Force Carbing And Increased Bitterness.

[QldKev]

Efficiency???? End of sparge runnings gravity?? Lack of maltiness, tart astringent??

Screwy

Truy originally asked if forced carbonation may have caused additional bitterness in his beer.



Ditto, while carbonic acid (H2CO3) concentration does alter mouthfeel and add a slight carbonic bite or sourness to beer. The method of dissolving Co2 has no influence that I have noticed. As for overcarbonation, have done this many times and never noticed a greater influence due to carbonic acid.

Green beer.....maybe
Infection.........maybe
Astringency........maybe
Overcarbonation.............meeeh!

Screwy

Funny thing is these were also running through my mind too. Truman you have had other beers ending up way too bitter.

But I do find carbonic bite pretty strong, I have a keg of rain water that's left at beer serving pressure (hooked in with beer kegs). Anyone who has tried it asks what has been added to the water.

QldKev

 

[Truman42]

Funny thing is these were also running through my mind too. Truman you have had other beers ending up way too bitter.

But I do find carbonic bite pretty strong, I have a keg of rain water that's left at beer serving pressure (hooked in with beer kegs). Anyone who has tried it asks what has been added to the water.

QldKev

Yes I have Kev. My first kegged beer the Epic pale Ale clone was also very bitter hence why I asked if it had anything to do with the CO2 in my original post. It didnt improve though and was quite bitter even 4 weeks later.

But it did have a malt backbone which helped offset the bitterness a bit. This brew doesnt. And yes that sort of soda water taste is another way to describe it.

 

[CosmicBertie]

Yes I have Kev. My first kegged beer the Epic pale Ale clone was also very bitter hence why I asked if it had anything to do with the CO2 in my original post. It didnt improve though and was quite bitter even 4 weeks later.

But it did have a malt backbone which helped offset the bitterness a bit. This brew doesnt. And yes that sort of soda water taste is another way to describe it.

Are you sure its not just your brewing process? I had to change my brewing method because my beers were too bitter. Now I put my hops in a hop sock and i remove them at the end of the boil, instead of leaving them in whilst chilling. Now my beers are spot on.

Also, what temperature did you sample your beer at? Different temperatures can affect the perceived bitterness.

You'd know if your beer was over-carbonated though it foams like bubble bath

 

[Truman42]

Are you sure its not just your brewing process? I had to change my brewing method because my beers were too bitter. Now I put my hops in a hop sock and i remove them at the end of the boil, instead of leaving them in whilst chilling. Now my beers are spot on.

Also, what temperature did you sample your beer at? Different temperatures can affect the perceived bitterness.

You'd know if your beer was over-carbonated though it foams like bubble bath

I always use a hopspider and remove it at end of boil. Because my last brew seemed overly bitter I made sure the IBUs in the recipe were lower than the recipes of 30. I was short on hops anyway so I think my IBUs came out to around 26 anyway.
Ive only had this problem since force carbing in kegs which this is my second one. It will be interesting to compare this with the bottled ones when they are ready. This beer wasnt overcarbonated, only slight head and not many bubbles.

But you raise an interesting point about perceived bitterness and temperature. Because my fridge was playing up with the thermo stuck the fridge temp was -2C all weekend (I went away so didnt know until I got back Monday night)
so perhaps thats why it seemed very bitter as the beer was probably close to 0C or below. Will sample again tonight now that Ive fixed the fridge and its holding well at 4C.

Cheers.

 

[pcmfisher]

Its the Galaxy.
I have done various brews bittered with Galaxy and they all have a bad lingering resinous bitterness. Even at 30 IBU.
I won't be using it again.

Shit hop for bittering if you ask me.

 

[GalBrew]

Its the Galaxy.
I have done various brews bittered with Galaxy and they all have a bad lingering resinous bitterness. Even at 30 IBU.
I won't be using it again.

Shit hop for bittering if you ask me.

That's a good point, @60min galaxy can have quite a harsh edge to it.

 

[Nick JD]

The style was a Pale Ale (The parched as bro pale ale from the recipe data base.) The Ibus were 30 and I used brewmate to get the IBUs correct as per my AA etc. if anything I was under 30 as I was 4 grams short of Galaxy which was the only hops used in the brew.
I cant put the gas bottle in the fridge as its a CO2 fire extinguisher that I have mounted upside down on the side of the fridge.

@Nick....Im going to assume your shit stiring as I know your not an idiot to ask such a dumb question..or are you???

If the bottle is outside of the fridge, and you haven't got a hole in the fridge, how do you get the gas line in the fridge? Genuine question.

You'll know when I'm shit stirring - I'll start a thread and not give the recipe until the 3rd page.

Galaxy at 60 minutes is HARSH.

 

[NewtownClown]

If the bottle is outside of the fridge, and you haven't got a hole in the fridge, how do you get the gas line in the fridge? Genuine question.

You'll know when I'm shit stirring - I'll start a thread and not give the recipe until the 3rd page.

Galaxy at 60 minutes is HARSH.

Took me a while to figure out he is opening the door, putting a burst of C02 in the keg then disconnecting the gas...
I think :blink:

 

[Truman42]

If the bottle is outside of the fridge, and you haven't got a hole in the fridge, how do you get the gas line in the fridge? Genuine question.

You'll know when I'm shit stirring - I'll start a thread and not give the recipe until the 3rd page.

Galaxy at 60 minutes is HARSH.

I open the fridge. Connect the gas and squirt some in then bleed off the air. Then fill keg to 38 psi/300 kpa and disconnect the gas close the fridge and leave it for 24 hours. Repeat on day two, then check on day four and repeat if required. Otherwise drop to 12 psi for serving. After a serving session I add 12 psi and leave for next time. I don't leave the gas connected as I can't shut the fridge door.

It works for me.

I'm still not convinced its the Galaxy. I've brewed with Galaxy a number of times before and it was a different taste to this.
My first keg had the same bitter taste and had no galaxy in it at all.

 

[glenwal]

Why not just follow the Ross Method and be done with it in 15 mins. Constantly connecting/disconnecting gas and checking pressures and fiddling with the reg over several days seems like an awful lot of effort.


Disclaimer: I don't use the Ross Method, i carb at serving pressure, but that's obviously not going to work if you can't run the gas in the fridge.

 

[GalBrew]

I do use the Ross method and it is literally done in 15min. It sounds like you are making it hard for yourself. If you don't want to 'Ross' get a proper CO2 bottle and shove it in your keg fridge so you can keep the keg connected.

 

[Truman42]

Took me a while to figure out he is opening the door, putting a burst of C02 in the keg then disconnecting the gas...
I think :blink:

Sorry I thought I made that clear in post 3 and 20 where I said I gas the keg to 300 kpa then DISCONNECT THE GAS.
My bad.

I could use the Ross method but the beers going to be too green anyway.
The method I use is easy enough for me. Takes 10 seconds to connect up the gas fill the keg to 300 kpa and leave for 24 hours.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Or drill a hole in the fridge for the gas line.

 

[GalBrew]

Or drill a hole in the fridge for the gas line.

You can get JG plastic bulkheads to put through your fridge wall or a double ended chrome plated shank.

 

[chunckious]

Sorry I thought I made that clear in post 3 and 20 where I said I gas the keg to 300 kpa then DISCONNECT THE GAS.
My bad.

I could use the Ross method but the beers going to be too green anyway.
The method I use is easy enough for me. Takes 10 seconds to connect up the gas fill the keg to 300 kpa and leave for 24 hours.

Ross has said that if the beer isnt in the ball park pretty much straight away there are processes in your brewing to look at. Yes the beer smooths out over the coming days but shoudn't be to the point of undrinkable greeness for 2 weeks in the keg.

 

[Truman42]

Or drill a hole in the fridge for the gas line.

Its on my to do list. I only got this fridge a few weeks back and so far have only managed to remove the door lining and replace with white masonite so I can fit two kegs in and a 9 litre.

My wifes ex husband is giving me a 450 litre fridge freezer in a month (Im glad we have always got along) so will probably use this instead. Which is why Ive been reluctant to do anymore work on this one just yet until i work out whats its plan will be.

 

[tbetland]

This might seem like a dumb question but you don't NoChill by any chance.

 

[Truman42]

This might seem like a dumb question but you don't NoChill by any chance.

No mate I have a plate chiller. But before I did chill I ticked the no chill box in brewmate.

 

[Wolfman]

You could naturally carb the beer, leave for a week, put it in the fridge, wait 24 hours and drink at serving pressure.

Thats what i do now. Never have an under or over carbed beer.

 

[Truman42]

Well what a difference a day makes and about 5C temp difference. Now that I've fixed my fridge and its held temps at 4C without running flat out and getting the fridge temp down to -2C, I came home tonight and tried another sample of this beer. While it was still quite sharp on the tongue, it was nowhere near as bitter as it was yesterday.

Even the usual Galaxy flavours usually present aren't as bad as I've tasted before.

Its still not carbed up as you can see from the photo but I actually enjoyed drinking this especially as it warmed a bit more in the glass. Cosmic Berties comments about lower temperatures increasing perceived bitterness seem to be what the problem was here.

Thanks once again to everyone that provided suggestions and advice. Much appreciated and I certainly learnt a lot