off flavours

[Philipek]

Initially I got round it by blending with the (still a bit sweet) barrel-in-waiting which, interestingly enough, created probably the best beer I've ever tasted

Ooh, blending, that's a bit 19th century, isn't it? Certainly an interesting solution to the off flavour problem.

I'm experiencing off flavours too. I have some suspicions about what's causing them but haven't found the culprit, so I'm taking the opportunity to overhaul my whole process.

RE bleach: why more of the cheap bleach? I listened to a basic brewing podcast that said cheap bleach was better than brand name bleach because they put a lower amount of the active ingredient (chlorine or something) and filled it with whitener and detergent whereas the cheap bleach had the standard amount of the active ingredient and is made by the same people as make the expensive stuff. Apparently 5% is the correct amount, I can't find that though it's either 3%, or 6% for ultra bleach for both cheapo and brand name ultra bleach

[grmills]

Ooh, blending, that's a bit 19th century, isn't it?

Call it what you like but it beats throwing it away or drinking it with a peg on your nose...

[Philipek]

It wasn't a criticism. In fact, the 'ooh' was me being very impressed with your ingenuity, but I couldn't find the impressed smiley.

Apart from the rickets and the chauvenism, I quite like the 19th century.

[grmills]

Sorry, my mistake, I thought you were taking the p1ss

Going back to the original question, I'm on the last pint or thereabouts of a 15th May batch, which is absolutely top-banana, just wish it tasted like this throughout. I'm sure it's the additional boil-time which makes it last better as (a) that's what I changed when I was suffering from developing off-flavours as previously described, and (b) my approach to hygeine is more "give your anti-bodies something to practice on" than "don't touch that - you might get germs". Plus, it's a darn sight easier and/or cheaper than sterilising and/or replacing all your post boil kit.

[dandy]

Newbie question about a two hour boil!

My last two beers tasted great while fermenting, but after two weeks when they were about finished, they went a bit off.
I think it might be astringincy(I have notices a tebag taste) from too many hops in the last 10/15 minutes, but I might increase to the two hour boil just to see if that hepls!
Do you add water before/during after the boil, or do you just sparge until you have 35 litres or so?
(I'd be afraid sparging that much would lead to tannins and more astringency!)

[garwatts]

Newbie question about a two hour boil!

My last two beers tasted great while fermenting, but after two weeks when they were about finished, they went a bit off.
I think it might be astringincy(I have notices a tebag taste) from too many hops in the last 10/15 minutes, but I might increase to the two hour boil just to see if that hepls!
Do you add water before/during after the boil, or do you just sparge until you have 35 litres or so?
(I'd be afraid sparging that much would lead to tannins and more astringency!)

Astringincy. Now there's a new word in brewing for me What recipe did you use? What brew size etc?

[dandy]

How to brew describes it here!
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Can't remember the exact recipe(I saved over it on beer tools by mistake)
was something like the following:-

2kg munich
2kg vienna
250g Special B
500g Melandoin
250g clear candi sugar
350g crystal wheat malt
20g simcoe mash
20g Cascade mash
50g Saaz 60 min
25g saaz 12min
20g simcoe 12min
20g cascade 12min
20g EKG 12min

It was to be an Malty red beer/galway hooker hybrid, but due to an agressive boil, from 30 litres, I ended up with 20 litres of 6%beer(1058OG to 1012FG)
Instead of the 25l I was hoping for!
I don't know if the taste comes from Mashing the simcoe & cascade, or from using 135g of hops in a boil, but there is a lovely flavour behind the off taste, so will be doing similar again(Might just drop the mashed hops and the saaz, and increase the simcoe and cascade over more additions throughout the boil)

[grmills]

Do you add water before/during after the boil, or do you just sparge until you have 35 litres or so?

Sorry, I've always been a bit vague about boil volume, when it looks about right in the boiler I stop sparging. I've never added water to the boil, just top water to the fermenter to bring up to the required final volume.

However, first run with the new system today and I neglected to to mark up the boiler beforehand so ended up with 7 gallons at 1044 instead of 6 at 1050-ish . I need to think a bit about mash liquor amount as well, in fact volumes throughout the process. Best do another one asap while I remember...

[Jim]

Could this simply be an incorrect ratio of fermentable to unfermentable sugars in your wort? It could be that the yeast is continuing to ferment out the balancing sweetness in your beer, making it seem too bitter.

If so, mash conditions might be to blame (e.g. temperature too low or pH to low).

[blackadder]

Interested to read these threads, how close are we all getting to commercial flavours really? I have been all grain brewing for 18 months or so and obsessively try to refine what Im doing each time but am still a mile away from good, bought real ales like Woodfords. Is this just me? I often feel beers spoilt by odd late flavours, slightly sharp burnt acetone like. I might get a window of a week where the kegged beer is just about right, then off it goes. Spotlessly clear, great head and smell, then.....hmm dodgy flavour half way though. The flavour is therefore all relative, but are you guys getting close to good kegged pub beer in end results? Mine are ok but don't fancy more than a couple of pints at a time! any clues or am I aiming too high?

[jubby]

Interested to read these threads, how close are we all getting to commercial flavours really? I have been all grain brewing for 18 months or so and obsessively try to refine what Im doing each time but am still a mile away from good, bought real ales like Woodfords. Is this just me? I often feel beers spoilt by odd late flavours, slightly sharp burnt acetone like. I might get a window of a week where the kegged beer is just about right, then off it goes. Spotlessly clear, great head and smell, then.....hmm dodgy flavour half way though. The flavour is therefore all relative, but are you guys getting close to good kegged pub beer in end results? Mine are ok but don't fancy more than a couple of pints at a time! any clues or am I aiming too high?

Not all of mine are perfect, only because I choose to experiment with unknown ingredients, yeasts etc and this sometimes produces beer that is not to my taste. However you should be able to produce beer at least as good as you would expect over the bar. If not, then there is a problem with your procedure or water.