Water, or technique?

[refect]

@refect All good questions, I'll try to answer them.

I'm using a Vevor electric brewing kettle, basically a grainfather clone. No basket, so I'm doing BIAB. Prep strike water at full volume (typically 7.22 gals) and heat to 156-162 (depending on grain bill) which lands me at 148-156 after dough in. Mashes are typically 60 mins, and I stir/agitate the grain about every 15 mins to 1) keep it off the "hot section" of the bottom of the kettle, and 2) I've found I have better efficiency by using this process. Since I'm BIAB, there is no sparge, and after a mashout at 170 for 10mins, I lift the bag and let it drain into the kettle while I ramp up to boiling. I don't use a hoist, instead I've found a 15 quart colander fits perfectly inside the kettle so the bag is lifted and colander slipped under, allowing all the wort to drain back into the kettle. I do a pretty vigorous squeeze of the bag and the last handful of brew days, my efficiencies have been in the high 80s - low 90 percentages, which I am more than happy with. Post mash volume typically about 6.5ish gallons.

Grain is ordered "crushed" from supplier, but I run it thru the mill again at .030" and have a nice minimum amount of "flour" in the grain bucket. The mill addition to my brew day was my biggest increase in efficiency, prior to that, I was never hitting OG numbers.

So THIS may be a thing, as i am NOT a patient man when it comes to drinking this beer. I keg a batch, cold crash for 24-36 hours, add gelatin, rest another 24 hours, then, depending on whether I fermented under pressure (most cases YES), I begin serving at 10.7 psi and let it come to a nice carbonation lever over about 3-4 days. Is the beer green? Definitely. Is it good? Usually. I've got one keg that I've only poured maybe 4 pints from and it's been in the keezer for 6 weeks, crystal clear, but taste like blue moon (wheat).

I am using floating dip tubes in all kegs, but previously I racked from FV to keg and still experienced the same phenomenon. The lawnmower ale I mentioned earlier is one of those and there is little to no trub in the keg (that particular batch is in a Oxebar keg, so I can see the bottom with a flashlight).

I sincerely appreciate all the help folks are giving a newbie like myself - I want this to be successful, and the beers I've brewed are all drinkable, I just don't want them to taste like something they shouldn't. My primary reason for serving form the FV was to eliminate the possibility of oxidation. The "cardboard" taste seems like a good descriptor, but I feel its subjective and one's palate may not pick up the same off flavors. I've literally chewed a piece of cardboard box (very recently) to compare the taste, and it is NOT wet cardboard in my beer, lol.

Saturday morning will be brewing the same lawnmower ale, with distilled water instead of the tap, and I will duplicate all of the other steps, including yeast. Worst case scenario, another blue moon for the wife, but it MAY answer some questions while I impatiently wait for my water analysis to come back from Ward.

Your process seems pretty solid from what you said. I dont see anything wrong with your mash process. However, 3--4 days is certainly fast to be drinking some styles of beer. Some styles need more aging than others. I find that most of my average gravity beers start tasting their best around 2 weeks. IPAs included since some of the slight astringent bitterness from hop burn fades. Some darker malt forward beers start tasting even better after about 3-4 weeks in the keg. The roasted bitterness starts to mellow and become more pleasant. Sometimes you need more time to get the yeast to drop out of the way and let other flavors come forward.

Six weeks in the keezer on that one batch should be plenty of time for it to condition. What style of beer was that, and what yeast?

 

[Mack]

@refect The batch in the keezer is the Lawnmower Ale from Great Fermentations.

Grain bill: 7½ lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt, 1 lb Flaked Rice, 1oz Mt Hood hops for 60.
Yeast: I used Voss Kveik for this one, only because I wanted to see how fast I could turn it around (its a $15 batch). Surely not the BEST yeast, but it aint the worst thing I could've done lol.

The beer is perfectly cleaned up, I can almost read thru it.

 

[bestcoast]

I don't see any problem with tapping a keg after three or four days. I'm not the most patient either!

How long are you letting the beer sit on the yeast before you cold crash or transfer?

 

[Mack]

I don't see any problem with tapping a keg after three or four days. I'm not the most patient either!

How long are you letting the beer sit on the yeast before you cold crash or transfer?

I'm pulling the beer off the yeast after 24 hours of FG stability (when I do transfer).

 

[bestcoast]

You may want to let the next batch sit a few days longer at temps in the 60s to see if anything changes. Even after they're done eating sugar, the yeast can continue to condition the beer and work through compounds that create off flavors.

 

[beren]

Could be many things, but maybe that “wheat” taste you get is a corn flavor from DMS. Also here is a decent list of things that can make a beer taste like “Homebrew”. But you def. are drinking too soon and likely also not letting it sit in the fermenter long enough as well.

 

[Mack]

@beren I'm going to duplicate my brew with different water, split into 2 FVs, then pull one when I normally would, and let the other rest an additional week. I feel like this will accomplish two "test scenarios" at once.

 

[refect]

I thought a little more about this. You said you buy your grains already crushed, and then crush them again? What is the reason for purchasing crushed grains if you're going to crush them with your mill?

The only reason I ask is because you want to use grains that have been crushed relatively soon. Im not sure if you are waiting a week to several weeks after purchasing kits with fresh milled grain? If so, that could be part of the issue. Maybe try getting your grains whole/uncrushed, and then mill them yourself once you are ready to brew.

Edit: I typically mill my grains and get my water profile dialed in the night before I'm going to brew, so all I have to do is dump the grains and mash in when I'm ready to start.

 

[Mack]

Wanted to follow up, or conclude, it anyone ever stumbles upon this thread.

I brewed the second batch with distilled water, added salts according to brewfather, and pitched kveik yeast, just like the first batch. Fermented at 100°F and saw activity stop at 14 hours. OG was 1041, FG 1008. I dropped it to room temp (65°) over 3 days and kegged on day 5.

It's delicious. No wheat, only the expected lemon from the yeast, exactly what I was going for. Wife loves this one and she's not a beer drinker.

The water softener was the culprit. Still don't have my water report from Wards, it's only been 5 days though.

With this knowledge, I'm confident that i could use something like US-05, or maybe treat it like a lager, and have a perfect summertime chugger.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[madscientist451]

Thanks for posting an update, sometimes the results are never known….

 

[Bobby_M]

are you not adding any lactic acid to your strike water? You absolutely need it on light "lawnmower" beers regardless of your water source.

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks for the follow up. I recently moved to store bought RO from filtered city tap water and believe the beers are better. They just taste cleaner which makes sense as the RO is a clean slate to start with. Glad you found your way forward.

 

[Mack]

are you not adding any lactic acid to your strike water? You absolutely need it on light "lawnmower" beers regardless of your water source.

Yes I am, I check pH at 15 minutes into the mash and add lactic acid to get my numbers. Sorry I didn't mention it...