Overly Dry Finish on ESB

[UptonBrewing]

Okay, got a NB ESB extract kit. Original brew day was on 10/18. Moved to secondary with no problems on 11/5. Bottled with no problems on 12/3.

Opened the first bottle on 12/23. Color looks excellent, beer tastes great...until the I've finished swallowing. Tail end is incredibly dry, like all the moisture has been sucked out of my mouth. I think this is called astringency?

Just wondering what may have caused this, or if I should let the rest of this batch bottle condition for a while longer. Thanks!

John

 

[frazier]

Astringency can be caused by steeping the grains at too high a temperature - like 170 or above. Can you tell us about that part of your process?

 

[UptonBrewing]

In answer to your question, we have always filled our brew pot with relatively hot water and put it right on the burner with the steeping bag in the pot. NB instructions say "20 minutes or 170 F". We have usually waited the 20 minutes and never paid much attention to the temp of the water, but often the water has been boiling for the last 5 minutes of the steeping process.

(However, this is our third brew and we have never had any problems with the taste like this before...)

This is also the hoppiest beer we've ever brewed. Our first only had an ounce of hops, the second only two ounces, and this one had 3 or 4 ounces, I believe.

 

[kramerica]

This could be your problem, your supposed to bring the grains up to 170* and turn off the burner and steep for 20 mins. I havent had any issues with dryness from just steeping grains with this technique.

 

[UptonBrewing]

Thanks kamerica and frazier.

So, to recap: we should bring our water up to 170 F, turn the burner off, steep the grains for 20 minutes, remove the grains, and then bring the mixture to a boil and add our LME?

(And because I want to know the science here too...the way we have been doing it, has the hot water been allowing too many tannins to leach from the grain husks into the wort?)

 

[Yooper]

Thanks kamerica and frazier.

So, to recap: we should bring our water up to 170 F, turn the burner off, steep the grains for 20 minutes, remove the grains, and then bring the mixture to a boil and add our LME?

(And because I want to know the science here too...the way we have been doing it, has the hot water been allowing too many tannins to leach from the grain husks into the wort?)

Yes, don't exceed 170 degrees with the steeping grains. I always steep much lower than that- in the 150-155 degree range. Once that is finished, pull out the grains and bring the resulting liquid up to a boil.

It's not just hot water that "pulls" the tannins out of the grain- it is pH related too. So, if you used more than a couple of quarts of water per pound of grain, AND went up over 168 degrees, that is probably the likely cause. Tannin extraction is both a function of pH and temperature- which may be why you got it this time, but not previously.

Another common cause of astringency can be water chemistry. But if you're using the same water, and made beers before with the same hops and grain without this flavor, I'd blame it on the steeping temperature and volume.

 

[cervezarara]

There could be a couple of problems here. If you have pretty hard water and you steeped using NB recommendation (1lb of medium crystal in 2.5 gallons of water) the pH of the steeping water may remain too high and result in astringency. You may want to try steeping in less water. I steep specialty grains with 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. You can certainly use more water, but a rule of thumb is that darker grains lower pH while lighter grains are less acidic, and thus should be steeped in less water. pH should be in the range of 5.2-5.6 to avoid astringency.

The instructions also say "steep 20 minutes or until water reaches 170F. Remove and discard bag." Boiling grains, even for a short period off time can cause astringency. This is caused by leaching tannins from the grain husks. Specialty grains really only need to be steeped between 150 and 155F. You are really only dissolving sugars in this process.

Over-hopping can cause astringency, too. This is probably not the case since you bittered with 2 oz of Willamette and added 2 oz East Kent Goldings in the last 15 minutes. I routinely use 4+ oz of hops in my beers, and these are pretty low alpha acid varieties. However, the krauesen from this beer probably left a nice scum ring in your fermenter. You shouldn't ever try to stir this ring into the beer as this can also lead to astringency.

Will this go away? Time can heal many wounds. Aging your beer might mellow this out, but it's possible that now that they are bottled, this will never completely go away. Bottle conditioning longer than the three weeks you have already waited will generally yield a better product! I hope this is the case with your batch.