Bi carb soda can it give a soapy mouthfeel ?

[Gloveski]

Garden hose is bad news. Especially if it spends any time in the sun. The only time my brewing equipment sees water from a garden hose is to rinse out the trub and yeast cake from the fermenters. I bring the fermenters indoors and clean them in the bath tub. I tend to alternate the cleans between Caustic Soda, Tricleanium and Sodium Percarbonate. I also always do a final rinse with hot water then let everything dry. Never store the equipment wet. When it comes to using it, all it needs is a spray or rinse with some starsan.

Won't be using garden hose anymore , didn't even think of using bathtub

 

[Gloveski]

Are you dry hopping all of your soapy beers? I've had issues with soapy tastes from hops that have degraded over time, when I changed hop varieties and changed up the styles I made, the flavour disappeared. I had the same flavour in a beer at my local brewery last weekend, the beer had just been transferred into a bright tank.

Also dismantled and soaked my taps, growth was leading to a buttery slick mouthfeel I attributed to the beer itself. I read going to turf a perfectly good beer over it.

I doubt it's got anything to do with the cubes.

Most hops are from brewman so don't think that is an issue , some are dry hopped but not all . Brewing today so hopefully new cleaning regime might solve the problem

 

[Mardoo]

There have also been some indications in lab research that high finished beer pH can lead to soapy flavours from hop oils. I'll have to check and see whether that's been confirmed.

That could be what you're seeing, fungrel.

 

[Gloveski]

There have also been some indications in lab research that high finished beer pH can lead to soapy flavours from hop oils. I'll have to check and see whether that's been confirmed.

That could be what you're seeing, fungrel.

Interesting may have to look at adding something to slightly lower my wort ph to get around 4 for my ales and see if this makes any difference

 

[Gloveski]

First brew done and my post boil PH was 5.58 at room temp is this a little high? and if so is there any easy fix as I am not near a homebrew store

 

[Mardoo]

It's the post-fermentation pH you want to look at. I'll track down that research.

 

[Gloveski]

It's the post-fermentation pH you want to look at. I'll track down that research.

Thanks Mardoo greatly appreciated

 

[peteru]

Some people have a low threshold for tasting potassium salts. I'm one of them and the taint they give is a cross between soapy and metallic. Just another thing to consider...

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

In my experience it is uncommon for people to see potassium as soapy; it usually comes across as a slightly metallic, bitter character. Excess sodium at high pH is the classic cause of cationic soapiness. Perception also depends on chloride levels: they both look salty if there's enough chloride as counter ion.

Of course any metallic cation can come across as soapy in the presence of excess fatty acids, soap is essentially a fatty acid salt.

 

[Mardoo]

Here's an interesting thread about soapiness, but not the one I was looking for. I remember the question of pH and hop soapiness as being pretty controversial, but there were indications in the lab that this was the case. I'll keep looking. Maybe don't get too stuck into that line of investigation 'til I can come up with the docs.

 

[Gloveski]

Well yesterday's double brew day I took quite alot of ph readings

Both brews had a good mash ph's of 5.23 and 5.2
My sparge PH which is just charcoal filtered water was 7.17
Wort PH into fermenter was 5.58 and 5.50

Interestingly I was at my son's football best and fairest count and had a few xxxx cans (my wife's preferred megaswill beer of choice). When I returned home I had one of my kegged beers and yeah I would say mouth taste was a maybe a little oily but not soapy like my wife taste perceives . It's got me thinking that I will check what the PH of a xxxx can is to see how much difference in the finished ph to mine.

I mentioned before that a few beers that had a strong bitter aftertaste. The last few beers with 60min additions I have moved to FWH and much prefer to smoother bitterness taste . Just need to dial in the mouthfeel now to keep the boss happy aswell.

Sending of an email to taswater to see if I can get a report of my water here in shearwater aswell , I had previously only looked at sparge ph and as that was always in the guidelines never really thought about the effect PH could have on the rest of my process .

Great info from all it greatly appreciated, the last 9 months have been a very steep learning curve that is for sure