Hi All,
I have previously posted about problems with smoky tasting beer (http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=39398), and at the time I put it down to being drunk when I was brewing and adding wrong quantities of ingredients (which never really felt like the right reason).
However, I have started drinking the spoils of a double brew-day and have the same results. The only thing I can put it down to, is my kettle elements.
I live in a very hard water area, and I have not bothered de-scaling much. I just figured, that when the limescale got big enough, it would fall off and then get filtered (or fall to the bottom in the FV). However, this smoky taste has become a regular feature of my brewing, so I thought it worth investigating other possible causes.
The only area of my brewing I hadn't checked was my boiler. When I rubbed the kettle elements in my boiler between my thumb and forefinger, bits of limescale fell-off in chunks, and under the top layer of limescales was black carbon (about 1 mm think).
So... is it fair to say that this carbon is actually the likely cause for my smoky tasting beer?
How often do people de-scale their boiler elements? Should I be doing it after every brew???
I really need to get to the bottom of this smoky tasting beer, because it has killed 5 brews out of 15 now, and I am thinking of giving up AG brewing!!!! :nono: If I can assure myself that it is just down to a need for de-scaling, then I will add it to my routine and carry on!
Thoughts anyone?
I have previously posted about problems with smoky tasting beer (http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=39398), and at the time I put it down to being drunk when I was brewing and adding wrong quantities of ingredients (which never really felt like the right reason).
However, I have started drinking the spoils of a double brew-day and have the same results. The only thing I can put it down to, is my kettle elements.
I live in a very hard water area, and I have not bothered de-scaling much. I just figured, that when the limescale got big enough, it would fall off and then get filtered (or fall to the bottom in the FV). However, this smoky taste has become a regular feature of my brewing, so I thought it worth investigating other possible causes.
The only area of my brewing I hadn't checked was my boiler. When I rubbed the kettle elements in my boiler between my thumb and forefinger, bits of limescale fell-off in chunks, and under the top layer of limescales was black carbon (about 1 mm think).
So... is it fair to say that this carbon is actually the likely cause for my smoky tasting beer?
How often do people de-scale their boiler elements? Should I be doing it after every brew???
I really need to get to the bottom of this smoky tasting beer, because it has killed 5 brews out of 15 now, and I am thinking of giving up AG brewing!!!! :nono: If I can assure myself that it is just down to a need for de-scaling, then I will add it to my routine and carry on!
Thoughts anyone?
