I apologise in advance as this will be a fairly lengthy post. I hope someone can give me some pointers as I'm tearing my hair out here and in truth I am on the verge of giving up.......anyone want to buy some shiny shiny?? :lol:
I started brewing AG around 5 years ago in second hand plastic kit. I made great beer.....I brew pales and bitters.
My water is quite high in alkalinity and I used to use a Salifert test kit with an appropriate amount of CRS to get this below 25ppm. I also added 1tsp of gypsum to both the mash and boil per 20 litres of beer brewed.
I upgraded my set up to stainless and my first brews went well, but then I've developed a problem that I just can't fathom.
The beers that I was making started coming out with a very harsh twang to them.....almost phenolic, not quite astringent, verging on metallic
I must have dumped 3 or 4 batches, which is never very good for the soul......I then had a bit of break following the birth of my son.
First batch ended up being dumped again due to the reasons above.
I sent a water sample to Murphys for them to analyse, which they duly did and they sent me some recommendations depending on the beer style that I wanted to brew.
The CRS addition they quote for pales and bitters is very close to what I used to calculate out from the Salifert tests. They also give me an addition of DWB of 23g for 40 litre brew length.
Since I got the water test from Murphys I have made three batches.
The first two were great and I thought, at last I had cracked it and had something that would work consistently well for me.
The two batches were pale ales; 5.2% and 5.6% ABV with a grain bill of mainly pale malt, munich malt and a little bit of caragold in the lower gravity beer.
My latest brew is a bitter....94% pale MO, 2% wheat malt, 2% pale crystal and 2% crystal.
I mashed overnight with 2.5 litres of liquor per kg of grain at 66 degrees and I hit my expected OG of 1048 for 40 litres of wort.
I can't remember the hop schedule off the top of my head, but the IBU level was 36 from a mixture of fuggles and goldings.....fresh, unopened packs from our friend Rob.
Yeast was Stones brewery that I'd ordered from Brewlab.....they did the step up for 40 litres of wort and there were no off smells on decanting the beer from it prior to pitching.
So, I go to check my brew last night.....it is sat in a large water bath kept at 20 degrees to be met with the almost phenolic harsh astringent taste
I knew it was there as soon as I cracked the fermenter lid :cry:
Some other information that may be of help in solving my problem.
I batch sparge and the grain is monitored so that the bed is never more than 74 degrees.
The two good brews were made with dried yeast.....US05 and Nottingham.
I do not use any chlorine based cleaners for anything; if I can't get it clean enough using hot water and elbow grease I will sometimes use a little bit of oxi clean and copious rinsing.
To sanitise; I use either Perbac diluted 1ml per 100ml of water or Starsan at 1.5ml per litre of water.
Since upgrading my system I use a plate chiller rather than an immersion cooler.
I have checked my fermeter several times for scratches that may be harbouring something nasty, but it is sound.
I aerate well prior to pitching and I always bring the yeast I'm using up to temperature.
Please ask if there is anything else you would like to know and I will happily post it up.
Again, I am sorry for the long and detailed post; but I really am at my wits end here as it looks like I'm going to have to throw away my 40 litres of Christmas beer.
I started brewing AG around 5 years ago in second hand plastic kit. I made great beer.....I brew pales and bitters.
My water is quite high in alkalinity and I used to use a Salifert test kit with an appropriate amount of CRS to get this below 25ppm. I also added 1tsp of gypsum to both the mash and boil per 20 litres of beer brewed.
I upgraded my set up to stainless and my first brews went well, but then I've developed a problem that I just can't fathom.
The beers that I was making started coming out with a very harsh twang to them.....almost phenolic, not quite astringent, verging on metallic
I must have dumped 3 or 4 batches, which is never very good for the soul......I then had a bit of break following the birth of my son.
First batch ended up being dumped again due to the reasons above.
I sent a water sample to Murphys for them to analyse, which they duly did and they sent me some recommendations depending on the beer style that I wanted to brew.
The CRS addition they quote for pales and bitters is very close to what I used to calculate out from the Salifert tests. They also give me an addition of DWB of 23g for 40 litre brew length.
Since I got the water test from Murphys I have made three batches.
The first two were great and I thought, at last I had cracked it and had something that would work consistently well for me.
The two batches were pale ales; 5.2% and 5.6% ABV with a grain bill of mainly pale malt, munich malt and a little bit of caragold in the lower gravity beer.
My latest brew is a bitter....94% pale MO, 2% wheat malt, 2% pale crystal and 2% crystal.
I mashed overnight with 2.5 litres of liquor per kg of grain at 66 degrees and I hit my expected OG of 1048 for 40 litres of wort.
I can't remember the hop schedule off the top of my head, but the IBU level was 36 from a mixture of fuggles and goldings.....fresh, unopened packs from our friend Rob.
Yeast was Stones brewery that I'd ordered from Brewlab.....they did the step up for 40 litres of wort and there were no off smells on decanting the beer from it prior to pitching.
So, I go to check my brew last night.....it is sat in a large water bath kept at 20 degrees to be met with the almost phenolic harsh astringent taste
I knew it was there as soon as I cracked the fermenter lid :cry:
Some other information that may be of help in solving my problem.
I batch sparge and the grain is monitored so that the bed is never more than 74 degrees.
The two good brews were made with dried yeast.....US05 and Nottingham.
I do not use any chlorine based cleaners for anything; if I can't get it clean enough using hot water and elbow grease I will sometimes use a little bit of oxi clean and copious rinsing.
To sanitise; I use either Perbac diluted 1ml per 100ml of water or Starsan at 1.5ml per litre of water.
Since upgrading my system I use a plate chiller rather than an immersion cooler.
I have checked my fermeter several times for scratches that may be harbouring something nasty, but it is sound.
I aerate well prior to pitching and I always bring the yeast I'm using up to temperature.
Please ask if there is anything else you would like to know and I will happily post it up.
Again, I am sorry for the long and detailed post; but I really am at my wits end here as it looks like I'm going to have to throw away my 40 litres of Christmas beer.
