I have been filtering out the hops and all the sludge from my wort before i put it in the fermenter, Should i be doing this or should the hops go into the fermenter with the wort? also i have made 3 batches of beer all have come out ok tasting like they should, but they all have a distinct soapy / alcoholic aftertaste that i cannot figure out why it is happening, Any suggestions ?
Thanks -Nick-
It’s ideal if you do strain it out, but you dont have to. It just means less stuff in your primary, and less chance of transferring the hop bits to secondary and then getting in your bottles. As far as the soapy taste, how are you sanitizing all of your equipment? How about your bottles? If you’re sanitizing them in the dishwasher, don’t use any soap as that will happen.
What temps are you fermenting at? How much yeast did you pitch into your beer? What was the original gravity? There are a lot of factors that can contribute to the off flavors so its really better if you outline your recipe and procedures including temps and everything so folks can help you figure out where things went wrong.
I ferment between 65 an 70 degrees id say average 67. Ive used either one package dry yeast, or 1 tube of liquid yeast for each batch, and i use Iodophor as a sanitizer, i’ve also used C-brite. all seem to yield the same results.
The alcoholic aftertaste is possibly from high fermentation temps. If you are not controlling the temperature either with a swamp cooler or temp controlled freezer/fridge, it’s possible that high temperature swings throughout the day caused the yeast to ferment too high. As for the soapy taste, my first few batches had that too and I’ve since noticed it’s not there. The two contributing factors to this that I can think of is cooling my wort quicker and/or letting my bottles sit longer before I try them. See if that soapy flavor dissipates after leaving the bottles condition another week.
