KookyBrewsky
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2020
- Messages
- 363
- Reaction score
- 121
Hello,
Good brew day : I just finished what I felt was my best brew experience so far. I would call it a brown ale, but it's my own recipe, somewhat similar though. It's not too dark, not too light, but leaning towards dark. Best brew day by far, perfect calculations, no kinks, and a completely closed system from conical to keg with no oxygen involved after fermentation was complete. I filled the keg to the brim with StarSan and pressurized it out to create keg full of CO2, which I then pressure transferred the beer from my conical into the keg.
Off flavor : The problem is there is a bit of an off flavor, namely that solvent/ cotton mouth type of alcoholic flavor, if you really focus on it and let it sit in your mouth. I'm being pretty nitpicky but it's there. It reminds me of my early days making extract bottled beer, by association, not how the beer tastes overall. The beer is wonderful besides this one unfortunate aspect. It's the best I've ever made... besides this flavor. It's, as usual, more noticeable when the beer is cold, let it sit and it mellows out. If it's cold and you put your hand over the glass and swirl it, then sniff, it's for sure noticeable
Temp control : I have a temperature probe in my conical, unfortunately temp control is the last piece of my puzzle. I have to use ice water with my TC-100 coil from Spike. The highest temperature it reached (I fell asleep) was on the 3rd-5th day, I cannot remember, and it was 73F. Fermentation greatly subsided relative to the output of CO2 in my blow off by then. Besides that one anomaly, the temperature ranged from 66F-68F, the typical +/- 1F range I see when using an Inkbird controller.
Cause/solutions : The beer hasn't aged, it's been kegged and carbonated for a few days now. I also completely forgot to check FG so I don't know what percent it is, I will say it kicks in like a bull, take a couple sips on an empty stomach and my head hangs low. Is this flavor due to a combination of a temperature spike, and green beer, or is it just the temperature? Is it something that will mellow out if I don't touch it for a month while I finish off my previous "bug-beer" keg? Maybe I just have such high expectations from everything I put into this beer and trying to do everything right, I'd hate to deal with this one flavor the entire 5 gallons because of a simple mistake. I will have to fix temp control before I brew again.
Cheers
Good brew day : I just finished what I felt was my best brew experience so far. I would call it a brown ale, but it's my own recipe, somewhat similar though. It's not too dark, not too light, but leaning towards dark. Best brew day by far, perfect calculations, no kinks, and a completely closed system from conical to keg with no oxygen involved after fermentation was complete. I filled the keg to the brim with StarSan and pressurized it out to create keg full of CO2, which I then pressure transferred the beer from my conical into the keg.
Off flavor : The problem is there is a bit of an off flavor, namely that solvent/ cotton mouth type of alcoholic flavor, if you really focus on it and let it sit in your mouth. I'm being pretty nitpicky but it's there. It reminds me of my early days making extract bottled beer, by association, not how the beer tastes overall. The beer is wonderful besides this one unfortunate aspect. It's the best I've ever made... besides this flavor. It's, as usual, more noticeable when the beer is cold, let it sit and it mellows out. If it's cold and you put your hand over the glass and swirl it, then sniff, it's for sure noticeable
Temp control : I have a temperature probe in my conical, unfortunately temp control is the last piece of my puzzle. I have to use ice water with my TC-100 coil from Spike. The highest temperature it reached (I fell asleep) was on the 3rd-5th day, I cannot remember, and it was 73F. Fermentation greatly subsided relative to the output of CO2 in my blow off by then. Besides that one anomaly, the temperature ranged from 66F-68F, the typical +/- 1F range I see when using an Inkbird controller.
Cause/solutions : The beer hasn't aged, it's been kegged and carbonated for a few days now. I also completely forgot to check FG so I don't know what percent it is, I will say it kicks in like a bull, take a couple sips on an empty stomach and my head hangs low. Is this flavor due to a combination of a temperature spike, and green beer, or is it just the temperature? Is it something that will mellow out if I don't touch it for a month while I finish off my previous "bug-beer" keg? Maybe I just have such high expectations from everything I put into this beer and trying to do everything right, I'd hate to deal with this one flavor the entire 5 gallons because of a simple mistake. I will have to fix temp control before I brew again.
Cheers
