soupdragon wrote:

Two If By Sea wrote:A hard to describe funk. Definitely some form of an ester. Nothing terribly strong but just underneath the flavors. I was running into it on my beers and I was trying everything I could think of. I finally started to use a swamp cooler and the taste went away.

Is that one of those fan things that draw water over a pad? I presume you just point it at your F.V.?

Cheers Tom

My swamp cooler is just a rubbermaid bin filled to 2/3 the height of my carboy. I swap out ice jugs morning and afternoon, and when it is really hot, I put a tshirt over the carboy to act as a wick. We use a dehumidifier in the summer so the evaporation helps cool things. The whole thing sits in the bottom of my chest freezer with the lid open. Keeps my temps around 62F pretty consistently in my basement. I switch out the ice jugs with an aquarium heater in the winter.

Got my temp controller, just need to wire it up and I'll use my free freezer instead.

F.V. in a bin with ice in? Simple really

Cheers Tom

Just found this article/post

http://blackcatbrewery.blogspot.com/2009/06/lipids.html

This sounds just like my flavour and a possible cause for it. Can some of the more experienced brewers cast an eye over it and let me know if it could be my problem?????

Cheers Tom

I wouldn't say it was soapy, more the sort of wet cardoard that he describes. I know that's usually caused by hot side aeration but most people tend to think that it's a myth with the well modified malt we use now...... In all honesty I really have no clue to the actual cause but time will tell....
Got my 1st BIAB on right now, 30 mins into my mash

Cheers Tom

sigurdur wrote:According to Charlie Bamforth, HSA is nothing to be worried about if you have a healthy and vigorous fermentation. I have personally never noticed any HSA issues with my brew, even though I have poured the whole thing from a bucket to my boil pot after mashing.
You may want to look at oxidation after fermentation, I find that to be a more probable cause than HSA.

with your first BIAB brew!!
Let us know how it goes.

I'm usually very careful when racking into a barrel. I always have the outlet of the syphon below the level in the barrel to minimise foaming......
Got to go and pull my bag out now my 1st biab mash has had it's 90 mins.....

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:Hey there Tom,

Great to hear you are underway and I trust all is going smoothly. I hope you gave that syphon hose of yours the nostril test .

Looking forward to hearing how the rest of the brew goes,
PP

I always smell my hose
Just got my boil settled down, quite a bit of foam compared to pervoius brews. Don't know if that's a good thing or not?
Time to clean my voile and get my fermenter and all my other bits on to soak in steriliser. I really love the smell of fresh boiling wort mmmmmmmmmmm

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:Good on you Tom,

You will get more foam than what you are used to because you are now officially an all-grain brewer . You would have noticed that it subsides fairly quickly.

Are you going to chill or no-chill?

I meant more foam compared to the last few mashes I've done using the more " traditional " method. If the brewing police could have seen me on my last few brews they would have taken my paddle and stockpot away from me. I really made a mess and ended up boiling all sorts of stuff
I've always chilled in the kitchen sink, usually takes less than an hour
Time to go and have another lung full of boiling malt and hops from the kitchen

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:

soupdragon wrote:I meant more foam compared to the last few mashes I've done using the more " traditional " method. If the brewing police could have seen me on my last few brews they would have taken my paddle and stockpot away from me. I really made a mess and ended up boiling all sorts of stuff

Ha! I just realised that this isn't your first all-grain Tom - good on me! But, is this the first one you have done in 20 years? I had a look through your posts and couldn't quite figure this out. I have been thinking you have been doing extracts or partials for the last 18 months and before that was a big gap. If you have also been brewing all-grain during this last 18 months, ignore all my posts that were responding to that flavour problem thing .

I hope with all these posts tonight we won't read tomorrow that you overshot your boil by an hour or something - lol!


PP

Sorry to disappoint you but this is still really only a partial as I'll be topping my volume and fermentables up in the fermenter......
I really don't think my 15ltr pot is quite big enough to go fully all grain. I'm planning to see hoe this one goes then step up my % of grain over the next few brews. That's presuming I can nail that flavour down.......
Time to put the pot in the sink to chill
Oh and it's bang on 90 mins

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:Ah! Okay then...

Once again, I am clutching at straws but to eliminate the possibility of your extract being a problem (extract twang etc,) why not make a bit of this batch purely all-grain?

In other words, before you top up the volume and fermentables, syphon off a litre or two of wort and ferment this in a mini-fermenter of some sort on its own. Just sprinkle a tiny bit of dried yeast into it or something.

Glad to hear you aren't getting side-tracked

It's probably a bit late to do that for this brew now but I was planning on putting some in a bottle when I come to rack into my barrel. To eliminate the barrel itself. Mind you, I've got 2 and I get the flavour in brews in both of them
Time to change the water in the sink

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:Damn! Do this next time! LOL

I know that when you have kegs, bottling seems like a PITA, but on this brew, make sure you at least bottle a bit of it. If I had done this, I would have found a problem that took me two years to find. The last thing you expect is a faulty keg weld especially when you have pulled them completely apart, time and again, to clean and sanitise them .

You've done kits in the kegs without a problem so this probably isn't the answer but you might as well eliminate it for certain.

Eliminate everything


PP

Indeed, sometimes the most obvious things get fogotten about
I'll definitely do 1 bottle.
The temp is nearly there, by the time I've got it in the fermenter, mixed the dried extract in and topped it up, it should be just about 20c give or take. I think I'll err on the safe side and leave as much of the break in the boiler as I can. I'll take your advice and put the rest in the fridge to see how much settles out. Waste not want not, as my gran used to say

Cheers Tom

sigurdur wrote:I would do more than 1 bottle .. minimum of 3 bottles.
The reason for that being:
1 bottle, you don't know if there are any other factors from the bottle that affect the flavor.
2 bottles, if 2 bottles are different then which one will you trust?
3 bottles, hopefully (at least) two bottles will be the same, so that is the final taste of the beer.

Very good point sigurdur. I'll make it 3 then

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:Spot on sig!

I better get to bed Tom but will look forward to reading your final reports tomorrow.

and trust it will all work out

Fingers crossed it will
Time for a beer
Cheers to all for the support

Cheers Tom

Time for an update

Just sampled the brew. It's only been in the barrel for about a week but it tastes very very nice indeed No sign of that flavour, it's actually the nicest beer I've ever brewed and it's only young. I'll have to drink some of my last brew to free up the barrel so I can get another BIAB on. I really hope this one wasn't a fluke

Cheers Tom

hashie wrote:I'm sure it was no fluke, AG BIAB is a very easy way to make great beers.

Well done!

I must admit that from start to finish, the whole process was much easier than my previous method. I used to make quite a bit of mess but this way was so neat and tidy
Prevoiusly I used to end up with a TON of break in my fermenter and the beer always tasted of something strange but so far this is clean and fresh. Even the yeast smelled lovely instead of the strange flavour
I'll make an effort to drink some of my older beer to free up another barrel so that I can get another BIAB on. I can't wait to prove to myself that this method has finally managed to purge my beers of the flavour I've had to live with since moving to extract/grain brews.......

Cheers Tom

I must say that it's a relief to finally brew a beer that is free from my persistent odd flavour. It's hard to drink my other beer and resist drinking this one I know it's the only way to free up my other barrel so I can get another of these brews on

Cheers Tom

PistolPatch wrote:I've been absent for about a week Tom and am working my way backwards through the threads seeing what I have missed.

Your last two posts above have made my day .

Looking forward to a report on Brew 2

Hi PP

The only problem I've got now is that I've got drink of most of my old brew before I dare to start to really enjoy this nice new beer flavoured stuff. I'm loathed to dump it but I'm gagging to really get stuck into the new one I suppose the sooner I free up the other barrel, the sooner I can get another brew on I have a sneaky small glass every now and again tho just to make sure I'm not dreaming that I've actually brewed some nice beer. I'm truly gob smacked how good it is and it's just so so easy, I seem to have a permanent smile on my face

Cheers Tom

Just a bit of an update.....

The brew has been in the barrel for about 3 weeks now and I can honestly say that my off flavour has been bannished. There was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind that it might appear as the beer started to mature as it has done in the past. It usually turns up no later than 2 weeks in so 3 weeks on I'm over the moon
Next job is to get my other barrel empty so I can brew up another batch

Cheers Tom