my kegged red lager ended up with a metalic taste. I didn’t notice this taste before it was put in the keg. ??? any thoughts?
I’ve had this too as a recurring problem in some beers like dubbel. My guess is its either water related (as in wrong pH and the flavors aren’t coming out, and/or extracting tannins, and/or sulfate too high) or its oxidation-related. I’ve yet to nail down a specific cause but I’m making progress with malty flavors by brewing with RO water and doing some things process-wise to reduce potential for oxidation.
Just a thought, but I’ve heard some people don’t like Munich malt because it tastes metallic to them. Any chance your red has a bunch of Munich in it?
And that could be due to a water incompatibility. But I agree that too much of a good thing like the darker kilned malts, can give you a certain astringency that can be metallic. I’ve done this with too much Special B in my dubbels. Also when I’ve made a Vienna lager with Vienna as the only base malt I’ve been less than thrilled.
Nothing like a little light Munich in a pils grist for a helles, a little gives a wonderful bready character.
Everytime i have noticed this in my beer it has come down to there actually being metal in my beer, usually from something faulty within my keg. I would check it, especially if it tasted fine before kegging. Could be your poppets or the out-post, either of which could have the slightest bit of rusted metal on them, this is what it has always been when my beer tasted this way. Thieve a little bit of beer out of the top after opening it up, without sending the beer out the line and past the post and poppet, if it tastes fine then you have this issue I speak of. When mine has had this issue it was such a small amount of rusted metal within the poppet or post that you would not believe it could have been the problem but it certainly was. Once I changed out the faulty post or poppet the taste was gone. Hope this is your problem and its an easy fix?
it may be a water thing. i used house tap water filtered through a .5 micro filter. I use this same water for all my beers and havent had the problem.
It IS a keg i never used before. Washed with oxyclean free and treated with iodophor.
could it be from a to short of lagering time?
we had it fermenting for 4 weeks at 55*
lagering in secondary at 33* for a week.
(my boy wanted to tap on newyears eve).
we keg conditioned at 70* for 10 days. with 2/3 cup priming sugar.
it was the red ale recipe from NB with the brewferm lager yeast.
It wouldn’t be a lagering issue with an ale.
the only thing that makes an ale an ale is the yeast choice. is this not correct?
Oxidation often creates a metallic flavor. Since it didn’t develop until after the beer was kegged, that seems to be a reasonable guess.
There ya go. I bet that is it. I remEMber now we had some trouble with the batch as we moved it from fermenter to keg. a leaky bucket, a too short hose…Now it seems pretty obvious we may have aerated the beer. Thats what happenens when you try to rush things. Well my boy took it home and drank it last night anyway. Have been triing to call him today. no answer. so I guess it will be on to the next batch. I think we’ll try that one again.
Thanks.
Shopping list:
new, longer, syphen hose.
This, plus the metallic taste, makes me curious if perhaps you’re using an aluminum kettle? 
no aluminum beerware in this house.
Troublemakers.
FWIW, AL is fine as long as you don’t scrub off the oxidation layer.
I knew being lazy would eventually pay off.
Being lazy is my reason for living!
Being lazy is my reason for living![/quote]
And now my idol just moved up another notch!
:cheers:
Being lazy is my reason for living![/quote]
And now my idol just moved up another notch!
:cheers: [/quote]
Thanks!
Wait, did you mean that other dude? 8)
