Beer Getting Worse With Age

[Torpedo Punt]

I seem to have this reoccuring problem with my beer.

Tastes great early and then slowly gets worse.

Im pretty thorough with cleaning and sanitising.

Is this anything glaringly obvious?

Cheers in advance

 

[DJR]

Worse how?

Does it taste acidic (infection), does it start to gush bottles (infection/overcarbonation), does it end up overly dry (infection), does it taste like bandaids (chlorophenols/infection)?

Wet cardboard (oxidation)?

 

[Torpedo Punt]

Worse how?

Does it taste acidic (infection), does it start to gush bottles (infection/overcarbonation), does it end up overly dry (infection), does it taste like bandaids (chlorophenols/infection)?

Wet cardboard (oxidation)?

The taste is hard to describe loses a bit of perfume and tastes a little acrid.

 

[Torpedo Punt]

Yeah a little acidic one of my wheat beers gushed recently after being opened. Funny my stout was awesome and no problems.

 

[Paleman]

Really hoppy APA's are best around 1 to 3 months. After this the required hop, flavour and aroma dissapates, and melds into the beer. Its smooth but not the at your face taste.

I find darker beers are better left longer than two months.

If you do so, dont overprime.........my golden rule. A nice old, underprimed........dark ale, stout or whatever else.

Slight bubble, carbonation......big long creamy head.

Sorry for that PorterHouse......what sort of beer styles are you brewing ? Yeasts ? Carbonation ?

 

[organo]

have had similar problem, I'm hoping I got it fixed...

my beers were going extremely astringent, (I think this is the correct term - though acrid could be the same thing) and more so with age.. like a couple of months, and sometimes had to chuck it...

this was happening with AG's and partials.. (the problem shouldn't be as bad with kits, but apparently makes a difference)

answer (I hope) I found on this site somewhere was to watch mash pH... my water was ph 8 going in, and this ain't a good thing.. so the answer was to put acid in the water... to ph6 with mash water and sparge...

there are a few ways to do this...

the problem doesn't affect dark beers so much, because dark grains bring pH down more.. so pH adjustment is often not necessary at all...

the result for me... smoooooth drinking beer so far... I have a recipe often repeated so far, and the version that had the ph adjusted water is just sooooo much nicer than any of the other versions...

you might think that pouring acid into a brew might not taste too good, but in my case, improved it outta sight... the acid made the beer taste a lot softer, smoother, tastier... !!! - I wouldn't have believed it until I gave it a go... am not sure how long this will last, as I have only started to do it in the last month, so am waiting, but the improvement in the beer is huge, so far... most of my non adjusted beers are getting guzzled as quickly as possible, and I reckon a lot will just end up down the sink...

mate... check your water pH... somewhere on this site someone has made suggestions for different types of brewing, but believe me, it has revolutionised my beer...

Cheers, best of luck, Organo

 

[matti]

Organo's the man.
I sprinkle a wee bit citric acic when brewing lager/ pilsners.
I tend to hop 'em to around 30+ IBU. they last longer.

And porter
Ensure the beer is kept in a dark place as sun or lights can destroy the flavour as well as rapid temperature changes.

matti

 

[major]

Organo - thanks for the heads up. Great bit of info.

 

[altstart]

:beer:
Gooday Porterhouse
If this is an All Grain beer pay particular attention to the back of the tap on the kettle. Do not rely on the boil to sterilise this area. It is possible to get an infection in this area that will cost you dearly in lost beers.
Cheers Altstart

 

[Torpedo Punt]

Cheers guys for that.

I've only been brewing a while so all this knowledge is great.

I do a partial where I simmer some grains. Leave for 45 minutes. Bring back to the boil add malt/dextrose(heat off) boil for 10 mins add hops and boil for 1 minute. Add extract from tin and cool wort.

Normally pitch at 24oc.

Rack after 3 to four days.

Leave for 2-3 weeks in secondary.

Bottle with coopers plastic bottles and carbonation drops.

 

[pint of lager]

Cheers guys for that.

I've only been brewing a while so all this knowledge is great.

I do a partial where I simmer some grains. Leave for 45 minutes. Bring back to the boil add malt/dextrose(heat off) boil for 10 mins add hops and boil for 1 minute. Add extract from tin and cool wort.

Normally pitch at 24oc.

Rack after 3 to four days.

Leave for 2-3 weeks in secondary.

Bottle with coopers plastic bottles and carbonation drops.

Never simmer grains. It extracts tannins that are harsh or possibly acrid in your beer. A bit like strong overbrewed tea. Steep at 65 for base grains (pale ale, pilsner, munich or vienna) or at around 50 for specialty grains (crystal, roast, black.) Rinse with some more warm water (NO SQUEEZING) and boil the resulting solution with your hops additions.

Pitch lower if you can and brew at the correct temperature, 18-20 for ales, 10-12 for lagers.