Maybe I Just Suck at Brewing Light Ales

[MyCarHasAbs]

Oh I know the IBU's are way off. But the point was I should have been tasting some hops. Granted the coffee flavor could be masking it.

The reason I chose something super hoppy to refresh my palate was so that sense could be 'refreshed' so to speak..reminds my tongue what it's looking for. It works for me. Similar to how they give a drug sniffing dog a fresh sniff before sending it in to a school to ruin some students days haha.

 

[d3track]

This is one of my carboys. View attachment 279220

Mother of god.....that's close to just tossing it and getting a new one

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Mother of god.....that's close to just tossing it and getting a new one

That bad eh?

 

[d3track]

That bad eh?

From that shot it looks scratched and stained, sorry

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

From that shot it looks scratched and stained, sorry

No biggie, I needed to eventually get 6 gallon carboys anyway and now I learned I need to step up in the sanitation department.

If it's scratched it needs to be replaced right? There's no keeping scratches 100% clean.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Update:

Bought a 6 gal carboy and some gypsum and calcium to help treat the water for whatever I'm making.

Opened a second test bottle of the coffee pale ale and my fiancé swears she doesn't taste anything wrong with it. I still taste something a little funny but it's better than last week.

Making a hazelnut Porter today and I'm adding some calcium to help with the malt flavor. Also I have the clean 6 gal.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

It's got a nice color though!! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1432581840.143333.jpg

 

[BierGut]

Is the beer carbonated? Looks flat in the pic

 

[rje45]

"Some yeast strains, particularly flocculent English ale strains, are known to be heavy diacetyl producers"

Quoted from http://www.whitelabs.com/files/Diacetyl_Time_Line.pdf

If you are taking care to regulate your fermentation temperature and you're not rushing to cold crash the beer too early, the yeast should be cleaning up the diacetyl. The two options are contamination (also described in the White Labs document) and a high diacetyl-producing yeast. If you're not filtering and you allow some suspended yeast in the bottles, it will clean up over time.

Based on your carboy pictures, I think there's a chance for both of these conditions, depending on which yeast.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

That carboy doesn't look clean at all.

 

[dwhite60]

I'm part Scottish, so I'm cheap.

To clean your carboy/Better Bottle, dissolve
about a tablespoon of Cascade dishwasher
detergent in a half gallon of very warm water.
Pour it into your carboy and stuff in a wash cloth.
Shake this around making sure to get the cloth
on all surfaces. Stuff should come right out.

Works for me. I use Cascade with bottles too.

All the Best,
D. White