yeast is pretty good stuff - the problems you describe do not sound like yeast to me. Especially with a 1 gallon batch - not like you need a yeast starter or anything for that.

Nothing wrong with primary only for 2-3 weeks. The big thing I think is avoiding getting a bunch of gunk going into your bottles. transferring to a bottling bucket with corn sugar for priming might get a cleaner product into your bottles possibly. You need to make sure you are careful about splashing and oxygen though if you go this route. Also, boil you priming sugar in a smallish (1-2 cups) of RO water to steralize and make a syrup if you go this route. You also need to CAREFULLY stir this in your bottling bucket to distribute it evenly in your beer. If you can cleanly transfer your beer from primary into bottles with priming tabs....... I really don't see a problem with doing that - just make sure you are not picking up all the crap on the bottom of the fermenter.

** Also - where are you located? Find some other experienced/good homebrewers and invite them over to help you for a brew session and a bottling session. That can make a HUGE difference, as they can help you skip 5-10 years of mistakes most people make and you can learn tips and tricks from their mistakes, instead of your own.

 

[kombat]

try writing whoever supplies your tap water and asking them for a profile. That should tell you a lot....If they use chlorine, you should be able to boil it out. If they use choramine, you're out of luck.

Isn't that what Campden tablets are for? 1/4 tablet is supposed to neutralize the chloramines in 5 gallons of water, right?

 

[GHBWNY]

Sounds like ingredients and temp control are not the issue. There is enough latitude in the process (esp. with an extract kit) to accomodate a blip on the radar along the way. Wondering if all were the same beer/kit? Still, four consecutive batches gone bad... sounds like the Common Denominator to me: water.

Kudos for hanging in there bad batch after bad batch. Everyone here feels your pain, but good that you're still in the game. Often the worst of results boils down to a simple fix. Like others have suggested, make a water switch for your next batch, keep things sanitary and if you follow directions as closely as you have, you'll have good beer. Guaranteed.

 

[MindenMan]

It has got to be the water, because everything else is spot on.

 

[LakeErieMonster]

I think it is probably the water, but everyone has already told you that.
Based on the flavors getting worse the longer it bottle conditions, I could see it being some type of infection, maybe in the racking equipment (plastic parts). They are cheap enough to replace, so if RO water doesnt solve your problem, maybe try that.

 

[mtyquinn]

I think switching to star san is a good idea. It probably is your water but it looks like you where using a cleaner, not a sanitizer. I would try and get your fermentation temps down as well.

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

Isn't that what Campden tablets are for? 1/4 tablet is supposed to neutralize the chloramines in 5 gallons of water, right?

yes. 1 tablet to 20 gallons. Will neutralize chlorine and/or chloramines

 

[cbarriere19283]

So interestingly enough... I just racked my first all grain 5-gallon batch. I used the SAME water as before with the 1-gallon extract. The only main differences are
1) all-grain as apposed to extract
2) liquid smack pack yeast instead of dry
3) StarSan instead of other cleaner
4) All LHBS ingredients as apposed to shipped from Northern Brewer

As I racked, I took a gravity reading and sampled it. Tastes pretty decent! Also has no plastic smell or taste.

Now at the same time, I decided to open up the 1-gallon carboy with a batch that's been fermenting for 2 weeks that used all shipped northern brewer extract material (LME, dry yeast). The stuff smelled so plastic and again tastes disgusting. I chucked it.

Is it possible the ingredients I have been getting aren't fresh enough? Maybe the shipped dry yeast isn't working properly? Maybe it was the lack os StarSan? The LHBS 5-gallon all-grain batch is the best looking/best gravity/best tasting I have had yet at the 2 week marker.

Regardless, this makes me question whether or not the water is in fact the problem

 

[pdxal]

Same water, plus star san instead of using a cleaner and no sanitizer resulting in a good beer equals infection.