Tangy Aftertaste

[bigern26]

I have brewed 3 extract batches so far. Irish Red has been bottled for almost a month, Caribou Slobber has been bottled for 2 weeks. Both kits from Northern Brewers.
They both have a tangy aftertaste. Its worse toward the end of a glass. Almost makes them hard to drink.

Water is from private well and is high in Iron bacteria. We do have a Kinetico Water system with 5 micron filter, Calcite tank and softener that is empty of salt. I am not sure if it is the water or just the fact that they are extract kits.

Wondering if there is anything that I might need to try to get rid of it. Both were boiled in used stainless pot, Irish Red was fermented in a Plastic Big Mouth Bubbler and Caribou Slobber was fermented in a glass carboy. Both of them had this same taste before bottling.

 

[RM-MN]

It's pretty hard to tell from this distance what the problem is but beer is mostly water and you can try another water source quite easily by purchasing spring water from the grocery store. If the beer improves, it is probably the water. If not, then you need to look farther into your process.

One item that has improved my beer is temperature control during fermentation.

 

[NSMikeD]

fermentation temperature and sanitation are two most common culprits (not withstanding the question over the water chemistry).

Wild yeast and bacteria. The most common wild bacteria will produce lactic acid = sour/tangy beer.

Clean and Sanitize. One Step or EZ Clean are usually included in kits. These are considered sanitizers for home brew purposes, but not for the FDA. This can be confusing. These OXY type cleaners are good at doing both cleaning and sanitizing.

But if your are experiencing sourness - re-check your cleaning and sanitizing routine. Make sure you are throughly cleaning your equipment and bottles. Scrub them squeaky clean and then sanitize.

A lot of home brewers will use a combination of PBW (a cleaner good at removing dirt, grime and other things that carry bacteria) followed by Star San (an acid based sanitizer). They also put the stuff in a spray bottle to sanitize hard to soak stuff like hose connections.


All that said, you are not the first home brewer with an iron bacteria issue. Seems that shock chlorinating was needed one the well and filtration was used, but they don't use the water for home brewing. While I saw some internet posts saying that sanitizing will do the trick, others experienced that it wasn't enough

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=562811&page=4

 

[bigern26]

Everything was cleaned before hand and sanitized with Star-San. I also sanitized everything when taking samples and did not dump samples back into fermenter.

 

[NSMikeD]

Everything was cleaned before hand and sanitized with Star-San. I also sanitized everything when taking samples and did not dump samples back into fermenter.

I edited my post to include some information specific to iron bacteria. Seems that some brewers found getting store water was an easier solution.

 

[NSMikeD]

a topical thread today in this forurm

WalMart has distilled water for 30¢/gallon. Member recommends bringing you fermentor to the store and filling it up right there. You may want an additional water carrier for sanitizing.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=622280

 

[Brownalemikie]

Hmmm, IMO it's pretty hard to mess up a extract Caribou Slobber recipe. I've brewed about 30 batches and they all were consistently fantastic. I suspect your well water is the problem.