Please HELP with harsh bitterness/astringency/tongue drying issue.

[Hozonedefense]

Hey all,

Been consistently getting a rather harsh bitterness to pretty much all of my all grain batches, regardless of recipe. The sort that isn't all too detectable with friends but is a huge deal to the brewer. It is the main thing separating my beers from decent to great and it is KILLING ME!

If you could help me troubleshoot this that would be amazing!!

Here is a sample WC IPA recipe:

Est Original Gravity: 1.063 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.7 %
Bitterness: 65.5 IBUs
Est Color: 6.2 SRM

13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 74.3 %
2 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 11.4 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.7 %
8.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.9 %
0.75 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 28.7 IBUs
2.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 6 17.5 IBUs
1.25 oz El Dorado [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 7 11.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 8 4.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 9 3.7 IBUs
1.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz El Dorado [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

RO Water report:
pH 5.9
TDS 14
Ca 1
Mg <1
Sodium 2
Chloride 1
Total Hardness 3
Total Alkalinity 3
Bicarbonate 4

I added 4mL Lactic, 4g CaSO4, and 3g CaCl to mash (keep in mind this is no-sparge).

Batch Volume (gal) 5.50 Hardness (ppm as CaCO3) 155 RA (ppm as CaCO3) -86
Estimated Mash pH 5.2 Alkalinity (ppm as CaCO3) -43 SO4/Cl Ratio 1.42

Finished water profile:
Ca - 60 Mg 1 Na 2 SO4 74 Cl 52 Bicarbonate -52
Mash pH 5.3.
Pre boil mash pH 5.4
Beer pH 4.6.

I have tried changing water sources, moved from fly sparge to no sparge, closely monitored ph, and still have this issue. I am literally going crazy and even looking at weird things suspiciously, such as my innocent plate chiller!

I brew on a single tier keggle setup with pumps and a plate chiller.

Ferment at 68 with healthy yeast. Cold crash and keg.

Please help with this, I would be greatly indebted.

For what it's worth, I am truly suspecting the salts and am tempted to do a batch with no salts at all. But how could this be? Tons of recipes call for much higher salt additions and I am using RO water.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I had the exact same issue until I really got serious about ph. I bought a new good pH meter and started acidifying my sparge water and it appears to have gone away. It was driving me nuts also almost to the point of giving up

 

[Horseflesh]

Your approach seems OK overall. Mash pH could be argued about, but if your reading of 5.3 is accurate, that should be safe. (I assume you measured at room temp?)

I don't think you need to use acid malt AND lactic acid, I'd just pick one or the other. I use acid because it comes with a number on the bottle that I can trust.

I plugged your numbers into Bru'n Water, and it indicated that your sparge water does not need to be acidified, which was my first idea since that is often said to induce tannin taste. So much for that. Someone check my work though, because I do full volume/no sparge and have only dabbled in the sparge tab.

So, I don't see anything obviously screwy but it's late and I may have missed something. Have you checked for other things like dirty taps, etc?

 

[beermanpete]

Have you tried a low IBU style to see if it is just from the hops?