Grass Metallic Taste, need help

[porkchop]

This sounds like a solid plan. Especially with hoppy beers, oxidation is the enemy, and a bottling wand will be a big improvement. Even pouring down the side of the bottle agitates the beer too much. Did you get the spring loaded or gravity seal plunger?

[doc280]

I purchased the Fermtech Pro Filler, which is springless.

[porkchop]

Should be fine. I find the one with the spring to be a little easier, but I used a springless one for several years.

[doc280]

I do plan on learning how to use it, bottling water to start with. I would hate to waist possibly good beer.

[doc280]

I wanted a brown ale to go along with an aged steak which I was preparing. The Private Rye was bottled two weeks prior and following it's instructions, it was ready to go. So I place the two trub bottles in the refrigerator 48 hrs prior to meal time.

Now the only things I have changed with this batch -vs- my failed batches are the use of us-05, instead of u-04, the rinsing of the bottles with distilled water after sanitizing with One Step and corn sugar instead of table sugar.

At the first sip I thought I tasted a slight hint of the off favor I had got with the previous batches, but once drinking more I no longer noticed any off flavor and started enjoying the creamy biscuit, caramel, and cocoa flavors. Not the best summertime beer, very rich, but goes great with a good steak.

Looking forward to returning back to Private Rye in another two weeks of conditioning time.

[squeegeethree]

grats

[WMNoob]

Nice!

[doc280]

Ok, I got the IPA dry hopped yesterday. Boiled the hop bags, the two shooter marbles and then added the hops to the each bag, tying them off. Placed a bag, gently, into each of the LBKs and they slipped away into the depths.

[loopie_beer]

Has your private rye showed any of the off flavor since it has a little age on it?

[doc280]

That is a good question and I was going to wait until four weeks in the bottle to test it. However I has placed three bottles in the refrigerator, to have on hand for the Red Sox - Braves game today. I will let you know.

[doc280]

Top of the eighth and with how the game is going, a good time for a Private Rye three week report. Three weeks after being bottled, I have to say things have not got better. The off flavors, I get, are more prevalent and the good favors have diminished. The brew still remains drinkable however I am not enjoying it as much as week two. I would say it is a little dryer then week two also.

[squeegeethree]

You sterilized your bottles and caps with StarSan this time right? And did not wash them a second time?

[doc280]

The Private Rye, the One Step was used and the bottles were then rinsed with distilled water.

The IPA is still in the fermenter and Star San has been used, and will be used in everything during the process. I will also be using a bottling wand for the first time. I have practice using the bottling wand and have it down pat.

[loopie_beer]

Without rehashing the thread and my lazy butt re-reading everything did you try using distilled water to brew?

[doc280]

Yes, distilled water has been used with the IPA.

[TomW]

You may not find this funny but maybe there is something in there that was missed.
Everyone here working hard to resolve the problem...
Don't give up.

Brad Smith:(obviously this is a plug for BeerSmith...)

Brewing to Lose: 10 Tips for Making Bad Beer

1. Never Sanitize or Sterilize your Equipment - Bad beer requires bacteria, wild yeasts and other beasties to produce sour off flavors. The Belgians have known this for hundreds of years, and relied on wild yeast and bacteria in many of their greatest brews. Go Belgian on your next brew - stop all of that unnecessary washing and sanitizing and let your equipment go native. You will save money and precious time. No one likes to clean their equipment - so just reuse the rotting gunk from your last batch to spoil your next one.

2. Never Use Brewing Software, Keep Notes or Record Recipes - Everyone knows that brewing good beer is a matter of pure luck and not repeatable. Who needs a bunch of notes cluttering up the place? If you don't measure anything, never keep any notes and never write down your recipe, then you will never miss your target gravity or volume.

Don't use brewing software - that might help you match a particular style or know your color or bitterness in advance. It's much better to find out the sex of the baby after its born. You can always enter it in whatever style category you feel like the day of the competition. Plus, if you do accidentally make a good batch of beer there is no need to panic. Without a recipe or consistent technique your next batch is certain to be completely different.

1. Store your Ingredients in a Warm, Moist, Sunny place - Bad beer requires some forethought and planning - you can't just expect to throw something stinky together on the spur of the moment. Prepare first by storing your ingredients in the hot sun, or at least a nice moist corner of the cellar. As I mentioned in my article on hops storage, hops degrade quickly under heat and sunlight leaving a warm skunky smell and flavor in your beer. Malts can't be ignored either - crush your grains weeks ahead of time so they will oxidize and keep them wet and warm to make sure they spoil before brewing. If you're lucky some mold or weevils will gain a foothold for additional character.

2. Don't Boil - Just Mix and Ferment - The best brewers boil their entire wort for at least 90 minutes to improve clarity, flavor and beer stability. But stability and clarity are mortal enemies of bad beer - so I think its best to just dump the ingredients in and mix them for a minute or two. Plus if you don't boil you will save precious time and money (no need for a pot!)- just toss the yeast in with some water, malt and sugar and call it a day. Be sure to leave the fermenter open for a while so the wild yeast and bacteria can start souring it. No need to leave anything to chance.

3. Add Low Quality Yeast, or None at All - Bad beer starts with bad ingredients. Don't stop with just stale malt and hops - add some old dry packet bread yeast. You'll save big dollars over the "winners" who probably purchased high quality liquid yeast packages. Also - never create a yeast starter. Yeast starters give your yeast an unfair head start in the wort, and don't allow for bacteria and wild yeasts to take hold. If you are still producing good beer with low quality yeast, consider using no yeast at all! There are plenty of wild yeasts floating around in the air that are free and guaranteed to make bad beer. As I mentioned earlier, the Belgians have been doing this for years.

4. Ferment in a Hot Place - Yeast prefers cooler fermentation temperatures - usually under 70 degrees F for ales and down in the 50+F range for lagers. If you ferment at higher temperatures you can create undesirable flavors of all kinds. Lagers in particular will suffer from fermenting at excessively high temperatures, so turn up the heat and enjoy!

5. Add Sugar and Lots of It - Many of us carry fond memories of our first homebrewing kit that came with 3.3 lbs of malt and instructions to add 3-4 pounds of nice white cane sugar. The net result was a beer that tasted like a cross between malt liquor and sour cider. You can get that old cidery flavor once again, and save money on malt by adding delicious table sugar to your next brew.

6. Bottle and Age Improperly - Bottle your beer by dropping a bit of sugar in each bottle. This gives you random carbonation. Alternately you can mix a random volume of sugar, though this sometimes results in bottle bombs that can make a mess of your kitchen. Be sure you never measure the sugar by weight or mix the sugar in a separate tank before bottling, as this could give you a consistent carbonation level. Once your beer is bottled, store it in a warm sunny place, ideally in clear bottles as the sunlight and heat will rapidly add off flavors and break down its stability.

7. Compete with Style - When you compete, the proper attitude is critical to losing. You need to have a losing attitude going into the competition. Remember that the word "contest" is derived from the word "con". Everyone involved is there to cheat you - why else would they volunteer to work on the contest for free? Prepare and present your beer to minimize its appeal. Grouse about everyone and everything you possibly can - complain about the venue, the setup, other competitors, the categories and the rules.

It helps if you review the rules and make a list of complaints in advance. Complain about the judges whenever they are around as this will really impress them. A consistent negative attitude will endear you to your fellow competitors, who will no longer be threatened by you. It will also clearly mark you as one of the losers.

1. Never Take Advice - Brewing advice is worth just what you paid for it - nothing. In the case of books, its worth even less than what you paid for it. Do you really believe that brewing experts give away their trade secrets for free? Do you think someone who really knows how to brew would put it in a book for just anyone to pick up and read? No - the secrets of the trade are just that - secrets!

[sneezles61]

holy moly... Thats alot of reading... I hope you didn't type all that... You'd missed out on happy hour! Sneezles61

[doc280]

At week four, or so close to week four to call it week four, in the bottle, the Private Rye is dead. Yes dead, the off flavor has taken over and to my tastebuds it is no longer drinkable.

So in a recap of the Private Rye-

At time of bottling the favors were very good.

At week two in the bottle, the flavors were good with just a hint of the off flavor.

At week three, the off flavor was taking a strong hold over the beer's flavor profile, but still drinkable.

At week four, the beer is dead.

These bottles of Private Rye were kept at 73F until three days before drinking, at which time were placed in the refrigerator.

[porkchop]

Maybe for your next batch, bottle one without the bottling wand and pouring it into the bottle, and the rest of them bottle with the wand trying not to aerate the beer. This is sounding more and more like an oxidation issue. If the one you bottled by pouring develops the off flavor and the rest stay good, you'll know what the problem is.

[doc280]

I really hope you are correct. The Kama Citra IPA has been in the fermenter for 21 days and will be bottled today. I have practiced using the bottling wand and have the technique down.