tastes like home brew

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keat64

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I've completed about 8 or 10 AG brews, and only one of which I wasn't fond of.
It had a home brew twang to it. It was a Boddingtons Bitter clone.

Then in November, i made another bitter and guess what, this one also has a home brew twang to it.
I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it's one of those beers that you'll leave in favour of another.

It's now about 8 weeks old and doesn't seem to be subsiding. The strange thing is, it tasted fine until after secondary fermentation.

Does finings impart any off flavours, as i know for certain, this one has finings, and possibly the Boddies clone may have.
 
I never use Finings in beer but they aren't noted for leaving behind any "off" flavours.

In terms of "age", at eight weeks this beer is still a young teenager. i.e. It's voice will still be breaking and it probably has acne as well.

I recommend that you stick it on a shelf (somewhere cool and dark) and try it again at the beginning of March.

I also recommend that you don't use Finings in your beer. Gravity and time generally do an excellent job without them. :thumb:
 
There are many reasons why off flavours develop in beer. The most common for that " homebrew twang" cidery flavour that people often refer to is usually caused by the addition of too much ordenary sugar or brewing sugar. In the recipe.
If this doesn apply there are many beer off flavour lists & there causes on the internet, you may be able to pinpoint something from that
 
I've completed about 8 or 10 AG brews, and only one of which I wasn't fond of.
It had a home brew twang to it. It was a Boddingtons Bitter clone.

Then in November, i made another bitter and guess what, this one also has a home brew twang to it.
I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it's one of those beers that you'll leave in favour of another.

It's now about 8 weeks old and doesn't seem to be subsiding. The strange thing is, it tasted fine until after secondary fermentation.

Does finings impart any off flavours, as i know for certain, this one has finings, and possibly the Boddies clone may have.

It's quite hard to pinpoint what you mean by homebrew taste. There are a number of off flavours associated with homebrew.

Here are some ideas;

1.Oxygen exposure during racking to secondary.(A sort of port flavour)

2.If using chlorine based cleaners you may have not rinsed the secondary and bottles properly. (Plastic or bandaid taste)

3. High proportion of simple sugars in the recipe ( wine/cider like taste)

4. Fermentation temperature too high ( Very fruity, turning to hot alcohol fuel flavours as the fermentation temp gets higher)
 
Have you used a different yeast for these 2 brews which have a twang ? I tried a different ale yeast from a well known supplier and found the resulting taste not to my liking. Just a thought.
 
Bitters (unless there ESB's) can usually be drunk after a few days bottling as the carbonation is so low (I often start tucking in after 2-3 days in the bottle) As forumite Ale say it may be your water has too high alkalinity for pale beer. Do you have an lingering bitter aftertaste, not the clean bittering you get from hops? This is what I percieve if I just use my high alkalinity water 'straight' for pale beers and dont treat it.
 
Sugar could most definately have been a deciding factor in the Boddingtons clone, the recipe called for a small amount during primary, to be perfectly honest, I did consider sugar to be the problem.
However, the only sugar which went in to this one was 100g for secondary.
Again, I could accept the sugar to be the cause, as it tasted fine at the end of primary.

However, I always use 100g of sugar for secondary, and not had any off flavours on any of my other brews.

100g is going in 5 gallon by the way.

as for water, I use the stuff the council provide. :smile:
 
It's not the sugar, this is one of those things that people hear "too much sugar gives a cidery flavour", which after a while changes slightly to become "sugar gives a cidery flavour". But how much is too much? Probably a lot more than people think.
I've used 1kg of sugar in some of my belgian ales without any twang. Some of the big Belgian brewers use upwards of 15-20% sugar, again without any off flavours.
 
It's not the sugar, this is one of those things that people hear "too much sugar gives a cidery flavour", which after a while changes slightly to become "sugar gives a cidery flavour". But how much is too much? Probably a lot more than people think.
I've used 1kg of sugar in some of my belgian ales without any twang. Some of the big Belgian brewers use upwards of 15-20% sugar, again without any off flavours.

Absolutely. I'm making a lite pseudo lager/steam beer on the weekend and wanted to put some sugar in it to dry things out as I dont have any flaked rice or flaked maize. I wasnt sure home much sugar to add, as of course I also was aware of "(too much) sugar gives a cidery flavour", so I did a bit of googling and came across this great post about the, sugar in home brew mantra
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=90498

I plan on adding 10% table sugar in my brew btw
 
I have started to 'collect' suggested reasons for homebrew 'twang' which covers a lot of what we all do :-?
Currently I am up to
- using table sugar
- using liquid malt extract rather than grain
-cheap kits
- not enough conditioning
- use of tap water
- yeast used
Suprisingly, the dreaded 'oxidation', feared by many but only experienced by the few, hasn't been mentioned in the stuff I've read, but I feel sure it will be in there somewhere.
 
I had a beer fairly recently which tasted like homebrew and I'm pretty sure it was down to the temp I fermented at. My water is hard as hell and I didn't treat it for that brew so that was probably a contributory factor.
 
Apart from adding to the already suggested, Another slightly left field does the beer seem a little overcarbonated? or seem a little dry?

Just wondering if maybe a little wild yeast got in there, dried it out a bit affected the balance therefore doesn't taste right.

Or it could be a style like myqul says doesn't suit your water profile without changes (do you treat your water?)
 
Absolutely. I'm making a lite pseudo lager/steam beer on the weekend and wanted to put some sugar in it to dry things out as I dont have any flaked rice or flaked maize. I wasnt sure home much sugar to add, as of course I also was aware of "(too much) sugar gives a cidery flavour", so I did a bit of googling and came across this great post about the, sugar in home brew mantra
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=90498

I plan on adding 10% table sugar in my brew btw
Good link there :thumb:
 
I don't treat my water.

Like I said, I just can't put my finger on the taste.
It's not sour or smelly, just not particularly nice.

I know it's sacrilege, but if i have to drink it as shandy, it won't get wasted.
I have a pale ready to go out in to the garage, but i know if i do then i'll drink it over the bitter.
 
Finings will do nothing. Its been used since the dark ages. Besides, it drops to the bottom. That is the whole idea of finings.
Personally, i do not use it. Cold crash in key. Drop the temp as low as you can get it. I've got one of those small student fridges. Removed the shelved, and my fermenter fits in nicely. Leave it at something like 3 degrees C for a couple of days and it will be crystal clear. Just rack to bottling bucket from where it stands. If you move the trub will rise again
 
I agree with @DoctorMick a high fermentation temperature can cause a lot of unusual flavours, many of which are reminiscent of the dreaded homebrew twang.
 
I've always assumed homebrew twang was caused by table sugar - one can kits brewed as per instructions often have it, but brew them short and only add 1/2 kilo of sugar and there's no twang.
These days I do AG and always add 1/2 kilo table sugar to save on pale malt a bit and never get the twang. But I did have it once kind of which was caused by too high a fermentation temperature - a kind of fruity unpleasant aftertaste.
So now I'm a lot more careful about fermentation temperature.
 
I read somewhere that the classic homebrew twang was caused by caramelization of sugar, be it refined sugar or from grain. Usually from scorching on an element, etc and more likely to happen with extract at higher wort densities. And possibly during manufacture when condensing down wort for kits.

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