Soapy taste

[Pennywise]

Hi all did my first all grain batch last Monday,
Marc ollosons 100% satisfaction.
Had too top up about 6 litres after boil. Sg was about 1.030 but as it was 2am I forgot to stir the wort in fermenter so not sure if this was correct sg as top up water not mixed in properly.
Final sg was 1.008 this Saturday and no more bubbling from airlock so I bottled that night. Tried some tonight (monday) and I'm noticing a slight soapy taste, will this disappear after leaving a few weeks?
Is 5/6 days too long on the trub?
Another point is that during the 90min boil I left the lid on my boiler as the boil was very aggressive and I would have lost most of the wort. I've read about this not being the thing to do because of dms. My boiler is a buffalo and has a temperamental thermostat ie aggressive or nothing. Any help greatly appriciated. Thanks Matt

 

[wfr42]

It may be the hops (MyQul had something similar and it settled down iirc) especially if you no chilled over night and/or had a large dry hop.

Lots of us on here go with the 2 + 2 + 2 method.
2 weeks in FV (either primary only or racking to a secondary)
So your 5/6 days is very short. The additional time apparently allows the yeast to clean up after itself, I found my kit brews benefited from 3 weeks, they appeared clearer when I was bottling.
Remember the airlock is a sign fermentation has started, hydrometer reading are the best way to confirm it has stopped (1.008 suggests it has).
2 weeks to prime
Keeping your bottles somewhere warm (around fermentation temperature) to help the yeasties eat up the priming sugar and carbonate your beer.
2 weeks conditioning
The difficult bit.
Move your bottles somewhere cool, this helps your beer absorb the co2 produced in priming. Generally the longer you leave your beer the better it gets. The last bottle of a batch is normally a sweet bitter (I like the good news first) experience of "that was a great pint - I wish they'd all been as good as that/I had more left".

90 mins is a long boil, you'll get to know your equipment and learn how much wort is boiled off in an hour/90mins which will help you fine tune your pre-boil volume (if you haven't made notes and can remember write down nowish).

Hope this one turns out well for you with some time in the bottle and good luck with your future brews.

 

[BeerCat]

Had soapy tastes before. Am sure it will fade. Just tried a beer i really enjoyed that i poured down the sink 10days ago. My boiler has no decent temp control and i don't really worry about it. If i boil of too much i just top it up. Seems many people do the same.

 

[dan125]

Good Beersmith interview about boiling wort here:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBKUCkg8cM[/ame]

A vigorous boil is very important according to Charlie Bamforth, so like others mention, just adjust your starting volume or top up.
:

 

[MyQul]

As Wfr42 says I recently had a massively soapy tasting bitter recently - it was down to hops.

When I tasted the soapyness, I was straight onto google to find out what I could. It seem soapy flavours in beer are down to three things

1. Actual soap/detergent. Did you wash your glassware properly and rinse and residule fairy out?

2. Created soap. The fats in the trub can turn into soap and if you leave your beer on the trub for a long time it can flavour the beer. However I've left my beer on the trub for at least 4 weeks and know of other forumites that have left it on there for 6, without any problems

3. Hops. High hopping rates/dry hopping can cause a soapy flavour. I think some people (like me) have a lower hop threshold and once past that threshold hoppyness begins to taste like soapyness. Some hops (cant remember which ones but in particular one of the american C hops I kept coming across references to) seem to just taste soapy.
The reason my beer tasted soapy was because I was experimenting with leaving the flavour/aroma hop debris in the FV for the two weeks of fermentation. The good news is, is if hops are the culprit, the soapyness will fade over time. Mine took about 5 weeks to completely go and the beer turned out to be one of the best beers I've made :lol:

 

[Pennywise]

Thanks for all the quick replies! I'm leaning more towards the actual hops because fermentation time seems ok and I always rinse after sanitization. The recipe only requires challenger hops at arounder 90gm in total so I guess there's only one flavor and a lot of it. The bouquet is similar to the taste. I'm obviously being impatient

 

[itbrvilla]

What hops did you use? I have had Centennial and Cascade beers that taste soapy in a floral way if anything.

 

[Pennywise]

Hops were goldings not challenger. Hop heads not pellets in a hop bag