McKnuckle
Well-Known Member
He means to leave it on the yeast in primary no longer than 3 weeks. Since you're kegging and there's no risk of bottle bombs, I'd say 2 weeks max. Use the keg as both secondary and serving vessel.
For what it's worth...I just had my wife taste my beer and I then referred her to the "color wheel". She picked out "stale". Does this seem to fall in line with those in the oxidation camp?
I still think it is in the primary too long. Some oxidation might be to blame too. Under some conditions, the yeast will also consume some of the compounds in the trub. The "fermentation" of these compounds can produce several off-flavors. In addition, the dormant yeast on the bottom of the fermentor begin excreting more amino and fatty acids. Leaving the post-primary beer on the trub and yeast cake for too long (more than about three weeks) will tend to result in off flavors becoming evident. Further, after very long times the yeast begin to die and break down - autolysis, which produces yeasty or rubbery/fatty/meaty flavors and aromas. For these reasons, it can be important to get the beer off of the trub and dormant yeast during the conditioning phase. Healthy and enough healthy yeast are another peice of the puzzle.For what it's worth...I just had my wife taste my beer and I then referred her to the "color wheel". She picked out "stale". Does this seem to fall in line with those in the oxidation camp?
Have you tried brewing with someone else who makes beer you like and doing one of their recipes with their guidance? There must be something off if after 30 batches you can't get a good one.
I'm sure someone will pick on some aspect of the water profile, but I think it's very reasonable and avoids any extremes. Plus 5.5 pH is ideal for a dark beer.
Seems like the water is not where you should be looking first.
But the spreadsheet says the PH value isn't valid until the grain bill has been properly entered.
If it has been entered, then I would agree it's pretty good.
As a side note, if you're like me you can't wait to find out exactly what has been causing this. In its own way this thread is like a car crash--you just cannot avert your eyes.
I'm anxious for OP to figure this out so we can all learn something.
Alcoholic, stale, dry, and sulfury(sometimes) seem close.
Once the initial volume has drained into my keggle, I then batch sparge by adding in another 5 gallons of 168 degree water,
4. As many others mention, it might be water. As an experiment (I'm a scientist), I'd buy distilled water and one of the pre-packaged water additions like below just to rule out water as a cause.
5. Edit to add, I might have missed it but how "vibrant" are the yeast before you add it? Are you hitting final gravities that you're expecting to hit? If the FG is off, is it close? Same with the OG, are you getting a good (but not too good) efficiency?
Bucket was brand new.Can you feel any scratches in your fermenter bucket?
That'd be my best guess.
4. I actually did try distilled water with a Burton salt pack for an oatmeal stout....nada.
5. I believe my yeast have been good. I rehydrate my dry yeast and use two packs for everything 1.060 and higher. My liquid starters have been at a 10:1 ratio(1000ml of water to 100g of DME)
Once I started using Bru'n water for lactic acid and pickling lime additions, my O.G. and F.G. have been spot on.
Since oxidation might be the culprit, I looked at my cane a little more closely. Apparently it is an auto siphon cane. Here is a picture of the outer tube, it's riddled with cracks. Even with the cracks I'm not sure air would get into beer but who knows? I need a new one regardless.
Man, I'm glad someone else read that and thought "are you freaking kidding me?"
Fyi, a dozen is 12.Wow. I made about a dozen crap batches before I started making good beer. Kudos!
Since oxidation might be the culprit, I looked at my cane a little more closely. Apparently it is an auto siphon cane. Here is a picture of the outer tube, it's riddled with cracks. Even with the cracks I'm not sure air would get into beer but who knows? I need a new one regardless.
I have a question about hot side aeration, doesn't the boil take care of this? Also, why do we avoid it when we purposely aerate right after the boil? I've never understood this.reading thru this thread was just like driving the Road to Hana...but having read thru all the posts, my money is on oxidation; either hot side and/or cold side. Water, I feel, can be safely ruled out since all styles taste equally bad. Watch hot side aeration during sparge (minimize splashing).
I have a question about hot side aeration, doesn't the boil take care of this? Also, why do we avoid it when we purposely aerate right after the boil? I've never understood this.
reading thru this thread was just like driving the Road to Hana...but having read thru all the posts, my money is on oxidation; either hot side and/or cold side. Water, I feel, can be safely ruled out since all styles taste equally bad.
Watch hot side aeration during sparge (minimize splashing). Best bet is to ditch the plastic buckets and switch to glass fermentors. It also would not hurt to get a worm gear on the hose where it meets the auto-siphon to minimize any potential O2 pickup during transfer to keg. As others have stated, make sure those kegs are purged of O2 prior to transferring the beer. One final note, you could try an extract recipe with distilled water to 100% rule out any water issues. I sure would. Good luck!
Actually I do, I use it very liberally and saturate EVERYTHING with it. I use roughly 1/4 teaspoon per quart of water. I usually use the entire bottle on a brew day. I'll definitely try filling up a bucket next time.
Its usually minor and good fermentation takes care of it.
Its usually minor and good fermentation takes care of it.
I haven't read all the replies in this thread so I apologize if someone already mentioned this.
I think that your starsan mixture might be a little too strong. I ruined a 5 gallon batch of Kolsch by using starsan that was mixed too strong. What I do now is to mix up the starsan exactly as the bottle says, 1 oz to 5 gallons, usually 1/2 oz to 2 1/2 gallons and fill up my spray bottle out of the mix in the bucket. Haven't had any ruined batches since.
Enter your email address to join: