PistolPatch
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- 29/11/05
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Not many people would start a topic with the above title but it is absolutely true for me and is something that has totally bewildered me.
The best kit beers I have tasted (and some of them are in the top ten of home-brewed beers I have tasted) have all been fermented way too high. I can even name the brewers - InCider, Damien44, Katie & LloydieP are 3 (slash) 4 that always spring instantly to mind. There is another brewer who lives a few streets up and he brewed a lager that I think was perfect. The brewers I have mentioned here, all brewed lagers with the exception of one who brewed a delightful pale ale.
I can easily brew a great all-grain beer but I have never brewed a kit beer I could drink.
And, I followed all the rules.
I now know that my palate is hugely suseptible to any acidic flavours and nothing will change a palate. For example, I went to someone's place the other day and couldn't drink for the entire 10 hours I was there as I found all the beers to be cidery/astringent. No one else noticed it (including professional brewers) and so I thought I was going insane. Luckily, the brewer had entered some of the beers in a comp and the judges noticed the same thing I did but I believe none of them found it as overpowering or as offensive as I did - it is just a misfortune of my palate.
What has always worried me though, is kit brewers persisting with kit beers when perhaps their palate is as sensitive in the cidery/acidic department as mine is.
You can keep blaming yourself for the undrinkable beer you produce and spend weeks improving your set-up such as fermenting with temperature control but you may never brew a good beer if your palate is like mine.
As far as I can see there are three possible solutions if your palate is in the same category...
a) Buy a Kit and Ferment it at About 28 Degrees - This temp is the minimum temp that the above excellent kit beers I have tasted were fermented at. They were all fermented in garages or sheds in summer heat in QLD and Perth. Go figure??? (I tried this once and got a drinkable beer but it had the banana taste! Maybe I should have gone higher - lol!)
B) Abandon Tins and Buy Fresh Wort Kits (FWK)- These will cost you almost double the tin but I have never had an undrinkable FWK. I think anyone who loves beer should start at this level. It is the safest and easiest (manually) level to brew beer. You actually should get a brilliant beer* from a FWK. If you don't, then you really need to look at your fermentation and santisation. It is almost impossible to stuff these up if you know the basics.
c) Brew All-Grain Beer - Have you done B) above? If not, go there and then if it suits, go all-grain.
The whole point of this long post is that if you are getting fed up brewing kit beer, can't drink the result and are doing everything right, you are probably not the problem. Brewing a great kit beer is very dependent on your supplier.
Don't do what I did and give the hobby away. Twice I did that. Instead, jump to option B) above and as soon as possible after that, look at temperature control.
Don't look at temp control, time or anything else to fix a kit beer that you find pretty much undrinkable. This rarely happens if you are doing the basics right and never happens if you aren't.
I hope the above is food for thought for some.
Spot!
Patch
* When I last drove from Sydney to Perth I stopped half-way and drank a FWK beer brewed by Frogman. One of the nicest beers I have had in my life. I even took a photo to preserve the memory!
The best kit beers I have tasted (and some of them are in the top ten of home-brewed beers I have tasted) have all been fermented way too high. I can even name the brewers - InCider, Damien44, Katie & LloydieP are 3 (slash) 4 that always spring instantly to mind. There is another brewer who lives a few streets up and he brewed a lager that I think was perfect. The brewers I have mentioned here, all brewed lagers with the exception of one who brewed a delightful pale ale.
I can easily brew a great all-grain beer but I have never brewed a kit beer I could drink.
And, I followed all the rules.
I now know that my palate is hugely suseptible to any acidic flavours and nothing will change a palate. For example, I went to someone's place the other day and couldn't drink for the entire 10 hours I was there as I found all the beers to be cidery/astringent. No one else noticed it (including professional brewers) and so I thought I was going insane. Luckily, the brewer had entered some of the beers in a comp and the judges noticed the same thing I did but I believe none of them found it as overpowering or as offensive as I did - it is just a misfortune of my palate.
What has always worried me though, is kit brewers persisting with kit beers when perhaps their palate is as sensitive in the cidery/acidic department as mine is.
You can keep blaming yourself for the undrinkable beer you produce and spend weeks improving your set-up such as fermenting with temperature control but you may never brew a good beer if your palate is like mine.
As far as I can see there are three possible solutions if your palate is in the same category...
a) Buy a Kit and Ferment it at About 28 Degrees - This temp is the minimum temp that the above excellent kit beers I have tasted were fermented at. They were all fermented in garages or sheds in summer heat in QLD and Perth. Go figure??? (I tried this once and got a drinkable beer but it had the banana taste! Maybe I should have gone higher - lol!)
B) Abandon Tins and Buy Fresh Wort Kits (FWK)- These will cost you almost double the tin but I have never had an undrinkable FWK. I think anyone who loves beer should start at this level. It is the safest and easiest (manually) level to brew beer. You actually should get a brilliant beer* from a FWK. If you don't, then you really need to look at your fermentation and santisation. It is almost impossible to stuff these up if you know the basics.
c) Brew All-Grain Beer - Have you done B) above? If not, go there and then if it suits, go all-grain.
The whole point of this long post is that if you are getting fed up brewing kit beer, can't drink the result and are doing everything right, you are probably not the problem. Brewing a great kit beer is very dependent on your supplier.
Don't do what I did and give the hobby away. Twice I did that. Instead, jump to option B) above and as soon as possible after that, look at temperature control.
Don't look at temp control, time or anything else to fix a kit beer that you find pretty much undrinkable. This rarely happens if you are doing the basics right and never happens if you aren't.
I hope the above is food for thought for some.
Spot!
Patch
* When I last drove from Sydney to Perth I stopped half-way and drank a FWK beer brewed by Frogman. One of the nicest beers I have had in my life. I even took a photo to preserve the memory!
