This weekend I brewed a batch. The mash went well and tasted sweet and loveley. I boiled and chilled and racked to my carboy and sipped a taste from my hydrometer flask and it had a horrible acidic/chemically/bitter taste. I am assuming that the taste did not come from my mash or anything preceding it. I boiled in an aluminum turkey fryer pot that I have repurposed as a brew pot a few batches ago, I have used it for beer before with no ill effects. I chilled with a copper immersion chiller that I have used before. I was wondering if anyone may have any idea of where it may have come from and wether it may go away eventually. Does copper ever impart any bad flavors? is it possible that I scratched the pot with my chiller? it doesn't look lilke it but does this ever happen?
horrible taste
- Thread starter captwalt
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Cap'n Jewbeard
Well-Known Member
Was there maybe some sanitizer left in something?
The sample I had was straight from the pot. The pot and chiller were cleaned after my last batch. The pot was cleaned without abrasivesw and it is the same pot I used for my strike and sparge water and the wort tasted wonderful after the mash before the boil. I put the chiller in the pot with 15 min. left in the boil. Nothing except the racking cane was sanitized. It was pretty standard, I dip the hose and the pipe in the solution and then pump a bunch through and shake it dry.
kranak
Well-Known Member
This might be too simple of a possiblity. Could it be the hops, how much did your beer have? Recently I had a brown ale that tasted almost like a lightly sweetened tea from the mash tun, and then kinda like ass after the boil because of the hops.
Cap'n Jewbeard
Well-Known Member
That's true, sometimes the fresh-boiled hops can taste chemical-y and bitter. If all your stuff was clean and well-rinsed, and the hops were not rancid, it's probably OK and will be better after it ferments and sits for a while.
I considered the hops as a possibility, but I did't use an exhorbitant amount nor were they particularly high AA it was actually quite low. 1 oz of 2.3% hersbrucker and 1oz of 4.5% styrian goldings. I have never tasted a taste like this. I almost always sample the brew post boil from my hydrometer flask and have brewed several batches with different kinds of hops.
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mychalg9
Well-Known Member
This happened to me on my first AG. Same exact thing you are talking about. Still dont know what it was.
Cap'n Jewbeard
Well-Known Member
Did the beer turn out ok?
mychalg9
Well-Known Member
Oops I guess I should have elaborated....I figured it would go away but as of last month it still tastes terrible. It was probably brewed in Feb or March and was just a SMASH with Maris Otter and Cascade hops I think.
mychalg9
Well-Known Member
To add: since I was (am) new to all grain and really to homebrewing itself there were a number of things that could have gone wrong
1)Mash temp - ive never actually calibrated my thermometer so I could have been off
2)Didnt pitch yeast til next day due to slow cooling
3)Ferment was a bit warm (low 70's)
4)Could have been infected
It tasted great after the mash but after fermenting for a week it tasted terrible. I am not sure if I tasted it post-boil
1)Mash temp - ive never actually calibrated my thermometer so I could have been off
2)Didnt pitch yeast til next day due to slow cooling
3)Ferment was a bit warm (low 70's)
4)Could have been infected
It tasted great after the mash but after fermenting for a week it tasted terrible. I am not sure if I tasted it post-boil
