# The Tang.....



## cosmo (6/2/11)

hi guys have opened a couple bottles of black rock nz draught that i have had down for a couple weeks,they have been kept out of the sun and were actually very clear in the bottle but after opening them and having the 1st taste still had a bit of the old home brew tang taste to it just wondering will this go with age or is there something i can do for future brews to stop this cheers deano :huh:


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## mwd (6/2/11)

I do mostly Kits & Bits with mainly Coopers Goo and I nearly always get a twang which is hard to explain in words but I take to be the 'homebrew twang' Never seems to go completely but then again I never have the patience to keep a brew for months to see if it improves. Steeping grains and adding hop additions seems to mask it but never completely eliminates it IMHO.


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## cosmo (6/2/11)

cheers TB asked at mlhbs and she said its due to the yeast not fermenting completely and that i should stir it up........but to be honest sometimes wonder about her advise


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## kelbygreen (6/2/11)

if your steeping grains and adding hops there is no reason you cant ditch the kit and go extract. My thoughts was that it could be to do with the iso hops or the tins they are put in. As a beer or softdrink taste different out of a can then a bottle I think so one of them must impart some flavour. Never used liquid unhopped malt so cant say if you get the same taste from that or not. 

My beers have increased 10 fold with extract but prob would more with AG but I dont have the time to do a AG batch have done 2 and both was average as had some pretty big disasters on brew day def made better extracts then them 2 AG batches. If time and money allowed Id be 3v AG for sure but it doesnt so I brew with what I got and am very happy.


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## Sneddy (6/2/11)

My friends homebrew always has the same "tang" no matter what beer they're brewing. It's almost a metallic, tangy, alkaline flavour. Sort of like you just licked a 9 volt battery.

They keg all their beer, but even when they bottled it still had the same flavour. I find it actually overpowers what ever hop or malt flavours the beer was meant to have... But they have the biased eyes of a mother with ugly children... So as long as they're happy.

I've always just assumed it had something to do with their process and not the ingredients, as my home brew has never had the same sort of flavour to it (even after a short time in the bottle). But now I've moved to Fresh Wort kits, I don't think I'll ever use a premade kit again. Extract+hopping and fresh wort all the way IMO.

They boil all their kits, which I don't think does them any flavour favours. And their biggest problem is they put on 7 brews at a time, so they don't really have time to learn from their mistakes, and rather have just become accustomed to their shabby beer. 

What I am trying to say in this is, don't take off flavours to be a part of the process. Brewing at home can be just as good as commercial craft brewing, so look at your process, tools and ingredients. 

Refine, customise, and upgrade.


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## cosmo (6/2/11)

whats peoples opinions please in regards to using just tap water in regards to your top up water.am actually wondering if its got something to do with the chlorine.thinking of maybe boiling the top up water and then once its cooled down putting it in another 20l bucket till adding to the wort.

opinions plse


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## brett mccluskey (6/2/11)

cosmo said:


> whats peoples opinions please in regards to using just tap water in regards to your top up water.am actually wondering if its got something to do with the chlorine.thinking of maybe boiling the top up water and then once its cooled down putting it in another 20l bucket till adding to the wort.
> 
> opinions plse


All depends what the composition of your water is.I use tap water but i'm on a bore thats virtually rain water  Chlorine certainly won't help,but i don't consider that the reason for 'homebrew twang' Try liquid yeast with an appropriately sized starter and i think you'll taste a huge difference,if not the elimination of that homebrew tang


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## [email protected] (6/2/11)

I used filtered and boiled water for my one and only kit. 
6 months down the track the " twang" has faded a lot, but it is still there.

To me it reminds me of tinned food taste.
I never got any twang in the couple of dry extract brews i did.

EDIT: yeah topper makes a good point, id be interested to try a kit again with a liquid yeast just out of interest


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## Ducatiboy stu (6/2/11)

Couple of things you can do

DONT use white sugar...except to prime your bottles

Keep the fermentation temp under 18*Use fresh kits

Use a different yeast


I have had Kit Brews that you would never know where a kit brew , so it is possible.


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## Rod (7/2/11)

I bottle my brew

never even taste until 6 weeks old

normally start drinking at 12 weeks

makes a difference


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (7/2/11)

Lower temp = less twang.

It's consistently over 30 degrees and 99.99999999999% humidity in Qld, ATM, and I put a batch down just before it got bad again, and am expecting it to be twangy.

I've put all brewing of new batches on hold until the temp gets down to the mid-high twenties. I store the beer in my bedroom with the aircon on, but there only so much cooling an air con can do.


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## Midnight Brew (7/2/11)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Couple of things you can do
> 
> DONT use white sugar...except to prime your bottles
> 
> ...



+1 Temp to 18 is important to me for consistency of my brews. Also as mentioned I think some of that twang could be from the ISO hops but only a guess.

If you swapped up the kits for specialty grain and extract then made your own hop additions and added a better yeast I can guarentee the twang will be gone. Ofcourse really depends on what is more convient for your brewing.


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## J Grimmer (7/2/11)

I have noticed this in particular with some 2cans that i have done and think it must be from the kits and using that much ISOHop in the kit, but after about 12 weeks in the bottle it seems to go away. The other thing i can think it may be is the yeast?

Good Luck.


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## Rod (7/2/11)

Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> Lower temp = less twang.
> 
> It's consistently over 30 degrees and 99.99999999999% humidity in Qld, ATM, and I put a batch down just before it got bad again, and am expecting it to be twangy.
> 
> I've put all brewing of new batches on hold until the temp gets down to the mid-high twenties. I store the beer in my bedroom with the aircon on, but there only so much cooling an air con can do.



Worth getting a fridgemate , mate

http://mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgema...roller-kit.html

I have been using one for years now , just set and forget

made a brew last week in fridge on back verandah , some day's in excess of 42C , brew stayed at 19C


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (7/2/11)

Rod said:


> Worth getting a fridgemate , mate
> 
> http://mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgema...roller-kit.html
> 
> ...



Thanks mate,

on the to do list.

I need to get cabinet approval from the Minister of War, Finance and Family Planning.

I've a fridge that I've got to do that with, but it has been sitting for two years with a clean out (obviously i didn't leave it dirty, but humidity mould is in there.

Goomba


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