My Buddy and I are new to brewing, we have a couple of batches under our belt with decent results. We have been sticking to brewing the kits from our local store till we get the nuts and bolts down and dial in the nuances of our equipment.
So here's my quandary..... We brewed a kit of Shallow Grave porter, the beer had great color,had a nice creamy head and retention, as well as laced nicely on inside of the glass{if this stuff matters} on the initial sip you got a decent porter flavor but it finished with a pretty bitter note and not that pleasant, i describe it as a burnt chocolate note or like when coffee has been left in the pot to long with the burner on, my buddy says a burnt cotton candy like taste.
So we are trying to figure out what went wrong in our process to create this unpleasant taste and fix it. was it in our mash? maybe fermenting? a combo of the two? Since this is the first Question I have asked here I will include some of the brewing notes below I hope someone here can maybe point us in the right direction to fix this before we give this kit another try.
Brew notes:
14lbs of grain and 4.5 gal of water to start
Strike water @ 170 deg
Mashed @ 151 deg for 60 min
Mash out @ water @ 172 deg
Sparge or Rinse @ water 165 deg
with mash out and sparge we had 7 gallons in boil pot
pre boil grav 1.046 { yes it is a low number, our readings we think, are suspect due to crummy hydro since got better one}
boil 60 min add hops as per kit directions
Flame out and cool down
we cool wort by putting boil pot in tub with water and ice takes aprox 45-50 min to cool to pitching temp
pre-ferment grav 1.059 { target as per kit was 1.065-1.070}
pitch @ 70 deg
fermentation on this was over in 3 to 4 days we did grav check over the next couple of days and the number didn't change {steady at 1.011}
bottle it up
Now a couple of extras, after this batch we upgraded our hydrometer and got some more accurate thermometers as during this batch we were using two thermometers that were reading diff temps example one would read 156 deg and the the other would read 151, with ferment we read that if bubbling stops check grav and if no movement, it's done bottle it up, we opened the first bottle a week after bottling.. could it mellow out with more time in the bottle? or was it something in the process?, if you need any other info let me know or if you have any advice or guess at what went wrong I love to hear from you
Thanx and Peace
Supernaut72
Post #2 made 7 years ago
Hard to say with a kit, perhaps human error in measuring the grains? If there's black patent malt in the bill, and they overdid it with that ... I can see it ruining the brew.
There's also mash pH, and the tendency for it to go too low in beers with dark malts (as they have a greater effect). I would get a handle on water knowledge if you haven't already.
Just spitballing here, there are too many variables out of your control with a kit brew.
There's also mash pH, and the tendency for it to go too low in beers with dark malts (as they have a greater effect). I would get a handle on water knowledge if you haven't already.
Just spitballing here, there are too many variables out of your control with a kit brew.
Last edited by Rick on 16 Jun 2016, 01:46, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #3 made 7 years ago
Supernaut72, what was the Percentage of "Black Barley" or Very Dark Grains did the Recipe used.
Those Very Dark Grains are very near "Burnt" during Malting.
Those Very Dark Grains are very near "Burnt" during Malting.
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
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Post #4 made 7 years ago
joshua wrote:Supernaut72, what was the Percentage of "Black Barley" or Very Dark Grains did the Recipe used.
Those Very Dark Grains are very near "Burnt" during Malting.
here is the Grain Bill for the recipe we used
12 lb 2-Row
1 lb Munich
8oz Black Patent
8oz Chocolate Malt
1 lb Crystal 40L
Last edited by Supernaut72 on 16 Jun 2016, 09:37, edited 1 time in total.
Post #5 made 7 years ago
Rick wrote:Hard to say with a kit, perhaps human error in measuring the grains? If there's black patent malt in the bill, and they overdid it with that ... I can see it ruining the brew.
There's also mash pH, and the tendency for it to go too low in beers with dark malts (as they have a greater effect). I would get a handle on water knowledge if you haven't already.
Just spitballing here, there are too many variables out of your control with a kit brew.
We weighed out the grain ourself, The water might be a place to start, we have checked our local water reports and all in all it's pretty good not much needed for "tweaking" but could use a little bit. maybe do that next time.
Last edited by Supernaut72 on 16 Jun 2016, 09:40, edited 1 time in total.
Post #6 made 7 years ago
Supernaut72, the nearly 5% Black Patent malt grain, will give an acrid taste to a Porter.
It IS used in a Dry Stout.
A good Porter, is not usually a dry beer.
A good Porter, is not usually a dry beer.
Last edited by joshua on 16 Jun 2016, 09:59, edited 1 time in total.
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
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Porter..... what went wrong?
Post #7 made 7 years ago
A week is way too young to be drinking that beer! I made a porter recently that had chocolate malt, Amber malt and brown malt and it is a vastly different beer after 6 months than it was when it was first carbed up.
Darker malts will bring a bitter or astringent flavour but this usually mellows nicely over time.
Think of it like a red win with a lot of tannins when young that will mellow nicely with age.
Darker malts will bring a bitter or astringent flavour but this usually mellows nicely over time.
Think of it like a red win with a lot of tannins when young that will mellow nicely with age.
Post #8 made 7 years ago
You're in the vicinity of 3% each for the dark malts ... that part is fine.
Mashing at 151 and attenuating to 1.011 would be my guess as to why you are getting these flavors in general, especially if you're not confident in the thermometer accuracy (could have been lower). I generally hold my porter recipe in the 154-156F range, and attenuate to 1.015-1.018 (mash pH in the 5.4-5.5 area to lessen the fermentability). Not saying these are correct numbers, but they are what I seem to prefer for the style. Highly attenuated dark beers seems to have an almost watery finish (along with accentuating harshness of dark malt characteristics), so I do everything I can to avoid those from throwing me out of balance.
You definitely rushed this along, which is impressive in its own right if you timed everything right. However, Contrarian makes a great point with that. Let it sit, and it might come out to your liking.
Mashing at 151 and attenuating to 1.011 would be my guess as to why you are getting these flavors in general, especially if you're not confident in the thermometer accuracy (could have been lower). I generally hold my porter recipe in the 154-156F range, and attenuate to 1.015-1.018 (mash pH in the 5.4-5.5 area to lessen the fermentability). Not saying these are correct numbers, but they are what I seem to prefer for the style. Highly attenuated dark beers seems to have an almost watery finish (along with accentuating harshness of dark malt characteristics), so I do everything I can to avoid those from throwing me out of balance.
You definitely rushed this along, which is impressive in its own right if you timed everything right. However, Contrarian makes a great point with that. Let it sit, and it might come out to your liking.
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- SVA Brewer With Over 20 Brews From United States of America
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