Home Brew Taste

[peterl1981]

hi guys,


i'm trying to work oiut how to get rid of the home brew taste, i been making kit and kilo kinder brews and i carnt get rid of that taste..



I think it is the yeast that makes the taste, i ferment it for 2 weeks then keg it, should i do a secondary or not,
or should i chill the beer before kegging or what should i do???



cheers

lynchman

 

[Nick JD]

If there was a simple answer for this question apart from (make beer from the stuff beer is made from) everyone on this site would be making beer with can openers.

Yes, it is possible to make great beer with very little effort, but it's damn difficult.

You need to give more information about your brewing conditions; do you have control over fermentations temps? Do you buy cans on sale?

The question you've asked is akin to: my car won't start, should I change the wiper blades?

 

[Acasta]

A few tips that helped me, and may help you reduce the kit twang would be:
Temperature control for fermentation
Better yeast / yeast handling
Use hops/steeping grains to cover the flavour
Longer storage before consumption (1-3 months)
Stick to the darker kits, which i found had less twang.
Try a extract/partial/AG brew.

 

[kiwisteveo]

A few tips that helped me, and may help you reduce the kit twang would be:
Temperature control for fermentation
Better yeast / yeast handling
Use hops/steeping grains to cover the flavour
Longer storage before consumption (1-3 months)
Stick to the darker kits, which i found had less twang.
Try a extract/partial/AG brew.

+1 on that,just started rehydrating my yeast as oposed to sprinkling on top and have noticed the difference in the last 3-4 brews

 

[peterl1981]

thanks guys,

Well i ferment in a fridge that is temp controlled, and i use good yeast, i use hops and i steep grains,

longer storage before consumption.... well that might be it.. i put into keg then i leave for a week at 100 ppa to gas up and i drink... that maybe my problem, how should i store it?? do i have to store in fridge or can i just leave it in the cupboard?

 

[Deebo]

Things I find improve k&k:
Use dried malt extract in place of dextrose etc
Add some hops if you like hop flavour (cascade, nelson sauvin and amarillo are some good ones most shops should have)
Try using US-05 or Nottingham yeast
I think the Muntons kits are always pretty good (just check the date).
Dont let it get too hot.

 

[kelbygreen]

only way I found to get rid of that kit taste was store for at least 3 months longer and its heaps better but min if you dont like the taste. I personally could never keep beer that long maybe 1-2 bottles. So went to AG and keg and can drink the same day I put it in the keg sure it will get better with time but no kit twang

 

[peterl1981]

yeah i keg it?

 

[Spork]

I also used temperature control, hops, steeped grains and good yeast. I made some shit beer and some drinkable beer. Then I tried AG BIAB... Tipped one batch of K&K on the lawn and gave another to the son to drink. Have been 1/2 drinking and 1/2 tipping the remaining batch. Making full size BIAB now and no "homebrew tang" to worry about.
Have a look @ the BIAB for <$30 thread, and give it a crack. You'll throw away the can opener for good!

 

[Bribie G]

Not trying to start a flame war, but if you do kits and don't like the twang then it's really a bit like complaining that Farmland Instant Coffee doesn't taste like a nice flat white made on Vittoria, or that the milk you just reconstituted from a can of Carnation Evaporated Milk cut with water doesn't taste as good as farm fresh Jersey milk, or that the pizza you made with a prepackeged circle of cardboard called a pizza base you got from Coles doesn't taste like a Woodfired Pizza from Giovanni's Authentic Neapolitan Pizzeria.

I drink kit beer every second week when I reciprocally visit my buddy round the corner who does kits and bits, in a temperature controlled fridge with a fridgemate, matures the beer for a few weeks and then kegs. It tastes like kit beer, always will taste like kit beer and he's quite happy with it because he doesn't want to "frig around" with mashing. His choice.
He loves my full-mash brews and can easily afford to get into 3v or BIAB and has a good knowledge of the procedure, but his life is full of other things he would rather be doing.

If you want to really lift your beers then go AG, to be brutally honest, or go extract but brew styles such as American Pale Ales where you can bury the "twang" under a load of hops.

 

[peterl1981]

Not trying to start a flame war, but if you do kits and don't like the twang then it's really a bit like complaining that Farmland Instant Coffee doesn't taste like a nice flat white made on Vittoria, or that the milk you just reconstituted from a can of Carnation Evaporated Milk cut with water doesn't taste as good as farm fresh Jersey milk, or that the pizza you made with a prepackeged circle of cardboard called a pizza base you got from Coles doesn't taste like a Woodfired Pizza from Giovanni's Authentic Neapolitan Pizzeria.

I drink kit beer every second week when I reciprocally visit my buddy round the corner who does kits and bits, in a temperature controlled fridge with a fridgemate, matures the beer for a few weeks and then kegs. It tastes like kit beer, always will taste like kit beer and he's quite happy with it because he doesn't want to "frig around" with mashing. His choice.
He loves my full-mash brews and can easily afford to get into 3v or BIAB and has a good knowledge of the procedure, but his life is full of other things he would rather be doing.

If you want to really lift your beers then go AG, to be brutally honest, or go extract but brew styles such as American Pale Ales where you can bury the "twang" under a load of hops.

yeah i see what you are saying, well i have just built a shed so hopefully this time next year i will have the all grain set up



cheers bud

 

[loikar]

yeah i see what you are saying, well i have just built a shed so hopefully this time next year i will have the all grain set up

cheers bud

You don't need a lot of cash to do it, maybe a little extra time and smaller batches to knock an AG out in a few hours.
But, if time is money, then you get what you pay for.

 

[MaltyHops]

Things I find improve k&k:
Use dried malt extract in place of dextrose etc
...

+1

I think using dextrose might be a big cause of the olde "Kit Twang"
(astringent taste). Having got control of fermentation temperature
with a Tempmate, I made several kit beers last year and the only
one that really has the twang is a Coopers Vintage Clone that called
for (and I put in) a whole kilo of dextrose.

Just had a quick check using ianh's SM Excel kit recipe calculator
and DME gives about the same (touch lower) amount of alcohol as
dextrose so suggest try replacing dextrose with DME completely
in recipe and see if the twang goes away.

T.

 

[Bribie G]

Another thing you could do to minimize the twang, as suggested above, is to use LDME instead of dex but also go for a dark beer kit such as a Morgans Ironbark Dark Ale, or Old Ale. I found the darker kits to be more clean - for some reason the lighter kits such as Coopers Lager seem to be more twangy, or maybe because you are trying to compare them to commercial lagers.

To get into AG, especially with the methods such as Nick's $30 method you don't need a shed or hundreds of dollars. A quick trip to Big W can usually fix you up pretty quickly, and get the rest of the gear from sponsors, for example the BIAB bags readymade.

 

[The Giant]

Buy a fresh wort kit? My LHBS sells the Brewcraft ones for $40.

If you take into account 1 tin @ $15
1 LME tin at $12
Maybe extra 500g of LDME at $5
and hops @ $5
you are looking at $37

Its a no brainer for me some times. Granted you dont get to create something exactly that you are after, but its still cheaper than a carton of swill beer and u get more and u get better beer.

I do this on occassion until i can find the time to do AG

 

[mckenry]

Buy a fresh wort kit? My LHBS sells the Brewcraft ones for $40.

If you take into account 1 tin @ $15
1 LME tin at $12
Maybe extra 500g of LDME at $5
and hops @ $5
you are looking at $37

Its a no brainer for me some times. Granted you dont get to create something exactly that you are after, but its still cheaper than a carton of swill beer and u get more and u get better beer.

I do this on occassion until i can find the time to do AG

This is good advice. FWK's are a great keg filler when under the pump to get beer out. You can still dry hop / french press or whatever you like. AND you get the container which you can use as a No chill when you later go all grain in your 3V HERMS or biab...