All grain Twang ???

[NickP]

Hi

I moved into all grain brewing a while ago mainly to avoid a taste that was in every beer i brewed using extract, no matter what the recipe it always tasted like homebrew and there was a definite theme running through.

Last night i had some of my all grain beer (ringwood's XXXX porter clone) and as i had already had one or two, the wife decided i needed a very lemonady shandy! Once again i came across that taste and now im beginning to wonder if its something other than extract twang ?

I was just interested to see if anyone else out there had come across this.

I have brewed 8AG recipe's and normally dont waterdown my beer and have never tasted the dreaded twang, so im not sure if this was running through all of my previous recipe's or if this one is just special in someway

[mysterio]

What's the 'twang' taste like?

Do you treat your water at all?

[NickP]

I dont treat my water, save putting in one campden tablet.

Its difficult to describe the taste, im not sure I have the words to do so, other than to say its tangy not sour but not bitter there has been another taste that has run through all of my beers but didn't want to mention it incase it clouded the issue.

The other taste im thinking may be diacetyl, my beer is almost oily in the mouth and also has a very slught buttery taste / feel. Im using safale s04 and im not sure if it could be the taste. I always leave my beer in the fermenter until is clear and then move to king keg.

I dont put priming sugar into the barrel or bottles, i have noticed the beer goes cloudy where before it was clear and i get a very notible taste much like green apples, i do use a table sugar for the priming.

[mysterio]

Some people report Safale SO4 has a bit of a tang, and it's well known as a diacetyl producer (although it usually clears this up given time).

Try a different yeast? Plenty of folk just don't like SO4.

[Billy Hunt]

I found the quality of my beer dramatically increased when I stopped kegging my beer and switiched to bottling. If rightly recall about 4 out of my 5 kegged beers all suffered from autolysis.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Never any kind of twang from either my extract or AG brews. What am I doing wrong?

[chris_reboot]

I'd for one thing, try a differnent yeast.
my fav. at the minute is nottingham which doesn't seem to produce the same flavour profile as s-04.
I'm using nottingham mostly now, but recently used s-04 on a mild, and darker ales, seems to suit those better.

for general bitters and pale ales, I think nottingham exhibits less yeasty flavour to the brew.

it might not be this, but defo worth subbing a sachet of yeast next time.
for me, s-04 was too much in lighter beers.

[WishboneBrewery]

I must be lucky too as the only twang I get is that of good tasting beer the only time I have tasted the butter scotch taste is in my latest batch which used live brewery yeast, and that died away in the fermenter in a couple more days.
Hope you figure out what it is, can your wife taste it too? You could always try a trip to the dentist make sure nothing in your teeth is influencing your taste.

[NickP]

Thanks for the respons's, it would seem i have had another misfortune , the London Pride clone i have fermenting at the moment seems to be infected at least that's what im thinking, it almost tastes like germoline

Very frustrating not sure what im doing wrong, i think i may try changing my steraliser. Would i be right in thinking that as long as my mash tun and boiler are clean, that i dont have to steralise them ? i always steralise everything that touches the wort after boil ?

[delboy]

Im struggling with a recurring flavour in my beer at the moment, i think its acetaldehyde (apple/grassy taste) which is sometimes associated with immature or 'green' beer. Mine seems to be coming on over time though, tastes great when first fermented but then slowly but surely comes the dreaded apple-ness.
Its actually quite subtle but its bugging me because i know its there and i can't drink it without thinking about it.

I've been busy lately and beer has sat in the fermenter after it has finished fermenting (sometimes for a week or more), im going to make a point of getting it into the keg quicker to see if that helps (could be ethanol oxidisng to acetaldehyde???).

[johnbarleycorn]

Thanks for the respons's, it would seem i have had another misfortune , the London Pride clone i have fermenting at the moment seems to be infected at least that's what im thinking, it almost tastes like germoline

Very frustrating not sure what im doing wrong, i think i may try changing my steraliser. Would i be right in thinking that as long as my mash tun and boiler are clean, that i dont have to steralise them ? i always steralise everything that touches the wort after boil ?

Dont forget to sterilise/sanitize the tap on the boiler, especially if you use an immersion cooler in your boiler, that was the weak point in my brews, small bits of hop and trub can get caught in the "workings" and unless you clean it properley prior to the boil your lovely clean,cool wort full of lovely nutrients is passing through a tap that will have been growing things from your last brew.....good luck!

[mysterio]

Im struggling with a recurring flavour in my beer at the moment, i think its acetaldehyde (apple/grassy taste) which is sometimes associated with immature or 'green' beer. Mine seems to be coming on over time though, tastes great when first fermented but then slowly but surely comes the dreaded apple-ness.
Its actually quite subtle but its bugging me because i know its there and i can't drink it without thinking about it.

I've been busy lately and beer has sat in the fermenter after it has finished fermenting (sometimes for a week or more), im going to make a point of getting it into the keg quicker to see if that helps (could be ethanol oxidisng to acetaldehyde???).

Could it be a low level Lacto infection lurking somewhere? If the flavour is developing over time, that points to infection I would have thought.

[WishboneBrewery]

Dont forget to sterilise/sanitize the tap on the boiler, especially if you use an immersion cooler in your boiler, that was the weak point in my brews, small bits of hop and trub can get caught in the "workings" and unless you clean it properley prior to the boil your lovely clean,cool wort full of lovely nutrients is passing through a tap that will have been growing things from your last brew.....good luck!

I have never cleaned my boiler tap yet, I use my boiler as HLT so each brew it gets all the liquor at 80-85C passed through it prior to any cool wort passing through.

Though maybe i should take it apart and have a look in the nooks and crannies!

[delboy]

Im struggling with a recurring flavour in my beer at the moment, i think its acetaldehyde (apple/grassy taste) which is sometimes associated with immature or 'green' beer. Mine seems to be coming on over time though, tastes great when first fermented but then slowly but surely comes the dreaded apple-ness.
Its actually quite subtle but its bugging me because i know its there and i can't drink it without thinking about it.

I've been busy lately and beer has sat in the fermenter after it has finished fermenting (sometimes for a week or more), im going to make a point of getting it into the keg quicker to see if that helps (could be ethanol oxidisng to acetaldehyde???).

Could it be a low level Lacto infection lurking somewhere? If the flavour is developing over time, that points to infection I would have thought.

I was thinking the same as well, i suppose i need to bite the bullet and do a real deep clean on my equipment (long soak in strong bleach) to see if that clears it up.

[NickP]

I have left my last 3 beers in the fermenter longer than i normally would (about 10 - 12 days) and these have turned out the best, they are perfectly clear when it leaves the fermenter, but then i add the priming sugar and it all goes wrong, it goes cloudy and then the green apple comes.....

My latest batch seems to have an infection in it the only other one i have had is in a similar beer, both of these are light in colour and are just basic bitters !!! not sure if these styles of beer are more prone to infection or if im just lucky.....