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My issue is not that the beers aren't Hoppy enough. It's the simple fact that I can't taste the hops whatsoever. Given I've used over 100g dry hop I should be able to taste something. I don't. The beers don't taste off or anything, they are still completely drinkable. But it's not good enough. I'm wasting time and money throwing all these hops at these brews and not getting any reward for my efforts, due to some unidentified issue that's somehow over powering what the hops should be doing. To say I'm frustrated would be an understatement. Friends have tried my past brews and all have said good things, however these blokes don't usually drink much else than megaswill. I'll drink srong pale ales and ipas on tap when out and about. At home, the beers i drink that are store bought range from any various brands of pale ale, to euro lagers like Peroni in the warmer months, or on odd occasion I'll splurge and get a 6 pack of something local like PL, prancing pony, etc. I'm not expecting my home brews to be on par with these crafties, but i should be getting something a bit more flavoured than just a kit twang. That being said, I can't explain how the Cooper's IPA, OS lager and TC bootmaker pale bases can all come out tasting the same at the end. It just doesn't make sense. I did make a stout in amongst the above 3 and it still tastes like a stout. It's OK, but not too bad. Still has a hint of the extract twang, but it was still fermented in the Cooper's FV using swamp cooling method. It had some choc malt steeped and added after a 15 min boil. The other main difference was I used 2 X kit yeast and no dry hop for it. The hops I just used had been in the freezer for awhile. When I opened the ziplock they were in, could still smell a very nice hop aroma before adding them to the hop sock. If I do a side by side taste of the bottled end result and the bottled one i did before adding the dry hops, and there is a noticeable difference, then surely it must be something to do with the hops?? REPSPEC: you said you've had this happen a couple of times. What did u do to get past the problem? Have u managed to make any successful brews since? What did you change. As far as I can tell, my cleaning and sanitizing methods are quite thorough and meticulous. The only thing that comes to mind with the latest brew was that I think I just rinsed my hop sock under the hot water tap when finishing the previous brew. I didn't boil it in water this time, just dunked it in starsan before adding the hops and throwing it into the cube. FYI, when I mix up everything in the FV, it just sits on a towel on the kitchen floor, so the jig and sink are still at arm's reach if needed. I use filtered puratap water which is chilled overnight in sanitised clear plastic bottles, which had only had soda water from woolies in them beforehand.
- Today
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Hi Hairy. I have not used them in beer, but have in wine. Since yeast metabolize vanillin, don't add them pre-fermentation. Vanilla beans are quite expensive. A lot of cider makers are switching to oak for this reason, and I am thinking of doing this myself. They say you can get quite a lot of vanillin from one ounce of medium toast oak cubes as well, if added post fermentation. Boil in a small amount of water for a couple of minutes, to kick start the flavour release. American oak has the most vanilla, but French is pretty good too. Leave for a week and then start tasting every couple of days; probably should not leave longer than two weeks. Once bottled the beer will need to age for a couple of months, to integrate the tannins. If you are making a stout, aging is not a bad thing. Cubes are preferred to chips. Good luck with the brew. Cheers. Christina.
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Are you saying like 'commando' style at cold crash?
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Although I'm not a fan of glad wrap on fermenters, I don't think this is causing your issue. I use my fermenter lid in a similar way (sans airlock) and never experience any issues. It could be that where you mix your brews there's a concentration of wild yeast or other bugs, it could be the scratches in the fermenter harbouring bugs. But there's a difference between beer that tastes like it's infected or otherwise compromised and a string of batches that merely taste like each other. If it's tasting off a bit then you could have a spoilage organism - other than the yeast you pitch of course. Gelatine won't drop out visible hop matter either. Its primary use is for yeast, though it probably helps a bit with some chill haze causing protein particles as well (I don't believe it works on polyphenols). These particles are invisible, unlike floating or suspended hop matter that you can see plain as day. Only time and/or cold temperatures will see visible hop matter drop out. Cheers Kelsey
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See attached for the definitive easy solution to internal bottle haze buildup. Cheers,
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ive read this thread a few times...i believe ive had the same thing happen with a couple of brews, but cant place it on anything. Someone mentioned it previously and it went unanswered (from what i could see) about what beers YOU actually drink (that arent your HB). I tend to drink heavy APA or IPA if i go out and when i get home and drink mine...sometimes i cant taste the difference. Have you had friends and family try the different beers to get a different opinion? Perhaps try an extract brew next time and create your own recipes with the help of people on here...
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I always dry hop commando style. I read that is the way to get the most out of your hops....Brulosophy uses the commando method; he cold crashes, and fines with gelatine to remove them. Personally I find cold crashing alone good enough, but I make APAs, not IPAs. Maybe if one uses a lot of hops, gelatine, or some other fining agent, might be necessary. If you have the ability to cold crash, try that first. If that doesn't clear enough hops, try gelatine. If you are still not happy, or if you can''t cold crash, then use some form of containment. Several forum members use those cylindrical tube thingies. I have read that if the hops are packed too tightly, flavour extraction is reduced, which makes sense. Cheers, Christina.
- Yesterday
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New to brewing | Time to experiment with hops
Otto Von Blotto replied to Jared1525230203's topic in DIY Brewing Blether
Normally you'd boil hops in wort, by adding some dry or liquid malt (NOT the kit) to the water. But it should still be alright, Cascade is a lovely hop. -
Christina, haven't used glad wrap until now. The only other thing that is constant is my hop sock and using US-05 yeast. This beer is in glass bottles. I do recall tasting the sample at FG and it was nice. Then I tasted the final sample after the dry hop at bottling time and straight away thought it tasted like the last brew. Maybe my hop sock is to blame? I sanitised it before use in star san. I bottled one long neck before adding the dry hop for comparisons sake. I'll see how it turned out to try and rule the hop sock out.
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The FV was uncovered whilst tipping in the extract can, LDM and all the water. Surely this isn't causing my issues? I've been reading around the net and other sites suggest it may be from a scratch in the plastic that is causing the issue. I have noticed some minor scratching to the bottom of the FV from the mixing spoon. I don't really want to replace it, has only done 4 brews.
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Cleaning Residue from inside Bottles
The Captain1525230099 replied to Potatoes's topic in DIY Brewing Blether
I once got some old Passata bottles from an Italian guy I know. I tried everything to get the scum out of those bottles. In the end I made up a Tri Sodium Phosphate solution of 25g per 2.5l. Placed a six pack on the bench and filled to the brim. Soaked for a couple of hours and reused that solution for about 60 odd bottles. It strips everything off the glass and drops to the bottom of solution. Amazing stuff. Captain -
Hey Hairy, I’d do as Lusty says using two pods per 23/25L batch Captain
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All Grain Stout Recipe
The Captain1525230099 replied to Beer Baron's topic in DIY Brewing Recipe Resource
If your after a simple Dry Irish Stout then the BeerSmith’s Irish stout is pretty good East Kent Goldings and Centennial are a great hop combo for a stout too. He’s a choc vanilla stout but it’s a typical Irish stout that’s a mid strength at 3.9% 1.2kg Flaked barley 3.1kg Maris Otter 0.2kg Roasted Barley 0.25kg Chocolate malt FWA 60g EKG to Ibus of 35 Wyeast 1084 Irish ale 2x vanilla beans to fermenter after fermentation is complete for few days, taste sample each day to get your desired level of vanilla. Given those samples of a stout recipe you could make your own to your tastes. For instance if you want colour without the intense roast you could go a carafa malt. Captain. -
Hi Karlos, If you are using 110gm of hops you should be experiencing a good whack of hop flavour. I never use anywhere near that and have plenty of hop flavour. This makes me wonder if the hops are oxidizing somehow, before you get to the serving stage. Did you use glad wrap on your previous brews too? Perhaps that has something to do with it? Glad wrap lets lots of air in, which can lead to oxidation. I would suggest loosing the Glad wrap. I know some on the forum advise against airlocks, but I would never brew without one, as they help to exclude air. I use them in combination with a carboy. We have already talked about how PET bottles can lead to loss of hop flavour during storage. The same applies to PET carboys. I have both a PET carboy and a glass carboy. I find the beer brewed in the glass carboy tastes better. Beer brewed in PET and bottled in PET is going to go stale fast. Cheers, Christina.
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I did 3 of these last winter (TC Pils kit + 1.5kg light LME made up to 21 litres) with a flameout addition and dry hop with 3 different varietals (Topaz, Summer and Centennial). All 3 were nice, with the Summer batch standing out for its gentle lychee flavour. The pils kit made a great base, so I can also recommend it. Cheers, John
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New to brewing | Time to experiment with hops
Jared1525230203 replied to Jared1525230203's topic in DIY Brewing Blether
I started my first brew with hops last night. I just stuck with the Coopers Draught can as per normal but added hop tea which consisted of 15g of Cascade hops which had been boiled in 1.5l of water for 10 mins then left for about 5 after the flame was turned off (I did not add hop sock to the fermenter). Do you think it will turn out ok???? It smelt great at the time! I was a bit distracted with kids and in hindsight looks like I should have boiled in 500mm water? -
There are a few things you can do to change this up and get it closer to your target. Drop the pale malt by 1kg. Maybe drop the roasted barley down to 200-300g instead of 500 that I use. Ignore the 103g of Willamette too, I was just using it up. Any decent bittering hop boiled for 60 to about 55ish IBUs will do the job. I don't know why it has them being boiled for 80 minutes in a 75 minute boil though I actually hit an OG of 1.069 when I brewed this which gave me an ABV around 7.1% without priming sugar. Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 29.00 l Post Boil Volume: 25.25 l Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l Bottling Volume: 21.00 l Estimated OG: 1.0660 SG Estimated Color: 116.0 EBC Estimated IBU: 58.7 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 63.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 % Boil Time: 75 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name Type # %/IBU 6.000 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 85.1 % 0.500 kg Roasted Barley (Thomas Fawcett) (1350.0 Grain 2 7.1 % 0.200 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1100.0 Grain 3 2.8 % 0.200 kg Crystal Malt - Medium (Thomas Fawcett) ( Grain 4 2.8 % 0.150 kg Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1300.2 EBC) Grain 5 2.1 % 103.00 g Willamette [4.20 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop 6 49.0 IBUs 7.00 g Magnum [12.20 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop 7 9.7 IBUs 1.0 pkg West Yorkshire Ale (Wyeast Labs #1469) Yeast 8 - Mash Schedule: BIAB, Light Body Total Grain Weight: 7.050 kg ---------------------------- Name Description Step Temperat Step Time Saccharification Add 33.31 l of water at 68.5 C 64.4 C 90 min Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min
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Cleaning Residue from inside Bottles
Otto Von Blotto replied to Potatoes's topic in DIY Brewing Blether
I love how home brewers can take a simple task like cleaning bottles and turn it into the most complicated, time consuming pain in the arse thing ever... 🤣 -
Lusty, how vanilla beans do you usually use?
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Wild yeast floats around in the air. Leave a sample of wort sitting uncovered and you'll see it start to ferment after 2-3 days and a thin white layer forms at the bottom. I did this once, then grew the yeast up and fermented a couple of litres of leftover SNPA wort with it. The resultant beer was nowhere near as nice as the proper batch, but it was an interesting experiment. This may not help much but I never noticed the effect of dry hops much in kit beers. Maybe I didn't use enough, but when I went AG and used similar amounts, they were far more noticeable. Cheers Kelsey
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Nice work mate! My only regret with moving to kegs was not being able to do it sooner. I bought a 10 litre keg for those "last few bottles"; I use it with 25L batches and blend two beers in the one keg for 8-10L of a "third" batch. Saves bottling anything and they usually turn out nice. Once I get my little bench capper fixed I'll do 25L lager batches and bottle the excess but otherwise it's all kegged. Cheers Kelsey
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I'm thinking that grease looking substance at the bottom is normal then since I see it in the video at 3:30. Alright thanks guys, hopefully my first brew will work out. Am very keen.
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Welcome to our little community. Watch the video, around 2mins and 30secs there is chat about cold break.
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Just sitting here enjoying my second evening of home draught beer. A huge thanks to Kelsey (and others) for all of the ups, downs, warnings and encouragement in this thread. Approaching my 50th my family wanted to get me something a bit special. I was at the point of wanting to simplify my brewing and looking seriously at Brewart. A few weeks ago my wife (bless her) said "no, you love your brewing, we need to do it right. Get kegs". I was always unsure because of the horror stories doing the rounds - gas leaks, foamy beer, not using the system enough etc. So, over a few nights, I sat down and read the preceeding 23 pages. It convinced me to give it a go and I now have a shiny new 3 tap kegerator pouring ice cold beer made by me. For anyone doubting the move to kegs - don't! With some research and patience it is easy as. An update on pricing too. I understand your desire to do it right the first time Kelsey but I'm happy to get the system working and upgrade as I go. There are amazing deals out there right now with a battle on for market share. 3 tap kegerator $530. NEW stainless kegs $89. Full 6kg gas bottle $89. I upgraded the disconnects to stainless and still had change out of $1000 for all new gear. Kegged 2 brews Saturday and used Kelsey's "40psi for 24 hours, burp keg and sit at serving pressure for 6-7 hours" method. My times were a little shorter and, as Kelsey said, a little undercarbonated last night. But tonight? Well on the way to an awesome brew. And, about 15 mins to sanitise the kegs, fill and get on the gas. The 5 bottles left over were a PITA. The down side is we are now constructing a new deck and bar beside our bali hut and pool. This will cost more than the kegerator. Will try and post photos in the weeks to come. Anyone toying with the idea DO IT. Prices will never be cheaper and your beer will never be better. Cheers
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Hi zane, I'm also a relative newcomer but don't think you need to panic too much. The lumps are most likely some of whatever brewing sugar you used that didn't dissolve, they'll dissolve over time. Not too sure about the grease though? You're best to try to ferment at a lower temp if possible, there are instructions (including videos) on another area of the site, here's a link to the FAQ https://www.diybeer.com/au/faqs Hope it all works out, have a look at the FAQ and that should fill you in on how to check the fermentation is completed, tips for cooling your fermenter etc. Biggest improvements in my brewing came with good sterilisation and temperature control. Good luck! Neil
