need help diagnosing this problem

[pzofsak]

This is the third batch in a row that i have had this problem with. They have come out with little carbonation, cloudy, a slight syrupy consistency, and off flavors. They all had great appearance in the fermentor with a great krausen and activity, i am completely sfumped.

 

[soccerdad]

Bottles? Kegs?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

What styles? Recipes?
All grain/partial/extract/kit?
Yeast?
How long were they kept in fermenters?
Fermentation temperature?

My first 'guess' would be yeast stress due to inconsistent or high fermentation temperatures. This is one of the most important aspects of brewing good beer.

 

[Koach]

Some of that could also come from a lack of a good "cold break" paired w/ the fermentation temperature issues mentioned.

How quickly did you cool your beer when it was brewed? What was the rough temp when you added the yeast?

 

[unionrdr]

Cloudy/syrupy says to me it might've stalled when bottled.

 

[pzofsak]

My last brew was an american ale. The wort was chilled from boiling to about 80 degrees F in about an hour. The yeast was pitched at about 80 degrees.
The recipe was something my local home brew store pulled off the internet. The recipe came from the BYO website, Blueberry Brown Ale. I substituted peaches for blueberries during the second fermentation; it is an all extract recipe. The brew was in the primary fermenter for one week and in the second for a week as well; they were at room temperature of 77 degrees F. I used 4 oz of dextrose for priming. It fermented very well in the first fermentor, very tall krausen, not much action in the secondary.
Is it possible that the yeast did what it was suppose to do in the first fermentation and then died off during the secondary? I do have some carbonation in the bottle, just not as much as I should.
One other thing that comes to mind, I used city supplied tap water which contains chlorine and fluoride; could that have anything to do with it? Some of the better brews I did in the beginning I used Ozarka spring water or water from my Mom's private well.
This time I noticed I also didn't take into account boil off and other water loss; I ended up with just over 4 gallons of brew instead of the standard 5.

 

[pzofsak]

PS, I am also using an iodine based sanitizer, is it possible that its effective shelf life has expired; it is about five years old?

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

My last brew was an american ale. The wort was chilled from boiling to about 80 degrees F in about an hour. The yeast was pitched at about 80 degrees.

Initial pitch was too hot, this will account for off flavors, as well as stressing the yeast

 

[unionrdr]

Plus an ambient temp of 77F would drive the fermenter temp over 80F. not good either. I've found distilled & spring water to be better than tap water all around. Unless I'm oaking or adding fruit, I skip secondary & let it clear in primary before racking to the bottling bucket. Less chance to oxidize or get infected that way. Certainly less work & cleaning that way.

 

[pzofsak]

On a positive note, I have tried two bottles of my last brew as a tester; one after a week and another after two weeks. The one with two weeks aging on it was a slight improvement over the one week as far as flavor; carbonation was about the same. I was planning on aging them about four weeks; should I go longer, if so, how much?

 

[nwbrewing32]

Here's my input:

My last brew was an american ale. The wort was chilled from boiling to about 80 degrees F in about an hour. The yeast was pitched at about 80 degrees.
While an hour isn't terrible for a cold break, I'd like to see 20 minutes or less. Agreed with the others, 80 degrees is too warm for the yeast to be pitched into. You want the temp around 65-70 degrees. High temps will stress it out and create off flavors.

The recipe was something my local home brew store pulled off the internet. The recipe came from the BYO website, Blueberry Brown Ale. I substituted peaches for blueberries during the second fermentation; it is an all extract recipe. The brew was in the primary fermenter for one week and in the second for a week as well; they were at room temperature of 77 degrees F. I used 4 oz of dextrose for priming. It fermented very well in the first fermentor, very tall krausen, not much action in the secondary.
Well, primary fermentation should be complete before racking to a secondary and to me 1 week isn't enough time in primary. Check the gravity of the wort to be sure it's done (3 days at the same level = done), as the krausen falling and no bubbling are not indicators of complete fermentation. Only the gravity will confirm that. You shouldn't expect to see any activity in the secondary - secondaries are used for clearing the beer or aging it. There should be no visible activity. Are you filling the secondary to the top or is there head space? Head space in secondary can/will cause oxidation which will cause more off flavors.

They have come out with little carbonation, cloudy, a slight syrupy consistency, and off flavors.
The fruit that you add to secondary - is it real fruit or extract? If it's extract then the yeast may have stalled and not converted all the sugars which could give you the syrup-ish taste. Also, if the yeast in primary was too stressed out (high temps) or not enough yeast was pitched (would also stress it way out) and didn't finish converting those sugars, same deal.

Is it possible that the yeast did what it was suppose to do in the first fermentation and then died off during the secondary? I do have some carbonation in the bottle, just not as much as I should.
If enough yeast was pitched, there should still be plenty even after a secondary to carb the bottles. I would make sure you pitched enough yeast using mrmalty.com.

One other thing that comes to mind, I used city supplied tap water which contains chlorine and fluoride; could that have anything to do with it? Some of the better brews I did in the beginning I used Ozarka spring water or water from my Mom's private well.
You do not want fluoride and chlorine in your water, again this will cause off flavors. Use bottled spring water from the store unless you can find a good, clean source. Since this is extract brewing, did the water that was added into primary come from a bottled source? If not, it needs to be boiled as city water will still have micro-organisms in it and can cause off flavors.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have questions!

Happy Brewing!

 

[unionrdr]

I sometimes still use spring water from White house Artisian Springs at the source. They have pay taps & heres some info on what they do to it; http://whitehousesprings.com/OurWater.php
So in this instance, you still don't need to worry about nasties as long as you cleaned & sanitized whatever you bring to put the water in. The problem with carbonation can also be when the yeast has reached or is near it's alcohol tolerance limit by the time you bottle the beer. It can fizzle out then.

 

[ncbrewer]

Another fix for city water with chlorine is campden tablets. Crush and add at the rate of one tablet per 20 gallons - this can be done conveniently by dissolving a tablet in 2 liters of water, and then adding measured amounts of this campden water as needed. It also works if the water has chloramines instead of chlorine.

I've used city water for top-off in lots of extract batches and never had off flavors.

 

[nwbrewing32]

I suppose I'm commenting on the nasty stuff that comes out of our city water. It may be different elsewhere. And +1 on the tablets for compensating.




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[nwbrewing32]

I just noticed you didn't comment on how you're priming the bottles. This could be an issue of not using the correct amount of priming solution.


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