I've had like four batches that I don't want to share with anyone because they've all got a serious cardboard taste to them. I used to be using the Mr Beer fermenter as my primary, then 'racking' (without tubing) to 1-gallon jugs as my secondary. That went very well for the first two batches, then the beer started to develop that cardboard taste so I went to the standard 5-gallon setup with 5-gal glass carboy secondaries. I now use tubing for all my racking as well.
And now that I've done that, I STILL have a cardboard taste in my beer. I even got a bottle filler to avoid aeration during bottle filling. I figured that, with the bottle filler, I could set the bottling bucket spigot on full-blast while bottling. Is this a mistake? Do most of you all set the bottling bucket spigot to a very low setting when bottling to avoid aeration? Do most of you pinch the tubing while racking to secondary to make sure the turbulence doesn't aerate it?
Or is it even an aeration issue? Could I be over-aerating when I pour my cooled wort into my primary? Could I be introducing too much air when I rack to the secondary? I make sure the tube is submerged as soon as there's enough beer in the secondary to submerge it. I just don't know what else I could be doing wrong! Could that taste be due to an infection? It doesn't taste sour, like most infections do, just heavily cardboard-y.
PLEASE HELP! I seriously don't want to explain to my friends again why I'm not sharing any of my beer with them.
And now that I've done that, I STILL have a cardboard taste in my beer. I even got a bottle filler to avoid aeration during bottle filling. I figured that, with the bottle filler, I could set the bottling bucket spigot on full-blast while bottling. Is this a mistake? Do most of you all set the bottling bucket spigot to a very low setting when bottling to avoid aeration? Do most of you pinch the tubing while racking to secondary to make sure the turbulence doesn't aerate it?
Or is it even an aeration issue? Could I be over-aerating when I pour my cooled wort into my primary? Could I be introducing too much air when I rack to the secondary? I make sure the tube is submerged as soon as there's enough beer in the secondary to submerge it. I just don't know what else I could be doing wrong! Could that taste be due to an infection? It doesn't taste sour, like most infections do, just heavily cardboard-y.
PLEASE HELP! I seriously don't want to explain to my friends again why I'm not sharing any of my beer with them.