Why is my beer always soapy?

[opiate82]

We can agree to disagree about trub, but he also mentions clove, which is a sign of either too much lag time with the yeast or wild yeast contamination.

Why is it everyone around here is more concerned with saving time and cutting corners than doing things the right way?

Read this article: http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Listen to this Basic Brewing podcast: http://tinyurl.com/m7ynyo4

Come back and tell me more about the "right way" to deal with trub.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Read this article: http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Listen to this Basic Brewing podcast: http://tinyurl.com/m7ynyo4

Come back and tell me more about the "right way" to deal with trub.

Its all fine and dandy for brewers making hopped up brews and stronger beers, but I bet you my life savings that my pils is cleaner than yours.

FWIW I make ales that the best experts are impressed with after 5 days in the bottle (19 days after brew day), even strong (7+%) brews. And every pro brewer removes trub for a reason, and try reading the Papazian books. Maybe you can't taste the off flavors yourself, but I taste enough homebrews with something wrong with them from people cutting corners to drive me nuts.

 

[hunter_le five]

Its all fine and dandy for brewers making hopped up brews and stronger beers, but I bet you my life savings that my pils is cleaner than yours.

All right, let's whip 'em out, someone get the measuring tape.

FWIW I make ales that the best experts are impressed with after 5 days in the bottle (19 days after brew day), even strong (7+%) brews.

Good for you.

And every pro brewer removes trub for a reason

Not everything pro brewers do applies to home brewing. If I were brewing 15bbl batches, yeah, I'd be a bit more concerned with leaving that much beer on top of the trub, due to the amount of pressure exerted on whatever's on the bottom of the tank. But with 5 gallon batches, it's just not an issue. Or at least that's the conclusion I've come to based on my reading and my experiences. YMMV.

Maybe you can't taste the off flavors yourself, but I taste enough homebrews with something wrong with them from people cutting corners to drive me nuts.

Agreed some corners shouldn't be cut. But I'm pretty sure this isn't one of those. You're welcome to disagree, but there's no need to turn this into a pissing match. Cheers.

 

[boydster]

Its all fine and dandy for brewers making hopped up brews and stronger beers, but I bet you my life savings that my pils is cleaner than yours.

The OP's beer has SOAP in it. Beat that for clean

Are you seriously implying that your process and the beer you produce is better than Yooper's, who admittedly pours her break material into the fermenter? That would be a bold claim, to say the least. For your sake, I hope she doesn't take you up on that bet.

 

[Yooper]

The OP's beer has SOAP in it. Beat that for clean

Are you seriously implying that your process and the beer you produce is better than Yooper's, who admittedly pours her break material into the fermenter? That would be a bold claim, to say the least. For your sake, I hope she doesn't take you up on that bet.

He may (or may not) be right. Remember that he makes more German style lagers than I do, and perhaps in those cases, the ultra "clean" flavor would be much better than my lagers.

I do try to minimize trub in my light lagers, although I don't go to extraneous measures and with my CFC, most or all of the cold break does wind up in the fermenter.

I would have to guess that some styles are more forgiving as to "character" in the flavor than others. Also, I'm in the "shorter primary" camp than some. Some keep their beers in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks, and I generally go about 10-14 days. That probably has a large flavor impact as well. Perhaps I wouldn't like the results of all of the break material + an ultra long primary due to extra flavor contribution.

At this point, I definitely prefer less time on the yeast cake (trub) in the fermenter while others prefer a longer amount of time. I think in a Basic Brewing Radio experiment, the results were evenly divided among brewers as to preference. So it's entirely possibly that the combination that I prefer- not trying to get rid of break material and a shorter time in the fermenter than some people- gives me the flavors that I like better.

Someone else's preferences and experiences could be very different, of course.