5 brews - advice needed

[tomc]

Hello,

So I'm now about 5 brews in and while it all started well the last two or three brews have been, well. Quite unpleasant. My latest one is for the sink. Any thoughts on where I'm going wrong?

I started on Woodfordes kits, (IPA and Wherry), while not spectacular they were drinkable. I then got more adventurous and moved onto the "design-a-brew" kits. This is where my problems started...

Brewing information:

I've been pitching the yeast and fermenting at 20C and while the SG is about 1040 they seem to stop fermenting at around 1012-1014. I leave them for ~10 days in the FV. The beer at time of kegging (plastic keg) tastes drinkable if a little watery and quite sweet. I have put this down to it not having matured. I'm using S04 yeast, which is prepared in a sterilised jug with about 250ml of warm water and a tablespoon of DME prior to pitching. The little yeasties seem quite active when pitched.

However, after leaving in the keg to mature the sweet taste has disappeared and been replaced with a really nasty strong aftertaste. The first sip begins to taste like really strong hopping but builds and builds into a really unpleasant taste in the back of the mouth. It's so overpowering that after 6 weeks in keg at the back of a cool garage I'm thinking of ditching the brew. It is also still quite cloudy. There is good pressure in the barrel.

Other information:
Design-a-brew two tins of their number 3 malt.
Used Chocolate grain pack and a Goldings & Fuggles hop tea bag. These were steeped for about 30 minutes in 5 litres of hot (but not boiling) water. Didn't have a thermometer so don't know the exact temperature. I cannot taste the chocolate malt at all.
Using Starsan to sanitise EVERYTHING

This has happened on my last two brews now. With the exact same result. The longer I leave it the worse it tastes. Tipping two on the trot is getting expensive and I'm getting thirsty.

I'm about to start another kit brew pretty soon (I bought 3 kits at the same time to reduce postage costs) but want some thoughts on where I may be going wrong.

[Geezah]

It might just be the charactoristics of the SA-04 yeast. It works really well for bitters, but it seems to make every brew taste the same in my experience.

One of my pale ales tasted just like a Wherry when I used the SA-04 yeast for both brews.

Try using the kit yeast to see if it improves the taste.

[simco999]

Any details of how you are kegging - what CO2 do you use? Is it ok after the first pint and then goes down hill. I'm thinking its
hitting air and degrading.

[floydmeddler]

I wouldn't faff around with DME with the S04. Just chuck it in. Also, perhaps instead of barrelling your next brew, bottle it. That way if it turns out good, you know the barrel is to blame. If you don't have bottles, ASDA smartprice sparkling water costs 17p. You'll need around 12. Just pour out the water and fill with beer... they are already sterilised.

[tomc]

Thanks for the advice and comments so far.

I have got some Nottingham yeast rather than S04 so will try that on the next brew and will just chuck it in rather than priming first.

I've also got hold of another PB to see if the problem follows the beer or the barrel...

My thought process was going towards whether I'd somehow got too much oxygen into the brew transferring it to the PB. I have been priming in the PB and giving it a squirt of CO2 to keep off any nasties. Maybe I agitated it too much when transferring and with the warm weather its gone off? The beer is maturing in a garage on the north side of the house so shouldn't see too many warm temperatures.

It tasted ok at day one, but an overpowering hoppy taste (medicinal?) that rips the back of the throat seems to grow the longer I leave it. It is very lively coming out of the barrel, but all my beers have been lively, even the good ones. I've put that down to the pressure in the barrel due to the squirt of CO2?

[floydmeddler]

Medicinal suggests that it's a phenol infection...