fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
fade out with age?
Will Astringent/Chalky taste
- Thread starter fatguy-littlecoat
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
How long has your beer been in the bottle?
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fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
just bottled it. it was in primary 3 weeks.
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
Yes, it should in about 3 weeks assuming you primed and are leaving the bottles at 70degrees F or so.
Figured as much.
The astringency you perceive is just a harshness from co2 being produced right now, many folks misdiagnose that.
The biggest thing is that you beer has a LOOOOOONG journey over the next minimum three weeks that it is going to need to carb an condition.
It's really only down the line, AFTER the beer has been fermented (and often after it has bottle conditioned even,) that you concern yourself with any flavor issues if they are still there.
I think too many new brewers focus to much on this stuff too early in the beer's journey. And they panic unnecessarily.
A lot of the stuff you smell/taste initially more than likely ends up disappearing either during a long primary/primary & secondary combo, Diacetyl rests and even during bottle conditioning.
If I find a flavor/smell, I usually wait til it's been in the bottle 6 weeks before I try to "diagnose" what went wrong, that way I am sure the beer has passed any window of greenness.
Fementation is often ugly, smelly and crappy tasting in the beginning and perfectly normal. The various conditioning phases, be it long primary, secondarying, D-rests, bottle conditioning, AND LAGERING, are all part of the process where the yeast, and co2 correct a lot of the normal production of the byproducts of fermentation.
Lagering is a prime example of this. Lager yeast are prone to the production of a lot of byproducts, the most familiar one is sulphur compounds (rhino farts) but in the dark cold of the lagering process, which is at the minimum of a month (I think many homebrewers don't lager long enough) the yeast slowly consumes all those compounds which results in extremely clean tasting beers if done skillfully.
Ales have their own version of this, but it's all the same.
If you are sampling your beer before you have passed a 'window of greeness" which my experience is about 3-6 weeks in the bottle, then you are more than likely just experiencing an "off flavor" due to the presence of those byproducts (that's what we mean when we say the beer is "green" it's still young and unconditioned.) but once the process is done, over 90% of the time the flavors/smells are gone.
Of the remaining 10%, half of those may still be salvageable through the long time storage that I mention in the Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer
And the remaining 50% of the last 10% are where these tables and lists come into play. To understand what you did wrong, so you can avoid it in the future.
Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."
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fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
thanks for the info, i was a little concerned only because this was my second mini-mash kit(i had 15 extract/steeping kits under my belt before trying the mini mash) and i thought maybe i sparged with too much water. This beer actually has a good taste underneath the chalk but i will say this is the first astringent/chalk tasting beer i have had so far. hopefully she turns out ok.
revvy ive been religiously going over your threads the past few months. Ive definitely become a better brewer for it... without getting on this site i would have dumped quite a few batches for no reason. ;D
revvy ive been religiously going over your threads the past few months. Ive definitely become a better brewer for it... without getting on this site i would have dumped quite a few batches for no reason. ;D
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fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
just cracked one of these beers, still has that astringent after taste.. it has subsided but is still there. hopefully in another 6 months and it wont be noticeable.
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fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
it was a mini-mash pale ale kit from austin, yeast was windsor. my mash temp was 155 from what i remember.
If that's the case, that the mash temp was 165, then you probably got very little conversion and extracted some tannins. (I would mash most pale ales at 153ish).
Water chemistry plays a part, too, and in my experience an astringent taste generally will not get better.
brrman
Well-Known Member
What is your water like? Mashing with hard water can give an astringency. I was plagued with this until I did some research on water chemistry.
If it is because of your water (my water is too hard/alkaline) then it will not fade. I had to dump a cream ale after 9 months because it was still astringent. I have since learned to adjust my water chemistry with salts additions and my lighter beers come out just fine now (darker malts have acid that helps the pH of the wort so no changes needed for hard water).
If it is because of your water (my water is too hard/alkaline) then it will not fade. I had to dump a cream ale after 9 months because it was still astringent. I have since learned to adjust my water chemistry with salts additions and my lighter beers come out just fine now (darker malts have acid that helps the pH of the wort so no changes needed for hard water).
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fatguy-littlecoat
Well-Known Member
i use my city of raleigh tap water filtered with a brita. ive never had any other beers become astringent, ive done about 20 batches so far. i suspect i mashed too high as yooper said and extracted too many tannins. if it doesnt fade more its a dumper.. the front end tastes awesome but as soon as goes down your throat the chalk takes over.
brrman
Well-Known Member
yeah - if you have brewed lighter beer before then you should be ok with your water.
