Weird After taste...

[SevenBrewing]

In the last couple brews (all of them have been pale ales) there is a weird aftertaste to the beers. The best way I can describe it is stale and wet cardboard. Its not good. I think I am doing everything right and this doesnt happen with my porters. Any ideas? I am using tap water from the city of Columbia Heights, MN.

 

[Shooter]

Wet cardboard usually means oxidation. Could be it was in your porters, but the stronger flavor was masking it and it's showing up in your more delicate beers.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Thanks for the info. I just need to figure out how this is happening! Arg.

 

[Shooter]

Are you kegging or bottling? Once fermentation is complete, it's important to be careful when transferring. Any excessive splashing could oxidize the beer.

 

[Seven]

Although it doesn't mention "wet cardboard" this article may still be useful to you.

Troubleshooting Homebrewed Beer

I recently had a batch suffer from sour/acidic flavors and I think it's from storing the kegged beer in a hot garage.

 

[beerkrump]

The darker grains used in the porter have under gone what is called a Maillard reaction.
Sugars react with amino acids and make the beer more resistant to oxidation.

Aerating your hot bitter wort or aerating your beer after fermentation is the likely issue.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Thanks guys. I keg. It could only be from when I pour the Wort from a cooler to a kettle. I also dont use a sparge arm or anything. Do you think that would cause the oxidation? Thanks alot for the help.

 

[cfonnes]

From a cooler to a kettle? Do you mean the other way around? How hot is the wort when you pour it?

 

[SevenBrewing]

I heat the strike water in my kettle. Then I pour the water into the mashtun. Then I heat up sparge water in my kettle. Because I am using the same Kettle to heat the sparge water I have nothing else to collect the wort in so i use a 5 gal cooler. Then when I am done using the sparge water i pour the wort from the 5 gal cooler into the kettle and then I boil. Does that make any sense?

I think next time ill just keep the sparge water in the 5 gal cooler, so I can go directly from the mashtun to the kettle. Im just wondering if that pouring from the cooler to the kettle could have been the issue. I just never knew that that could cause any problems.

 

[cfonnes]

That is all pre-boil so aeration is not a concern at that point.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Hm. I dont know how I am going to figure out how this is happening. I cant thinkof anything i do during boil or after boil that could possibly be oxidizing the wort. Im stumped. Has anyone had this issue that has figured out a fix?


****I guess I should mention that it has the off taste at the time we test the fg and afterwards which makes me think its not getting oxidized from kegging.*****

 

[cfonnes]

You do cool the wort after boil before you pour it from kettle to fermenter, correct?

 

[SevenBrewing]

Yes, I do an ice bath. It usually takes about 45 min.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

Oxidation during the boil is called "hot side aeration" and is generally considered bunk by pretty much everyone here (for homebrewers at least, the pros might have to worry about it).

Oxidation after the boil can be caused by "splashing" during a transfer or having the beer exposed to oxygen for a reasonably long amount of time. My first beer (an IPA) tasted like wet cardboard because we splashed it around transferring it to a secondary, and splashed it around again transferring it to the bottling bucket. The taste went away after I stopped doing that.

Are you transferring to a secondary? If so I'd stop and leave it in the primary for the amount of time you would usually primary+secondary for.

 

[BenjaminJonah]

ANOTHER BAD BATCH!!!!!! WTF? I was sooooooo careful not to oxidize the wort. I dont know what the hell is going on. This never happened before I moved into my new place. Could it possibly be the water?

Here is a link to my city water quality breakdown. Could someone take a look?

http://www.ci.columbia-heights.mn.us/departments/pdf/2011_PW_Waterquality.pdf

 

[moleary]

Are you purging the O2 from the head space of the keg when you keg it? Maybe that's doing it...

 

[SevenBrewing]

No I don't. Should I be?

 

[moleary]

Yeah the extra oxygen in your keg could be what's giving it that stale taste. When you keg it and pressurize it, pull the release valve on the top for a few seconds to let the air out, then wait for it to fill back up with CO2, and do that a couple times to get all the O2 out of there.

 

[slakwhere]

you absolutely should purge the air out of the keg.

before transfer: put the lid on, fill with co2, purge, refill, purge. this will give you a little blanket of CO2 to rack onto.

during transfer: make sure your hose is long enough to not splash when transferring into the keg.

after transfer: put the keg lid back on, fill keg with co2, purge, fill, purge.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Wow. I feel like an idiot. I had no idea I was supposed to do this. This explains it. Thanks a bunch dudes. I really appreciate the info. How long should i let if fill for before purging each time?

 

[slakwhere]

i usually go about 20 seconds... let it pressurize the keg pretty much completely, then purge just about everything out, then repeat once more.