Still got that slight 'home brew' twang on my AG brews

[calumrobertson]

Cool, some really interesting comments to take heed of next time i brew. I think it could be a number of things then because a few peoples comments seem to ring true. I'll try campden - i hadnt before as had been told / assumed it would be removed in the boil, also the comment about not having a rolling boil is possibly true - i have an electric 'bolier' with thermostat which does keep turning on and off as i've read about before on here - it does get to a rolling boil but then will stop for 30 secs or so before starting again.
I use VWP steriliser and yes, it does have a hell of a chlorine kick to it. But i've been pretty careful to sterilise and rince everything very thoroughly as have been reading this is pretty much essential...i dont think any of the flavours i have could be said to be 'off'. Have people go any experience of no rince sanitisers like star san?

[mysterio]

I thought you were a weegie Mysterio!

Yeah I moved, I should update my location

I'm still sure that this is a yeast problem... They know their stuff at Edina homebrew and when I asked some of the folks at the Scottish Craft Brewers if they treat their water they all said no. Plus like I say you don't really taste any chlorine in the water supply. But it certainly does no harm.

[mentaldental]

I would consider:

1. Have you removed all the chlorine from your water.
2. Your fermentation temperature. Is it too high are does it swing wildly?
3. Are you pitching enough yeast?

[delboy]

Have you been using SO4 yeast? It imparts a characteristic yeast flavour that typically isn't present in most commercial beers, although many people seem to find it quite acceptable. Maybe that could be the cause of the adverse comments?

If its not chlorine/chloroamine im putting my money on S04 as well, i get a tartness from it which is masked to some extent in dark beers but in light coloured beers it stands out a mile, i describe it as a tartness but swmbo flags it up as a 'twang'.

[Eric]

- i have an electric 'bolier' with thermostat which does keep turning on and off as i've read about before on here - it does get to a rolling boil but then will stop for 30 secs or so before starting again.
...i dont think any of the flavours i have could be said to be 'off'.

It may be possible to make decent beer with repeated boilings and 30 second pauses spread over 90 minutes. You could judge that yourself once you've done a full 90 minute boil. Suggest you make sure the element is clean and if that doesn't solve your problem, strip down the electrics, clean the bits and reassemble.