Brewing Trouble, Help needed!

[clintonforster]

How do you transfer to your fermenter?

You mention you have a 18l stainless pot you use as your kettle.

Do you have a tap or valve on it or Do you syphon?

If you use of those have you tried sniffing the tap , or syphon. Basically anything that you use to transfer to your fermenter from your kettle give it a going over and a good whiff as there May be something lurking in your transfer process that you haven't noticed. Goes for hoses too.

Often the old nose test can pick up something not right.

Another thing you can do is ferment the same batch in a few different containers. Some mentioned using different yeast so use diff yeast in each fermenter. It might help isolate it to the hot side, or cold side of your process. If one comes up good then it's the cold side, or they all are bad then something common to all on the hot side. At least might help narrow it down a bit quicker.

Good luck

I pour straight out of the pot, so no taps. Thanks for the advice, i'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it right!

 

[bundy]

http://howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Palmer says
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

So if you do try the multiple fermenter option, bottle one a bit sooner as soon as it reaches fg, so it's hasn't sat on the trub as long. 2 weeks mind you isn't excessive but.....

Also if your tipping from your kettle, are you cooling first? Has been some debate re hot side aeration or oxidation (Not everyone thinks it's a good thing).
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-3.html

 

[clintonforster]

http://howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Palmer says
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

So if you do try the multiple fermenter option, bottle one a bit sooner as soon as it reaches fg, so it's hasn't sat on the trub as long. 2 weeks mind you isn't excessive but.....

Also if your tipping from your kettle, are you cooling first? Has been some debate re hot side aeration. (Not everyone thinks it's a good thing).

Yeah i've read how to brew a few times thanks mate

Cooling it first definitely.

Will try bottling one sooner, good call.

 

[motman]

Howdy, I ain't no expert but have been doing some reading on the water side of things and was wondering if your store bought water may be RO and in need of some minerals - otherwise I understand yeast can be stressed and the beer flavours negatively affected. Just thoughts for you rather than advice.

 

[Blind Dog]

Just my 2c but if I was you I'd grab a FWK from G&G, split it in 2 and ferment 1 with US05 and 1 with a different yeast (bry97, m44 say). If they're both ok then you know there's an issue in your mash/boil/transfer, if they're both crap it's something in your fermentation regime, if the US05 is crap and the other fine it's the yeast. If the US05 is ok and the other crap I'd take up knitting

At least then you've narrowed down the issue

Not had your issue, but I did have a major infection issue that was a right bugger to sort out. Never found the actual source, but by following advice from members here managed to eliminate it by breaking my processes down and narrowing the issue down to the ferment side of things and then nuking everything in sight

 

[TheWiggman]

I've had similar problems in the past and I understand how defeating it can be. I say similar because everything seems and tastes fine throughout the process then suddenly you can taste 'it' and cursing ensues.
Detergent/soap implies to me that there's a foreign cleaner or similar stuck in something that simply isn't coming all the way out. Case in point - I used a sealant on some of my threads that would leech into the wort and was only obvious after the boil. After a few days fermenting, it was pronounced. If there was a cat nearby it would have ended over the fence.

Blind Dog's approach is what I'd use. That way you can see which component in the system is causing the problem. Instead of a FWK though maybe just see if you can find a cheap tin somewhere and do a kit brew. That'll only set you back $15 if you're lucky.

Your bag hasn't been discussed. Have you soaked this in some sort of hardcore cleaner in the past? I had to bin 2 hop socks because of the aforementioned sealant issues, I just could not get the taste out of them. Try boiling it in water for 10 mins, allow to cool, then taste the water.

The other common thing here is water. Try tap water to eliminate that variable if all else fails.

 

[clintonforster]

Thanks for the advice all, I'm going to keep trying all the suggestions here.

as for tap water i have tried tap water many a time, the water that comes out of our taps doesn't taste very nice as we have old piping, but we filter it and it becomes drinkable. Even after filtering the water is not coming out that great and when i use the store bought water and treat it with salt my brews are looking much better than with the tap water.

I started out with store bought water when all my brews were tasting super amazing as well.

 

[verysupple]

My problems don't involve hoses though as i only use a hose to rack to kegs and my beer is starting to go bad after 3-4 days in the fermenter.

In my experience most beers taste pretty bad after only 3 or 4 days in the FV. You might have already said and I just missed it, but do they get better with a bit more time? Have you given them a chance to get better?

 

[clintonforster]

In my experience most beers taste pretty bad after only 3 or 4 days in the FV. You might have already said and I just missed it, but do they get better with a bit more time? Have you given them a chance to get better?

I have been giving them about two weeks in the keg previously but they have not lost the flavour. I have two going at the moment that i am going to leave for a while and see if they improve. This weekend i am going to brew using the tips i have gotten from the thread here.