Off flavor issues

[Dome555]

I had this really good IPA and then it went straight down the crapper just about overnight. I'm 90% sure it's an astringent taste, or mouthfeel I guess, and would like to chalk it up to too much dry hops but I've tasted this before and I don't want to taste it again.

It was an extract batch with grains. I dropped the grain bag into 3 gal of 160F water for 20min, didn't squeeze but did let it drip out a bit before tossing it. Fermented at 62F for a month, dry hopped at the end of it, set it and forgot it in a keg at 11psi for almost 2 weeks. The beer was great for about 3 weeks and then whatever this is took over.

Is astringency something that needs a little time time to develop or is this likely something else? If something else, any ideas?

 

[scinerd3000]

how did you clean your keg prior and did you remove the taps etc. A beer shouldnt go bad like that over night.....is it possible you had some contamination.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Try either bending or cutting 1/2 inch of the length of the keg's pickup tube to raise it up higher. This will prevent any trub that settles to the bottom of the keg from suddenly getting sucked up.

 

[monk420]

i have the same prob sometimes it's astringency other times not. I keg ,clean w sanstar. i wait and always get a metal like taste. I 've been told it's the water, since i filled my brew pot with water from the hose, im thinking it was the metal on the hose that gave me a off flavor. time dosen't seen to help. Next time im going to use bottled water. that is what i would try. Oh and the beer fest at the navy ship yard in philly is killer i don't think u can make all the way around there somemany brewers there good time . i would highly sugg. going

 

[Dome555]

Scinerd, I cleaned the keg by taking it apart, spraying it out, using oxyclean on keg and parts, and then sanitized with star san. I don't take apart the tap after every brew but this is the second one after taking it apart and changing out the lines. It was over the course of a few days and is still getting stronger. In my opinion it went good to undrinkable in 4-5 days, but maybe less as I hadn't had any on day 1 or 2 of that.

Screwy, I have thought about doing that but as far as I understand that will only help with the first glass of junk I have to pour out.

Monk, from what I've read the water matters much less for me since I'm doing extract batches but I do plan to either use some spring water or distilled water + salts (got some reading to do before deciding which) for my next batch and see how it turns out. The flavor isn't common enough for me to reasonably believe it's the water, but a few bucks in water and maybe salts is definitely worth it to make sure.

 

[unionrdr]

My extract concoctions were def better with natural spring water. Either way,my PH seems to be in a good range,even for steeping grains. Did you rinse after the oxyclean,before sanitizing? I also noticed that Five Star has "5.2 Stabilizer" that'll lock in your water to PH 5.2,regardless of starting PH. That sounds pretty good to me,as they say it's for mash or kettle water.

 

[Dome555]

Yea, I knew I was going to forget something in that cleaning/sanitation description, I do rinse though and then lube the rings with a little food grade spray lube. As far as 5.2 is concerned it seems like it's generally not the way to go from what I've read. Only recently started reading the water chem business though. I think I'm going to go with distilled water and salts from what a few respected advice givers around here said in another thread.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,water chemistry is still a gray area to me. Which ever water I use has been good to better,depending on tap or spring water. But not as much difference as night & day. So the 5.2 stabilizer isn't that good?

 

[Dome555]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

After reading an admittedly very limited amount of info on 5.2, the suggestions in the above thread seem easier and they deal with more than just the pH.

 

[Yooper]

Many astrigency issues CAN be tied back to the brewing water, but I don't think it's much of an issue with steeping grains and extract brewing. You'd have to have pretty alkaline water for it to be an issue. My HC03 level is 228 ppm- and I made great extract beers with it!

Do NOT use 5.2 stabilizer. It doesn't work, and it's not necessary for a beer that isn't mashed anyway, even if it DID work!

What kind of astrigency did this beer turn into? Like sucking on a teabag astringent, mouth puckering? Or harsh and dry?

The reason I'm asking is because it's possible that the astrigency was always there, but when some hops aroma faded it became more noticeable. OR, it was brand-new. If it's the former, it could simply be recipe-related. If it's the latter, it could be an infection or something in the beerlines/kegging gear.

 

[Dome555]

I'm not sure I can describe the taste properly, and I did recently attempt sucking on a teabag to try and compare, but I guess I would describe it as mouth puckering, it's like a cross between bitter and sour.

There were a large amount of dryhops in the recipe, 3oz for 5gal batch (2oz warrior and 1oz centennial). Would they have faded that much that fast? And, if it is a matter of hops, is it that the hops were covering a present off flavor that I could have prevented, or that the hops themselves cause this flavor as they fade? Palmer's suggests that overhopping during bittering or aroma additions can lead to astringency.

Slight correction of methods after checking notes. I racked onto dryhops at 4 weeks in primary, secondary/dryhopped for ten days then kegged. I know secondarying isn't necessary for dryhopping or damn near anything else but I did what I did.