How to remove tannins

[sickbrew]

I'm pretty sure I have a tannin issue on a recent brew. It was the first brew on some new gear (this is my excuse) and first issue with tannins. I did not measure the ph but did measure a temp of 176 about half way through the sparge. It was also a big sparge so I may have passed below 1.010. An efficiency of 87% also points towards over sparge. Rye was 15% of the grain bill so it could be a contributing factor?

As for the tannin taste, I would say it's more of a sensation than a taste. It has the grape skin and over brewed tea thing going on. So if it is there will polyclar (sp) or gelatin help. I've read than polyclar is better because gelatin has the wrong electrical charge?

I've got 3 kegs of this so a little help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

 

[Warped04]

Man, that sucks. I don't know how to remove tannins, but I'd be willing to help with other options to make these 3 kegs drinkable. What kind of style is it? Could we fruit it? Maybe brew another beer and blend the two? (I'll at least give you a bump).

 

[JuanMoore]

What you're describing sounds exactly like a tannin issue. I've been doing a lot of research about this recently as I'm using mesquite pods in a lot in my beers, which have a tendency to add a lot of tannins. Any fining agent will reduce tannins some, but some work better for this than others. Vintners use different finings and combinations of finings depending on how they want to manipulate the wine, and several winemaking guides have helped me understand fining a lot better. As far as I can tell the best finings for tannin removal are gelatin and blood (usually dried ox blood). Polyclar seems to have a lot of advantages over gelatin for fining beer, but it's not near as effective at tannin removal.

 

[sickbrew]

While I haven't found a definitive answer, after some googling, it looks like that once they're in there, that time is the only solution and it's a partial one. Hopefully I'm wrong and there's a better or partial fix. At this point I'm going to give them a couple of months and and try them again. Perhaps one of the experts can chime in?

 

[markg388]

all i can tell you for sure is that gelatin is not the answer . good luck!