I have been brewing extract for 5+ years now. I would say most of my beers have turned out really good except something changed recently. My last 5 or so batches have this strange after taste to them. No matter what recipe i use, there is still something wrong. It’s not undrinkable or anything like that, but just extremely frustrating to put the time and effort into brewing for it to now come out like i am used to. So now lets get to all the details… I recently upgraded some of my equipment which i think might be the problem. I bought a glass big mouth bubbler, Oxygenation Kit 2.0, and Water Filter Kit - 10 in. I first thought the problem was the big mouth bubbler because i could not get the top to seal right and even bought the universal top and that didn’t work as well. I went back to using a normal car boy, but that wasn’t the fix. I also thought, that maybe the oxygenation was causing the problem, so i didn’t use that. Still didn’t work. I haven’t tried not using the water filter kit, but i have tried the water after it’s gone through and it tastes fine. So lets run through my normal brew:
Wyest yeast starter for 24 hours before brewing
Water from water filter kit
Extract brew following instructions.
Once Temp has dropped in an ice bath move to car boy.
Top off to 5 gallons
Measure OG with refractometer
Oxygenate by rolling carboy back and forth or use oxygenation kit
Add decanted yeast starter.
Move to a temp controlled water bath to control fermentation temp.
Use blow off tube as my fermentation are very violent with the yeast starter
Monitor fermentation for 5-7 days.
Move to secondary when fermentation starts to slow.
Add dry hops if needed.
Bottle with added sugar water to carbonate
I might have missed some steps in there, but most of it is there. I am not sure what i am doing wrong. I am slowly losing my mind with every sub-par batch i make. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The answer is almost always water… what was your water source prior to using the filter? I’d suggest grabbing some distilled water from the store for your next brew day, just to eliminate the variable.
Go back to the water you were originally using. If it’s municipal it may have changed. Stop transfering to a secondary unless their is a reason. Have you changed suppliers? Maybe your taste buds are getting refined, it happens.
Try lowering your fermentation temperature. A yeast starter and oxygenation both help get a good healthy fermentation going but you don’t want the fermentation to be too fast. Try to keep wort temps toward the lower end of the yeast’s optimum range. You can find lots of posts on fermentation temperature on the forum.
I used a PUR filter before i switched to the bigger one. The PUR filter took forever to make enough water to use. Don’t you want some kind of minerals in the water? I didn’t think using distilled would be the best solution.
In many instances off flavors are caused the brewing water being used and fermentation temperatures above the yeasts range. High temperatures produce fusel alcohols which can be very hot to just a bite at the back of the tongue. Some bottled water and all municipal water contains chlorine or chloramines. Infection can also produce terrible aromas and off flavors.
In your situation there are three things I would try:
Use distilled water for your next several fermentations.
Use the oxygenation kit. Rolling a glass carboy is dangerous and will aerate less than rocking. (I wouldn’t rock a BMB though. Thin glass.)
Control the actual temperature of the fermenting beer at the mid range for the yeast. When the heat production from the initial active fermentation lessens you can raise the temperature back up to the mid range.
Keep you beers in the primary for several weeks before bottling. During this time check the SG about day 10 and day 15. Bottle when the beer has cleared.
You really don’t need minerals in the water if you are doing extract…Distilled water is fine. Chlorine/chloramine likely not an issue with your PUR filter I’m guessing… Temperature control is probably it. Fermenting in the low 60’s for ales a rough guideline, at least during the main part of fermentation.
I control my fermentation temps with a water bath, aquarium heater, and pump. I usually have it set to the lower end of the yeast temp. I would think this would be more than enough to control the temps. The thermometer on the car boy above the water is usually dead on.
Did the off flavors exactly coincide with your upgrades? If it were me, I’d go to square one and brew a batch exactly as I did prior to the problems. I’d then do the next batch using one of the upgrades. I’d continue down that path adding in one at a time until I caught the bad flavor.
In lieu of the above, exactly what off flavors are you getting? Can you describe what has changed with the taste of your brew? With what these guys on here know, you may give them a few more clues to the root of the problem if you can put your finger on the flavor. Good luck man, it’s got to be frustrating but no doubt you can clear it up!
You have the aquarium heater set to the lower end of the yeast temp? If so, that is controlling the temp of the water bath. More specifically it is heating the water bath to maintain a minimum temperature. Is this in a cold room? What is controlling the maximum temperature of the wort? When fermentation is active, the wort temp can be several degrees above the bath temp. Fermentation generates heat so you often need to cool the wort, rather than heat it, during active fermentation. You can search for swamp cooler here for a simple cooling solution. I use an old refrigerator controlled by a temp controller with the temp probe in a thermowell inside the wort. All that said, the stick on temperature gauges are generally a pretty good indication of wort temperature.
This is being stored in my basement. The temp down there is usually 50-60 degrees F. I would have thought setting the water bath to the lower end of the yeasts temp, the wort temp would be well within the temp range.
In a 50 degree environment, I would expect you to be OK (as long as we are talking about ale, not lager) but the fact that you need a blow-off tube suggests that the wort temps may be getting high. During active fermentation, you would rather keep the temp of the wort itself at the lower end of the yeast’s temp range. You can monitor that with your stick on thermometer. Do you know what that is reading at the same time the blowoff is happening?
I should point out that blowoff does not automatically mean there is a problem. Some yeasts are more active than other leading to blowoff even at lower temps. However, blowoff suggests that wort temp is something to check.
You mentioned the thermometer on the carboy above the water level so I’m assuming it’s one of those fermometer stickon thermometers? That’s what I use on mine, in the summer I need to cool the swamp cooler water down to keep it in range, in the winter I actually need to put the carboys on a heating pad, although you mentioned you use an aquarium heater so it shouldn’t be getting too cold. “Vigorous blowoff” does make me think too warm. For reference, on your last batch you noticed this, what yeast did you use and what temp did you shoot for on thermometer?
Extract has all the minerals already in it from the brewing water used to make the extract. All you have to do is replace it with pure water. Adding water with minerals in it can possibly throw it way out of whack, since it’s pretty much impossible to know what was in the original water.
I went to all grain because I had weird flavors from extract, and come to find out, my water had high mineral content. Never went back to extract, but if I did, I would certainly buy distilled or RO water from the store rather than using my well water.
I usually have a good amount of blow off. I always thought it was from the yeast starter that was made since i was controlling the temp in a water bath. Maybe the temp in the carboy is higher then i am thinking it is. I would think the water bath would displace the heat generated by the fermentation to flatten out any kind of temp spike.
You mentioned starter. Are you building it up enough? Maybe an under pitch? Maybe not because of the blow-off. Maybe over pitch just throwing it out there
I will have to give distilled water a try in my next batch. I would have thought it would have tasted funny when i tested it before brewing. Maybe it’s a combination of everything in the end product?
