No head and tin/mineral aftertaste.

[olson_jimmy]

Good morning everyone,
I just tried my first brew. It was the Autumn amber ale from midwest supply. It tastes pretty good overall. It carbed up nicely. The two questions i have is why dont i have any sort of head? Chemicals in city water? And second, why would it have a tin/mineral aftertaste? I followed the recipe exactly (extract kit). I timed everything and followed the direction to a T. My SG and FG were within .001 for both. I used the 1oz. of Hallertau at 60 minutes and 1oz of Fuggles at 2 minutes just like the directions said. Should i use some water conditioning chemicals next time? Add hops later in the boil? Whats everyones thoughts? Thanks!:rockin:

 

[olson_jimmy]

Additionally, I forgot to mention the fact that i received bad yeast and had to get new yeast and repitched at about day 7 of fermentation.

 

[kwingert]

Congratulations on your first beer, welcome to the club.

Is the glass clean? Did you get a head when you poured it? How did you pour it? How long has it been in the bottle and at what temp are you carbonating? Did you filter out the chlorine before boiling the water?

I would suggest making the beer again using distilled water and using a healthy pitch of yeast.

So for now, if the beer tastes good drink it and be proud; proud that you have stepped out of the ranks of average men and joined the elite guild of brewers.

 

[olson_jimmy]

Good clean glass, and there was no head at all. I poured it slowly so not to disturb the sediment. It has been in the bottles for 13 days and it has been resting at 68-69 degrees in my closet. I refrigerated it for about 2 hrs prior to drinking and received a nice loud hiss when i popped the cap. It does taste fine. I'm definitely going to drink it. I guess i'm just being overly hard on myself and critiquing it to hard for my first time.

 

[dozer5454]

When bottle conditioning the general rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70 degrees. Your beer is young. It will change in the next few weeks. Give it time.

 

[cageybee]

also, need to refrigerate at least three days (according to my lhbs expert)....you will get yeast in the beer otherwise, which tastes kind of salty to me.

 

[kwingert]

Pour the beer aggressively, that lets the aroma come out of the beer and the head to form. Give the beer more time and if you have the bottles in a box, take them out if you can and space them out. This lets air circulate and puts the beers at the right temp for carbonation.

Like cageybee said, refrigerate the beer prior to opening, beside settling the yeast, it causes the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. When you popped the top and heard the hiss, that was probably CO2 in the headspace and not in the beer.

Don't be hard on yourself for being hard on yourself. Sounds like you want to make the best beer you can, to do that you have to be critical of yourself and your beers. Not so hard you end up in a clock tower with a high powered rifle but honest enough that you can improve your beers.

Good luck.

 

[olson_jimmy]

LOL, thanks dozer, kwingert and cageybee. Your help has been greatly appreciated. I'm going to give it another week. And then refrigerate longer and see how it does.