67 replies to this topic

[neddles]

That would be something a bit different than what I tested. I cooled, then tested, without noting how long I waited. I then took a second measurement to make sure the 2 agreed.

Maybe next time I should cool a second sample at the same time and see how long it takes my pH meter to stabilize in that one… after stabilizing/measuring the first sample.

[Big Nake]

I have also noticed the shift as neddles described. I take my sample and put it into a frozen metal cup that is submerged in solid ice. The temp drops and when it gets to about 70° or so, I take the cup out of the ice and place the meter probe in there. It starts low (say 5.10 or whatever) and slowly climbs to 5.25 ~ 5.30 or whatever. I also assume that all of the sorcery happening in the mash takes some amount of time to be ready to measure so I generally wait 5-10 minutes after stirring to take my sample.

[Brauer]

It's possible that is just the meter equilibrating. As Nettles says, what happens if you cool a sample, wait a few minutes, then measure? Does it still take a few minutes to stabilize? Might be the low ionic strength or complex nature of wort...

[SchwanzBrewer]

Astringency... think about the following, I thought I was having some astringency issues about a month ago. I started digging into my process to see where things went wrong but I wasn't having much luck. Then I thought about what influences mouthful which is the physical sensation of tasting beer. So I looked for other sources. First thing I did was drink some water that I use for brewing, sure enough the astringent sensation was still there. So I picked up some distilled water and tried that, still had the sensation. Then it dawned on me, I burned my tongue on some hot wings about a week before and I was still healing and all drinks had that sensation. So the moral of the story is don't burn your tongue on hot wings and don't focus purely on your beer when trying to diagnose flaws. There's outside influences to consider too. Cheers.

[positiveContact]

Astringency... think about the following, I thought I was having some astringency issues about a month ago. I started digging into my process to see where things went wrong but I wasn't having much luck. Then I thought about what influences mouthful which is the physical sensation of tasting beer. So I looked for other sources. First thing I did was drink some water that I use for brewing, sure enough the astringent sensation was still there. So I picked up some distilled water and tried that, still had the sensation. Then it dawned on me, I burned my tongue on some hot wings about a week before and I was still healing and all drinks had that sensation. So the moral of the story is don't burn your tongue on hot wings and don't focus purely on your beer when trying to diagnose flaws. There's outside influences to consider too. Cheers.

 

if I eat rhubarb it messes up my taste buds for the rest of the day.  to a lesser extend arugula and other bitter greens as well.

[neddles]

Eating walnuts, pecans and several other nuts will give your beer a tannic finish.

[Big Nake]

There are definitely times when it's not the beer but your tastebuds. If every beer you try (homebrew or commercial) starts tasting weird, it's something else. If a beer you have available has been stellar but all of a sudden it's not as good, it may not be the beer. I have also been "beered-out" to the point where I'm just not in the mood for beer and it's not tasting as good as usual.

[positiveContact]

There are definitely times when it's not the beer but your tastebuds. If every beer you try (homebrew or commercial) starts tasting weird, it's something else. If a beer you have available has been stellar but all of a sudden it's not as good, it may not be the beer. I have also been "beered-out" to the point where I'm just not in the mood for beer and it's not tasting as good as usual.

 

[denny]

I have also been "beered-out" to the point where I'm just not in the mood for beer and it's not tasting as good as usual.

 

Having just returned from GABF, THIS^^^^^

[matt6150]

Ok, well mine is a large household one that the water runs through when it comes out of the well. Not carbon or anything. I change it every 6 months or so, but will check it out. The water tastes just fine though coming out of my faucet.

Ok so maybe I lied. I realized after thinking about this issue that I haven't actually tasted the water out of the faucet in some time. Some page 3 info here. I have two home filters because basically I have two homes. My main house has its own water filter and I change that often. But my poolhouse filter is outside at the well and has gone a little while unattended. Can you guess where I brew at? Yes the poolhouse. I checked the filter, not looking good. I tasted the water coming out of the faucet in the brewery, not tasting good. Needless to say, Ken you may have figured this thing out for me. Thanks.

[positiveContact]

Ok so maybe I lied. I realized after thinking about this issue that I haven't actually tasted the water out of the faucet in some time. Some page 3 info here. I have two home filters because basically I have two homes. My main house has its own water filter and I change that often. But my poolhouse filter is outside at the well and has gone a little while unattended. Can you guess where I brew at? Yes the poolhouse. I checked the filter, not looking good. I tasted the water coming out of the faucet in the brewery, not tasting good. Needless to say, Ken you may have figured this thing out for me. Thanks.

 

is that how that filter should look?

 

well I'm glad you solved your riddle!  I drink my tap water nearly daily so hopefully I don't ever have this issue!

[matt6150]

Um no filter should be white. I do drink my tap water everyday, in my house. But this is filter is headed back to my poolhouse and I rarely pour and drink water from there. And when I do it is through a Brita pitcher my wife has in the fridge.

[HVB]

Yeah .. I would replace that

[matt6150]

Going to today. Was out of filters so stopping at Lowe's on the way home.

[Big Nake]

I agree it looks like it needs to be replaced and if you tasted that water and it doesn't taste good, that's all the sign you need. I will say that when I had this issue in the past, my filter still looked white (not really dirty at all) but the water coming out of it was not pleasant to drink so we may not be on the same page but the result is the same... change the filter. Also, I lost quite a bit of beer when I had this issue (mainly because I brewed a bunch of batches back-to-back without knowing there was a problem) and so now I find that the easiest safeguard is to take a sip of the water that you just grabbed for your batch of beer. If it tastes fresh and clean, you're good. If not, swap out the filter and try to keep an extra on hand just in case. When I use my backup cartridge, I go get another one right away. Sorry that this ruined some of your beer Matt but it's ALWAYS good to know what happened and that you found the issue.

[Big Nake]

My filter cartridge looks like it might be a little smaller than yours and it looks like this...



Even when my cartridge goes down, it still looks pretty white and clean. I'm using Chicago municipal water. I have heard that when the cartridge is no longer working, it starts to burp up everything that it filtered out. I'm not sure that's true but it seems reasonable because I did get some very nasty, metallic flavors in my beer. It could also be that once the cartridge gets to the point yours is at, it's just not able to filter out as much as it would if it was new. Is that well water? Do you know the composition of your well water?

[matt6150]

Yes it is well water. I have done a water report on it before and there is very little in it. I have been meaning to get a new report done and I might just do that now just to see. Even though this water definitely tastes bad it doesn't taste as bad as this batch of Alt. I don't know if something else happened that day that played a part but I'm not convinced that is was just the water. The beer is much worse.

[matt6150]

Ok I've since brewed again since I replaced the filter. This problem is still not entirely over. It is better for sure but something is still going on. My water tastes just fine and I just had a water report done a couple weeks ago and it is right were I thought it was. So if I rule out water I'm not entirely sure what's going on. It tastes like a harsh bitterness, like too much sulfate or too many bittering hops without the hop flavor. The only thing I can think of that has changed in these last few beers with the odd flavor is that I started using brewtan. The current beer I have in the fermenter is the oatmeal cookie beer I posted about. It is far from a hoppy beer and only 30-40ppm of sulfate. But yet it is bitter and harsh. Although I have started to cold crash it yesterday and took a sample about an hour ago and it is much better sitting around 40 degrees. It is frustrating and not sure how to proceed as I'm tired of making shitty beer. I am going to let this beer play out and finish crashing and carb it to see how it ends up. Maybe I am just tasting something early in the process and it will end up dropping out. I don't know I'm just ranting here.

[Big Nake]

Huh. If the brewtan is the only other variable, I would have to say that another batch of beer without brewtan needs to be brewed. Although, in my experience, brewtan has done the opposite... it has smoothed the beer out and taken away some harshness. I don't know how quickly you can brew again but I think you should try to make another beer (preferably another batch of one of the bad beers) and leave out the brewtan and see what happens. Brewtan does seem to be a little mysterious in how it impacts different brewers. Are you sure there was no other equipment change or anything like that? Any chance your thermometer is out of whack and you've been mashing at 135 or 140° all this time (not even sure that would cause it but I assume the resulting beer would be DRY).

[neddles]

Is anyone else tasting this in your beer or is it just you?