Is my hef bitter because I overcarbed?

[DerekTC]

I brewed a 5 gal. hef 3 weeks ago. It was in the primary for 2 weeks @ 63 F and tasted great before I racked it into my corny kegerator.

I consulted a force carbing chart and set the regulator to 20psi @ 35 degrees. What I didn't understand, though, was that my 3/16 lines were too short (5 feet) and the system was unbalanced.

The beer was coming out as nothing but foam last night (5 days in the keg @ 20 psi). I released the pressure in the keg and set it to 12 PSI.

I poured a glass this afternoon and it poured great w/ a perfect head. It's really bitter, though. It almost leaves a soapy taste in the back of my mouth after a swig.

This was the first batch in the kegerator. The corny keg & beer lines were brand new. The faucet was used, however. Before I racked into the keg I ran BLC through the whole system first, then rinsed with 5 gal. of water, then Star-San.

I'm really hoping the bitterness is carbonic acid that will go away when the system is balanced. But it it possible that the 5 gals of water and 5 gals of Star San didn't rinse enough of the BLC out and that's what I'm tasting?

 

[remuS]

What was the recipe you used? I've never had a problem with force carbing causing bitterness. As for the Star San, I dont think that is it either. I've racked onto tons of Star San bubbles and never had any ill affects.

 

[day_trippr]

Sounds like over-carbed green beer...

 

[TopherM]

It does sound like a carbic acid bite. At three weeks, a Hefe isn't really a green beer anymore, it is pretty close to fully mature.

Carbic acid is tough to condition out, even after you solve the actual carbonation problem. I've been guilty of this mistake myself a few times, and just sucked it up and drank the batch, then learned to stick to slow carbing in the keg instead of trying to rush it with all of the high pressure/shaking/etc. tricks.

 

[DerekTC]

So a quick update.

It WAS a carb. acid bite. I got too excited on kegging and didn't read about balance. I had 20 PSI going to a 5 feet 3/16ths beer tube and it was waaaayyy over carbed which led to foamy, bitter beer.

After a little searching, I found and I followed it. My beer foamed like crazy which showed that I was way out of balance and way over-carbed.

Then, I burped the keg, set the pressure to 12 PSI @ 35F and let it sit for 3 days. Last night, I poured a glass and it was fantastic! The banana and clove notes were there and the bitterness was gone. It tasted like a bonafide hefeweizen & was delicious.

Very glad that this fix was so simple. Now on to drinking my beer!

 

[JSGT09]

Explain to me the issue with the short lines and why they led to the beer being overcarbed?

 

[DerekTC]

Explain to me the issue with the short lines and why they led to the beer being overcarbed?

This article from Beersmith
explains it well.

This was my first keg beer and I didn't understand this concept. I cranked the pressure up to 20 PSI with only 5 feet of line and my keg lines were out of balance and over carbed. To have 20PSI I would have needed at least 7-8 feet.

But now I have it set at 12 PSI and am in balance and have great carbonation levels - albeit the volume being a little low for a hef. but that's okay.

 

[zachattack]

This article from Beersmith
explains it well.

This was my first keg beer and I didn't understand this concept. I cranked the pressure up to 20 PSI with only 5 feet of line and my keg lines were out of balance and over carbed. To have 20PSI I would have needed at least 7-8 feet.

But now I have it set at 12 PSI and am in balance and have great carbonation levels - albeit the volume being a little low for a hef. but that's okay.

Line length doesn't affect carbonation. Having an overcarbed beer and unbalanced lines are two separate problems.

But a properly (strongly) carbed hefe shouldn't be bitter. Maybe you were tasting some yeast or trub in the bottom of the keg? Or maybe it wasn't completely carbonated/conditioned yet. I'd say 5 days at serving pressure isn't enough to get everything equilibrated, most people give it 2 weeks.

 

[DerekTC]

Line length doesn't affect carbonation. Having an overcarbed beer and unbalanced lines are two separate problems.

But a properly (strongly) carbed hefe shouldn't be bitter. Maybe you were tasting some yeast or trub in the bottom of the keg? Or maybe it wasn't completely carbonated/conditioned yet. I'd say 5 days at serving pressure isn't enough to get everything equilibrated, most people give it 2 weeks.

Yeah, you're right - I worded that poorly.

My hef. in the keg @ 35F and 20 PSI would have given it 3.5 vols of Co2 which is perfectly fine for a wheat beer. But, my 5' beer line from the keg to the faucet wasn't long enough to handle that amount. The system was out of whack which made the beer foamy coming out of the tap.

My suspicion is that the excess foaming is what made my beer bitter because once I rebalanced everything the beer was completely fine within 24 hours.

But...it's possible that it could be something else. All I know is that my beer tastes good now!